DS laughing himself to sleep for 1-2 hours?

[JeremyG]

Hi, this may not qualify as a "problem" in that my DS (aged 2.5 years) is able to go to sleep on his own, but in the last 2 months or so he has spent between 1 and 2 hours every night - after being put in his cot - laughing. Not little giggles, but proper full on laughing and shrieking.

We've got one of those video monitors and keep an eye on him during this: he's perfectly happy. But it's "weird" behaviour and I wondered if (a) there is something to be done and (b) if anyone else has experienced it?

He is also waking earlier than usual, again laughing to himself. We can leave him for an hour in his cot and he's totally happy about it.

For a child that used to go to sleep at 8pm and not wake until 9am/10am every day, plus have a 2 hour afternoon nap, this is quite different behaviour. We put him to bed at 8pm and he's often not asleep until 10pm, waking now at 6:30am. Sleep is important developmentally (and for our sanity!) and he's losing 4-5 hours a day versus what he used to get.

I'm not sure about the laughing or why he is doing this proberly perfectly fine and just a phase. but i think your early mornings are proberly due to your ds being overtired, does he seem more fussy then usual in the day?

I'm having the same problem with my son but he wakes at 4am chatting and laughing for an hour or so before he falls back asleep just made a post about it!

hopefully its just a phase and they go back to being good sleepers soon i have a very grizzily over tired baby and mum atm!

Mine (6 months old) goes into hysterical laughter in the evenings when he hasn't napped well, so I assume that in his case it's overtiredness. I don't know if that's relevant to yours, as your son is older, but the "full on laughing and shrieking" sounds very familiar, and, as I said, with us it's when he hasn't had enough sleep.

Agree it could be overtiredness - if he's dropped his nap, try an earlier bedtime (sounds counterintuitive but it does often work). It will probably be several days before you see any change though.

There is a common sleep regression around this age too which often involves difficulty going to sleep. More info here here and here.

Interesting, thanks a lot. He is still having a 2-3 hour nap during the day so the idea that he's overtired seems odd although possible I guess! When we put him down later, like 9pm, he laughs for less time and sometimes not at all. Earlier produces more laughter. It's like he's decided 9:30pm is the earliest he is willing to actually be asleep.

Overall though, perhaps the "common sleep regression" is just what's happening and as such it'll go away soon enough.

Ah, if he's napping, I'd be surprised if it's overtiredness.

I'd guess he's not ready to sleep at the time you put him to bed. You could try shortening his nap and see if that makes a difference. Waking a DC after 45 minutes or 1.5 hours usually works best as that's when they change from one sleep cycle to another.

Early waking as well as not going to bed at a reasonable hour is common during sleep regressions IME.

Time to drop the nap I would say!