Cant do another night like that , help please

[RowRowRowYourGoat]

My Ds (4) is not sleeping at all no matter what I try , he gets tired but doesn't sleep , this has been going on for the passed 3 weeks & is more than likely due to the change in routine with it been the school holidays .
He was in a really good routine , bed at 7 & would get up around 6am , now if I put him to bed at 7 he just sits in his room I have removed all distractions & even tried putting him to bed later nothing works at all .
For example he was overly tired all day yesterday so was put to bed at 7 & went to sleep then woke @ 9pm & did not go back to sleep until 7am this morning , waking at 10am .
This is pretty much what happens every night though most nights he does not go to sleep at all .
Am I doing something wrong ?
I can't do another night like this I feel like a zombie

Has anything else changed? Has he been unwell?

No changes & Not been unwell

It's a real tough one and I've got no experience of this. My first thought was could it be his ears but if he's not been unwell it could be something else.

How'd is he doing now? Imagine you are both really, really tired. Has he been outside to play ate all?

What was he doing between 9 pm and 7 am? Was he just in his room?

I managed to get him to stay in bed with me from 2:30 until 5 but other that he was wide awake playing , we took a walk to the local village earlier & he isn't even tired

Where is he playing? Is he just in his room? Just asking as my boss had a similar problem at a similar age but turned out he was playing with his DS and taking him downstairs to watch DVDs.

If mine wake, which dd sometimes does, we go in and see what's wrong. If she shouts a second time we tell her its bedtime and to go to sleep and the third time we just repeat but tell her we are not coming back till morning. If she comes into us we tell her to go back to bed or take her.

Think its called rapid return and its not a magic formula but does seem to get the message across eventually. Like most things with children it usually takes about 3 days for the penny to drop that you mean it.

I have had to take all his toys out of his room & I have tried to keep him in his room or my room which is hard as Dh needs to get some sleep for work , so end up going downstairs & I don't let him watch tv etc .
Just hard to get a child to sleep that is just not tired

I know it is but think you need to reinforce the message that nights are for beds and sleep, even if DH misses some sleep for a few nights. After all the alternative seems to be to carry on as you are.