Does anyone's else 5 year old still wake up in the night?

[Pastarasta1]

My daughter who is 5 is absolutely killing me. I'd say 5 nights out of 7 she ends up in my bedroom which means I get broken sleep. I'm going to work with 2 to 3 hours of sleep. I literally cannot cope anymore.

She's always been a poor sleeper.. I just thought by 5 years old we'd be past this.

I can't stand co sleeping because she moves around, pinches me, fidgets and by 3am I am livid.

She doesn't listen to me either, literally nothing...I've tried to put her on a mattress on the floor.. no.. I've tried bringing her back into her room after a cuddle.. no.

I'm literally going insane.

Any words of advice??

I would get a bigger bed for her and get into bed with her then leave when she's re-settled. Have your bed off limits if you don't like sharing with her so she associates sleep with staying in her bed all night. Maybe using a mattress on the floor for you to retreat to at first

No advice but in the same boat with my 4.5 year old so know how you feel. He settles to sleep in his room fine at 7pm but by midnight at the latest he’s up crying and wanting to sleep in our room. We also don’t want to bed share so we’ve caved and make a little bed out of duvets and cushions on our floor but his wake ups are now getting earlier and I refuse to let him sleep in our room before we’ve even gone to bed (I know he doesn’t understand the difference so that doesn’t help!). And all the suggestions of taking him back to his room with no conversation is pointless because he simply screams and runs out of his room within seconds, waking his little sister up.
I’m absolutely wrecked on such broken sleep , I’ll be watching this thread in case any other ideas come in!

We got a super king bed and said our son could come in and sleep there ONLY if he went to sleep; otherwise it was back to his bed and sleep.

It's not ideal but I needed to sleep and this worked for us. He also has ASD and doesn't tend to come in when it's school holidays so I do think it's linked to anxiety levels. Also, make sure they are physically tired - lots of football or jumping on our trampoline helps!

At 10 he still comes in occasionally but goes straight to sleep. We have pillows ready if needed so we all have some. Some people would judge that but I figure many adults don't like sleeping alone and that's true for a lot of children even more so. He's been to trips with school and stayed with family and he doesn't expect to get on bed with anyone so it's not a problem.

Maybe me is going through night terrors at the moment, always has been a "wakey" sleeper, until 3.5 was awake every hour.
As I'm on my own just sleeps in with me now. Have a kingsize though.

I second this. My 6 year old sometimes wakes. I get in his (full size single) bed with him until he’s back asleep and then slip back to my bed (or findI fall asleep too and wake up still in his bed in the morning!). It seems to work ok for us. The odd occasion he’s come into our bed I have found he moves around a lot more - maybe because it’s not his familiar space.

I had this with my eldest. She slept through as a baby from 5 months but as soon as she went into a big girl bed she'd end up in with me every night- not as bad for me as a single parent but still like sleeping with a washing machine! My youngest woke every hour until she was two but now sleeps really well. I EBF'd her and saw something that made me feel differently- we all, even adults, wake up several times a night whether we're thirsty, hot, cold, bad dream, just cos, but as adults we know how to self settle. It made me realise my eldest didn't know how to do that and that something was bothering her to make her want to seek me out. Regardless, you really have two options- either keep sending her back or embrace it and enjoy the cuddles but definitely my first step would be to ask her what made her want to come in and see if it's something easily solvable like keeping her room warmer, a thicker blanket, a glass of water by her bed etc. hugs for you. There's a reason the security agencies use sleep deprivation as a form of torture!

We got a super king size bed and embraced it. At nearly 6 he seems to be in the process of dropping it now and just coming in occasionally. Admittedly he climbs in ninja style without waking me up, so I always felt like I couldn't stop it even if I wanted to! Youngest has only ever been in bed a small number of times when ill. I figure DS just needs it for whatever reason.

I just literally made a similar post. Should have checked here first! We have a kingsize but our son is big and my DH is big and they're both fidgets so we all have awful sleep!! And I do not work well on broken sleep! Why is this so common nowadays?! Even if we have a super active day full of exercise he won't sleep through. I don't get how he's not exhausted. Why do they not just sleep and stay there? Like they're reprogramming themselves to wake up regardless

The regular broken sleep is utterly destroying me at the moment! I sympathise with anyone else going through it. It is so soul destroying.

Mine is 5 in January. I cosleep on a floor bed between him and dd (almost 2, still breastfeeding a little overnight). The co sleeping has saved me. Ds wakes for a wee and high calorie milk (weight and food issues) but otherwise causes no trouble, sometimes gets his milk himself and doesn't wake me. He says he's not ready to sleep alone yet - or even move to the bunk beds that he picked, within hand holding reach of the floor bed!!

I'm currently browsing nightlight plush toys as he's saying he's sad/afraid at bedtime every night.

I think dd will move to her own bed fine once she's kicked the breastfeeding, she sleeps through sometimes. Planning to try after Christmas. She loves her beautiful frozen bedroom, so fingers crossed...

My 2.5 year old son has always been a bad sleeper. Falls asleep no problem (granted this is on me) then he stays asleep in his bed for a few hours then he wakes up crying so kettle him back into bed then hess up again and by 2am I’ve had enough and I sleep on the sofa with him (he doesn’t wake up at all when sleeping with me on sofa) but I only do this so everyone else in the house can get some sleep☹️ I’m absolutely exhausted as I have been doing this pretty much from him being 6 months old, my back is destroyed from sleeping on the sofa. I totally sympathise with you and I really hope for your sake your child grows out off it soon

Bigger beds. Theirs and yours. My 9 year old still gets in with us in the night sometimes. Not ideal but we have a big bed and can still manage to sleep. Although, I do send her back to her own bed if I can’t get back to sleep. I quite like it to be honest.

My nearly 5 year old has been doing this for months since got rid of her dummy.

I get I'm bed with her then go back to my own when she's settled the first couple of times but anything from around 3.30am onwards I bring her into our bed.

It's debilitating when it's every night so I'm just doing what gets me the most sleep for work.

I have this problem and I am so tired. She won't sleep without me and is constantly grabbing me at night so I can't sleep without sleeping tablets. Help

Mine! 6 in December and wakes up every night without fail.

Ourscare a month apart. Today I have been so tired I have done nothing with her and I feel bad but I feel like im providing constant play, chef etc this summer holidays on no energy.

Yes Ds is 5. I think he slept through the whole night maybe twice, and he was ill.