Leaving a light on?

[ElyElyOy]

My 17 month old is still being a sleep-warrior, but now seems to be getting worse.

With a lot of effort I can now get him to sleep at night around 8pm. However, 2-3 hours later he wakes up screaming/crying and will not go back to sleep in his cot. He literally clings to me screaming trying to climb out of the cot like a wild beast. He used to do it, but after a cuddle and a stroke of the tummy (and some perseverance!) he would go back to sleep, but not any more.

I was considering leaving a lamp on, or getting a night light? I put him to bed after I have held him to sleep and the room is dark with blackout-blinds (and blackout curtains!), and I’m wondering if maybe he is scared of the dark?

Does anyone else use a nightlight or just leave the lamp on? Does it help bad sleepers?

I’m at my wits end today, I’m exhausted. When he wakes up the only way to stop the incessant screaming is to bring him in bed with me, evicting my husband to the spare bed and spending the next 5 hours withstanding kicks to the head and trying to stop him falling out of bed!

Having fought for many years, with great angst and daily concern, I now have the wisdom of hindsight to guide me.

I would do anything needed to give a child the comfort they need. I'd try a nightlight (in DS 8's room I have an automatic plug in that lights up on a motion sensor and in ds5's room there's often a dim touch lamp on the lowest of 3 settings). If it works, great. If not, try something else.

He sounds afraid, so I'm surprised a cuddle isn't doing it anymore. I can't remember what age they get night terrors, which I hear can't be soothed until it passes itself. But I have little experience of this tbh, so can't comment.

DS5 sometimes asks for the light to be left on, and other times doesn't mind. I go with the flow. They're only little for a short time, but of course the night seems like an eternity when you're desperate to sleep yourself.

Commiserations. They do sleep eventually though. And when you look back, I reckon you'll be glad you tried the light to see if it works.

Ah thank you, think I will try it tonight: it can’t make things much worse than they are. I’m happy to do whatever it takes to comfort him and get him sleeping happier: he seems so exhausted some days, and now it’s starting to make day time napping bad too (not that it was ever great, but it’s now becoming horrific too). We have a lamp with a dim setting so I will try that as a plug for the wall would mean moving all the furniture around (and my brain is too tired to work out how best to configure it!)

Thanks again, fingers crossed!

18 months is prime time for separation anxiety so it sounds like that’s what it is and I would do anything possible to comfort him.

Well the light didn’t work.

In fact in 17 months of horrific sleep last night was probably the worst - nothing to do with the night light (which I found was a feature of the monitor).

He didn’t seem very anxious when he was crawling up and down the bed laughing, standing up dancing and shouting “booby” from 12-4. It sounds a lot funnier than it was