9 year old DS has never been a great sleeper but this new phase is killing me. He keeps waking in the night for hours, saying he can't go back to sleep. First it was happening the night before he was excited about something, for example on Christmas Eve he was up until 3am after waking about 10:30pm. Now it's whenever.
He struggles to fall asleep sometimes, usually reads until half 8/9pm after we read to him. No screens roughly a hour before, except listening to Alexa while getting ready for bed. No caffeine etc, dinner is usually about 6ish so not hungry for a snack before he goes up. He always wakes early - anytime from 5:30am no matter what time he goes to sleep or how long he has been up in the night.
He says he isn't worried about anything, although he is a anxious kid and is seeing the emotional literacy support assistant at school who has given him breathing exercises. We have tried him reading/not reading. He has a fan he can control. We have blackout blinds and curtains. We have tried audio books and relaxing music. Lavender sleep spray. Encouraging him to rest rather then putting pressure on him to sleep. Nothing works, but the worst part is that he won't even take our suggestions most of the time for example we say count backwards from 100, he just says that won't work! I understand it's frustrating for him but I don't know how to help if he won't even try anything so we end up getting cross with each other and arguing because we're all tired. And it makes for a crap, grumpy day the next day too.
We now have a newborn who is obviously up half the night (doesn't wake DS when he is actually asleep and DS sleep issues were before baby) and a 6 year old DD who also wakes up most nights for the toilet/blanket needs fixing/bad dream. I'm so tired. Does anyone have any suggestions to help him please?!