Sleep gone wrong at 4 and a half

[Yetanothernameneeded]

Hi

My son has, over the past month and a half, become awful with his sleep. He used to be asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow at 7:15ish but now he’s still awake at 8:30 and wakes up any time from 5- 6am. If he wakes up in the night he’s then awake for over 2 hours.

He’s not distressed and doesn’t shout for me but the noise he makes when he’s flinging himself round his bed and talking to himself wakes me up. He’s also not getting enough sleep either, which affects his mood. He’s doing really well at preschool and there don’t appear to be any other ill effects other than being even more grumpy near bedtime.

I’ve tried different bedtime routines etc but nothing is working and I’m at breaking point from lack of sleep. Has anyone else had this problem? If so, what did you do?

When I ask him about it he says he doesn’t know how to sleep but this is a relatively new thing.

I found 4 to be an age where they began to struggle to fall asleep quickly and benefited from a later bedtime. No screen time in the evening, plenty of outdoor time and exercise during light hours and then bed at maybe 8.45 to try and break the cycle (then eel it earlier again if sleep starts to become easier again). If you can break it before he really starts to find a stressful association then it shouldn't be too hard (I hope!).

Some relaxing music to listen to while drifting off can be helpful too.

No screen time an hour before bed is a key point loads of medical reports online at the start of the year about this. Three to four is an age where brain development starts to induce nightmares (which they mostly dont remember).There is a great thread about this here www.theguiltymummy.co.uk/single-post/2019/03/26/Sweet-Dreams-with-The-Dream-Pillow-Sleepmaster which I read and although it takes at least a week to get into this routine it massively improved my son's sleep. It is a very recentinovation from the US....not really suitable for kids less much below three years old though!