please help, still singing himself to sleep

[sachkrimbo]

I posted a message some months ago about this same issue. My not so ds of 3 1/2 years has a habit of singing himself to sleep, this has now gone on for over 2 years and I'm at the end of my tether.
At bedtime it takes up to 30 minutes before he will go to sleep and he always does it by singing. When he wakes up in the night he then does the same thing for up to 2 hours at the top of his voice. Last night was a mammoth session of almost three hours. During this time my dh and I went from ingoring it to timing him out to try to get him to shut up. As the time went on I found myself getting rough with him and I am really worried about this. We are all exhausted, and I'm sure it's affecting my relationship with him.
We went to a sleep clinic where the helpful health visitor told me it's a unique problem and she's not sure what she can do about it. I just want to be able to teach him how to get to sleep without waking the whole neighbourhood up

I do think having constant white noise at night helps everyone sleep.

You can buy white noise CDs, download white noise, or buy white noise machines from sharper image.

Well, I hope this fan thing works if not we will try the white noise thing, cause we both feel better having had a good night sleep. Much happier household
I'm just wondering how long he would need it or if Bink is right and we should just try to get him to sing quietly.

Even if he needs it for years, it doesn't really matter, does it? If you go to stay somewhere else you can take the fan or noise machine with you. NQC is right, lots of sleep experts now recommend everyone use one to help them get a better night's sleep. It doesn't have any side effects or disadvantages (except the cost of electricity to run it) and it's usually very effective.

parts of my family is addicted to sleeping with the fan on. all seasons, everynight. addicted to the white noise & the feel of moving wind on face etc. better than singing at 3 am tho!

I keep trying to convince DH we should be using one for us. So then strange noises wouldn't always wake us when we travel.

Oh, a white noise machine, or CD, is a bit easier to travel with, than a fan, as they're smaller, and easier to do power conversion on. (The power thing for our white noise machine is dual-voltage, anyway, like a phone charger, so you just need a plug converter, not a voltage converter.) Maybe most people just travel in the UK though?

ok, I'm convinced. Like you say it's better then guns n roses and bob the builder all night.

I know a child who has Enya all night. I think I'd rather they had Guns'n'Roses, somehow.

I'm liking this fan/white noise idea - wish I'd asked for advice before mine got the idea of the volume control. Sorry if I made your heart sink though - I was trying to give an idea of a kind of light at the end of the tunnel ... !

As an aside, the motivator for singing quietly is that from before age two he's shared a bedroom with his little sister whom he loves, so "make sure you don't wake X" was a useful line.

I do remember once though him (at about 3) staying overnight with our nanny and her boyfriend and she'd reported back (as a funny but also eye-rolling moment) his 5 am DJ-type playlist announcement "AND THE NEXT ONE is called High Street Kensington"

Our kids are so alike, ds announces what he is going to sing as well!!! Quite funny at the ELC karaoke machine not so funny middle of the night.
The whole fan thing, does it work strainght away or does it take time. Up x3 last night with the fan on so I'm hoping it just takes a few nights to really kick in.