4 Year Old Awake for 2 hrs in the night every night

[sleepymamabear]

My 4 year old wakes every night at 3am and is awake for 2 hrs. There does not seem to be anything my husband or I can do to settle him once hes awake. Hes not upset or distressed when awake and most the time he doesnt event come in to my hubby and I.

He is totally exhausted the next day though and struggles to function.

Anyone had a similar experience and have any suggestions for how to break this habit?

We have the same with our 4 year old and she wakes up her 2 year old brother. It's been going on since she started school in September. No idea how to resolve so watching this thread and bumping hopefully someone can help!

We have the same with our 3.5 year old, feel like we've tried everything so watching this thread with interest.

It's natural apparently, people used to go to bed early then wake up for a few hours in the night and then go back to sleep. I still do it and lie awake reading with a low light so I don't get too wide awake.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

Oh god, yes, I went through this when mine was 3 He’d wake up at 4, then I’d bring him into our bed to try and get him to go to sleep, there would be a lot of wriggling and chatting and I’d give up hand over an iPad and try and doze until 5. Then get up and walk to the park and play for an hour much to the amusement of the dog walkers.
Weirdly it seemed to sort itself out when we went away and got out of the normal routine. Maybe it was letting him stay up later or napping at odd times when travelling?? No idea. But it did pass.

Yeah what @Shehasadiamondinthesky said.

Used to be we would all have ‘two sleeps’ at night - a sleep, then a long awake period ( people would even go visiting others) then ‘second sleep’.

Not particularly helpful info for you!

Fwiw my youngest was like this for about a year - I gave up trying to ‘solve’ it and trained her to stay in her room, not wake anyone else, could amuse herself quietly but mummy and daddy not on duty etc.

She did grow out of it but even now needs a lot less sleep than her siblings.

What time does she go to bed? As I know if my 4.5 year old goes too early she is likely to be up more in the early hours (although luckily not for too long!) But if she goes later she sleeps solidly til morning.Perhaps you could push her bedtime later if it's not already? Some children just don't seem to need so much sleep