3.5yo waking at night

[E1066]

really need some advise here as I’m at my wits end! My 3.5yo wakes up every night between around 2-4:30am and plays. She chats in her bed, sings, has tea parties with her toys etc etc and then I have to wake her up at 7:30am and she’s exhausted. I just don’t know what to do, we have a really established bedtimes routine and up until 6 months or so ago, she slept through the night soundly.
what can I do as I’m really worried it’s going to impact her during the day?
I’ve tried ignoring jt
ive tried going in and telling her to sleep
I’ve tried bribery
there was one night I got angry but that didn’t help obviously I was just exhausted

As I said, her bedtime routine is structured, we go up at 7:30pm do teeth etc, warm milk, bedtime story, lights out at 7:50pm.

has anyone been through this? Any tips at all would be welcome
I should add that I’ve also checked if she’s too hot/cold
too much light from hallway light waking her up?
not enough light?

Just came on to write a very similar post in the hope of some help. Our almost 3-year-old has been waking up anywhere from 1 to 4 am WIDE awake, singing, chatting and will sometimes be up for hours. The singing and chatting part doesn't always last that long and then she is at her door (we have a gate on it) calling for Mummy and Daddy, and then eventually gets upset which is when one of us normally gets up.

She dropped her last nap a couple of months ago because she was so awake in the evenings that she wouldn't go to sleep until about 9:30-10pm. Even now if you try her for a sleep in the day she most likely won't nap. We had a glorious few weeks where she was sleeping straight through for 12 hours but the past 6 weeks or so have been these horrendous split nights and we are ruined.

She sleeps with black out blinds, eats well in the evening, and has the same bedtime routine that she has always had. Where are we going wrong?

I'm worried we're in a pattern of overtiredness now and not sure what to do.

Any advice is appreciated.

@E1066 is yours napping in the daytime? Dummy or no? We ditched the dummies about a month ago and she's been doing really well, not really asking for them. I am missing them during these awake times though! Can't help thinking that popping it in would calm her down.

Should also add that we have tried co-sleeping but she just kicks us and thrashes around. Would be happy to co sleep but she's just not keen.

In the same boat here! Our son has just turned 4 and when he first dropped his nap around age 3.5 the split nights started. He had been sleeping 7-6 with about one night a week a split night, however they have increased dramatically recently and about 5 out of 7 nights he is awake for 3 hours in the night. Any tips greatly appreciated!

hi, @khamps - I can't offer any major advice but we had a big chat about it and decided to order the Zeepy sleep clock, and reduce her screen time (she had been watching cartoons on our iPad but we've changed that so she only watches on the big tv now) and also pushed her bedtime back by about 30 minutes. The night after our chat she decided to sleep through. Obviously heard us talking about a sleep clock and decided to waste our money, haha. We haven't even had a chance to use it.

I have no idea if the slightly later bedtime has been the factor, or if it was just a development/illness thing (she'd been harbouring a cold and cough which finally left) but her sleep has been dramatically better the past week. We haven't even used the Zeepy clock yet.

What time is your DS going to bed?