Sleep-rolling/sitting/crawling. Any advice?

[Bartusmaeus]

So, after months of awful sleeping (DS is 11 months) we've finally identified the most recurrent problem - he sleep-rolls/crawls/sits up.

In his cot this is a problem because he hits the sides (even with bumpers) and wakes up. He freaks out (especially if sitting up) and needs comforting (often a BF) but it takes ages to get him back to sleep and I am seriously sleep-deprived and not coping.

When we co-sleep he wakes up less as he can roll about on our double mattress (DH sleeps elsewhere whilst I co-sleep) and more often than not can go back to sleep (or stay asleep). However he cries whilst rolling/sitting etc. and that wakes me up so I'm still having bad nights. And on occasion I do have to help him get back to sleep.

The only good thing about co-sleeping is it's proved to me he doesn't need to feed at night, or at most, once a night if it's hot (it's been over 30° here for the past few weeks)

So, how can I get him to stop sleep-moving? I sleepwalk/talk and I usually do it when my mind is on overload or I'm worried about something.

Thing is, DS' mind seems to be permanently on overload with all his progress (he started walking 2 weeks ago and is starting to say identifiable words) but as he's a baby and always learning new things I don't see how we can do anything to stop that.

We try to keep his evenings as calm as possible but have noticed no difference between the very calm evenings and the occasional over-excited evenings. His sleep is bad no matter what!

Any ideas how to reduce the agitated sleep?

Hopeful bump

My ds used to do exactly this at the same age. He would sit up in his sleep and then wake all confused and scared. It lasted about a month and coincided with him learning to sit up from lying down, and pull up to stand/cruise. He did just grow out of it when he was confident that he knew how to lie back down again. Spend time in the day encouraging him to lie down from sitting if you can!

Good idea brokenmummy
He happily flops down when playing on our bed but will try to encourage him to gently lie down.

We've tried white noise. Made no difference whatsoever.

He spent a long time walking yesterday and had an amazing night (only 2 wake ups and no rolling!!) I'm hoping that he's cracked it but will still teach him to lie down.