3yo ds sleeping gone to pot

[threelittlebabies]

It is really bad. He is sometimes awake for 4 hours at a time in the middle of the night. He doesn't generally cry, or need one of us to go into him, and I am usually drifing in and out of sleep, but he is totally shattered the next day. He has always been a good sleeper, and I have no idea what is waking him up. Last night he did wake crying, and he really freaked me out, it was like he wasn't aware of me or something, and he was getting really agitated and kicky with himself, and whispering random nonsense. Eventually he said he wanted me to put his blanket over him, and was then fine, this was 1.30am, and when dd woke for a feed at 4.30am he was still awake!
He's gone into nursery today, but I have no idea yet how he has been. Is this just a phase? (please God) As I say, it isn't that he keeps me up, more that I am concerned for him the next day, and no matter how tired he gets during the next day, he still is awake a lot.

This is not quite the same situation, but I'll post too... (sorry to hijack as I'm also reporting a problem rather than offering a solution!)
My 3 year old ds goes to bed fine but wakes sometimes three different times before morning, trying to come into our bed. Admittedly he used to sleep with us sometimes but we've tried to stop it for the last month or so by locking our door and just putting him back to bed when he knocks. It doesn't seem to help; how can we get him to stay in bed??

Oh god, i have no advice but i am going through the very same thing with my dd (2.3yrs) she keeps waking at 2/3am not for any reason, she screams till i go in, wont let me leave, then messes around for 2 hrs till she finally goes back off...i will be watching this thread very closely, i too hope it is a phase as i am 17wks pg with no 2 and truely knackered atm.

hi skerriesmum

had the same problem with my 4 year old son. He recently kept wakening through the night and coming into our room. I tried everything I could think of from being very sympathetic as he was "scared" and being angry which meant he would get upset and it just did no good at all. Got advice from health visitor and my auntie who told me if he keeps coming out his bedroom when i put him back, to close his bedroom door until he went back to his bed. It was very hard to do this as JB was upset the first couple of times but i told him the only reason i would open the door if he got into his bed and stayed there:(. This has worked for us. I have thankfully only had to hold the door closed twice the first 2 nights i have done it and now he is sleeping through the night again. We put an alarm clock in his room and set it for morning he understands that when it rings he can come through to our room. We also give JB a gold star for a good nights sleep then after gaining 3 in a row he gets a wee reward. This time last week i was at my wits end but it feels like ages ago now:o. Maybe you could try it, they soon get the message our son certainly has. Good luck

Thanks angm1. We thought it would be a big deal to lock our door but that has helped somewhat so closing his door might work too.
We're ttc #2 and I don't think I could cope with TWO waking me up all night long!

I think i may have sussed my problem with dd, i have kept the landing light on for the last couple of nights and she is sleeping though again, soif you don't leave the light on atm, try leaving one on...it has worked for me