Sleep training a 3yr old?

[LBTM]

My 3rd old DS has always been a fairly bad sleeper. From and 15-19 months we did "gentle" sleep training, stopping feeding him to sleep and gradually going from snuggling to sleep to eventually being able to say goodnight and leave him in his cot. He went from walking several times to just once although it did involve lots of crying at each step. Once we moved him into a bed at 2.5 he started getting out of bed if we left him before he was asleep so dh and I take turns snuggling up with him at bedtime. He goes to sleep pretty quickly and we both enjoy the snuggling time.

But...he still wakes up once most nights and lately he has been up and down lots. He understands that he shouldn't get out of bed and loves getting a sticker when he sleeps through so I'm at a loss about how to get him sleeping better. I was wondering about gradually getting him use to going to sleep on his own at bedtime. Has anyone tried sleep training a 3yr old and did it stop their nighttime waking? I don't want to give up snuggles of it's not going to make much difference but seems worth trying if other people have had success.

How much is he waking? If only once or twice there might be a good reason like genuine thirst or maybe he had a bad dream. If so then it's just a case of time to outgrow this. But if you do want to sleep train, I kind of did it with my 3 year old. Bedtime was becoming atrocious with behavior, hitting kicking etc so I did it for that reason rather than night waking. I did the supernanny rapid return to bed with no talking etc. The first night it took an hour and the second night 10 mins. A week later he didn't get out of bed at all. However if your son isn't actually leaving his bed it might be a bit different and my son still wakes sometimes for a drink or for a quick reassurance even though he falls asleep alone.

Thanks! I'll look into the suoernanny approach. Until recently DS was sleeping through about once a week and waking up once on the other nights so it didn't seem too bad but we've had 4 nights in the last 2 weeks of at least 4 wake-ups. I switch between thinking it's just a phase, he'll get over it soon, to desperation from lack of sleep (we've got a younger one who is feeding a lot at night too). Making wake-ups less enjoyable with straight back to bed and no talking might help.

Hmm it's a lot hotter do you think he's just struggling with that and a bit thirsty maybe? So hopefully just a phase 🤞🏻🤞🏻

I spent a lot of yesterday badgering DS about not waking is up at night and last night he came into our room twice but took himself back to his own bed when he saw that we were asleep. I think that is the first time I've ever felt I've had a sleep "win"! I'm still in shock and feeling so much affection for DS :)

Aww he's sounds like a good boy 😊

Well, it worked for 3 days. Back to 3 wake-ups for the last 2 nights so we've had another evening (at nursery in the day today) of badgering today. And a bribe of chocolate at breakfast time of he doesn't wake us up. At least I know know he can stay in his bed someone's.