What on earth could this be?

[FebMama]

So if you're around on the sleep threads often, you'll have seen me post often about my 10 month olds crappy sleep.

Well lo and behold, we are on night 6 of him now sleeping back to 12 hours which is absolute bliss. (Here's hoping it lasts).

The strangest thing is happening with my almost 4 year old though.

He has always been a great sleeper since 11 months old. Consistently sleeping through 12-13 hours. Goes off to sleep fine and doesn't ever need any assistance.

However, for the past 3 nights, he has suddenly started waking up and coming into mine and DH's room.
Friday night he came in at 2am. I took him back to his room and he came back in twice more saying he wanted to sleep in the bed. He wasn't crying, he wasn't emotional or distressed in any way.
He LOVES his own sleep and isn't really a cuddler so he found it quite uncomfortable being in the middle of DH and I. So in the end it got to 4am and I went into his bed with him.

Saturday night (or morning I should say), he came into our room at 4am. I put him back in his room and he came back in at 5.30am with a bunch of his teddies telling me he had a delivery for me 😂 (fyi he wasn't sleep walking or anything. He's very much awake).

Just tonight at bedtime, he went down at his usual time of 7pm. By 7.15pm he had come downstairs!!! I took him back to his room and an hour later, I saw him on the monitor about to get back out of bed. I managed to talk to him through the monitor quickly enough and told him to lay down and go back to sleep which he did.

I have NO idea why this is happening. There's been no change in his routine. No change in terms of day to day life. I don't even know what he wants when he gets up because he hates cuddles when sleeping so it's not that.

Is there some kind of 4 year old sleep regression that goes on?

Typical isn't it - just started getting sleep back again due to 10 month old improving and now this 😂

Getting excited for Christmas? Worm? I always look for practical things which can fixed. The reality for me is I have crap sleepers.

He’s probably cold.

Parents beds are super warm.

@Jinglingallthewaytochristmas Funny you say this about Xmas. I was thinking this earlier. This year is the first year he's grasping the festive season and seems to be really excited every day.

@Scarletttulips definitely don't think it's this! But thanks for the suggestion. He's generally quite warm in himself and he's got some lovely soft fleece pj's that he wears. Saying that, he's also not too hot either so I don't think it's a temp thing!!

I wonder if it is connected?
He presumably sleeps through the 10 month old crying, but he will hear it subconsciously.
Suddenly the house is quiet all night, and I wonder if his brain is waking him up because it 'sounds different' if you see what I mean?

@steppemum that's a really interesting theory. I hadn't thought of it like that!! The only counter argument would be that I still keep white noise playing continuously throughout the night for the almost 4 year old. So in my head I always thought that would drown out the noise of the little one waking! But still, a good point.

I'd say cold too. My DS runs hot but he'l started getting up at 4am. This week I've popped the heating on at 4 and he's sleeping in until 6 again.

@Leafysuburb another one for cold! I hadn't thought of it. He's never really been bothered by cold at night. And he wears socks to bed too during minus temps!
To be honest, this is the first winter he's in a double bed in a new bedroom and his bed is closer to the window. So maybe there's something in it.

Looks like it's warming up a few degrees at night next week where we are, not so much in the way of minus temps so will see if this changes anything. Although, we do have our heating set so when it drops below a certain temperature it automatically comes on to regulate the upstairs.

Maybe it's not the cold. Hes just woken up now about 11.15pm and it's not a particularly cold night, it's stayed pretty consistent since his bedtime at 7ish.

Cannot figure this one out but I have no doubt he will come back in our room at some point tonight.

No advice, but SO glad to hear your 10 month old is sleeping better! I’ve still no luck with my 9 month old…

@ShutterHaze oh thank you! It was a LONG two months of horrid sleep.

Its like suddenly one day things clicked. I didn't do anything different. He's taking longer naps now too. 1 hour in the morning and almost 2 hours in the afternoon (I have to wake him up some days before the school run). And still with those naps he sleeps 12 hours overnight. I have no doubt whatsoever it will change again at some point but for now, I'll take it.
Hang on in there, I know EVERYONE says it, but it really doesn't last forever.

Now I just need to suss out what's happening with the eldest 😂