16 month old awake for hours at night

[Jessyates]

Please. Can someone help me as I’m at my wits end.

My daughter is 16 months old. She is awake during the night for 2-3 hours at a time but there is no consistency, sometimes it’s 2am, sometimes 10pm, tonight 11.30pm; last night it was 4am. It’s all over the place. She goes to bed fine around 6.30-7pm, self soothes has a comforter but no dummy (never wanted one) and goes straight to sleep. When she wakes she wants a cuddle so of course I go in or my partner does and give her cuddles, lay her down and she has none of it and this goes on for hours. Sometimes she’s screaming the place down other times she’s fine. She’s not hungry/ thirsty/ teething/ cold. Tried it all.
She’s been doing this for 4 months now, I can’t take it anymore I also have a 5 year old and I work! She has slept through a handful of times too so she can do it! She has 1 nap in the day for about an hour that’s it.

Any help or advice would be greatly received!

TIA X

My DD did this every night until she was 2.5yrs.
After a while we stopped going into her room and just left her to it. So many people would say she’s used to you coming in and giving her attention but even after a year of us not going in she was still waking up every night for 2hrs at random points of the night.
In the end it was our new normal and we would sleep through her being awake. She was obviously safe in her cot and happy to play with her bunny in that time so there was no need for us to be awake as well.

As mean as it sounds just ignore her and let her get on with it. We had many nights where I would even turn the monitor off and just go back to sleep.

You will get there but unfortunately for us there wasn’t a magic cure she just grew out of it.

Thank you for your response!

I have tried just leaving her to it but she starts screaming the place down if we don’t go in. She literally just wants us to stand and cuddle her for ages!
i really hope she grows out of it 🥺

Have you tried later bedtime? Her sleep pressure sounds low, some babies have low sleep needs and if her nap is already only 1 hour then I would try a later bedtime to try to fix this. Try 8pm for a week consistently.

We had exactly the same thing and what worked was capping the nap. Sounds like she has a short nap for her age as it is though, so like PP suggested, I'd try a later bed time before I messed about with the nap. Good luck, split nights are brutal

Dgd does this, 20 months. No rhyme or reason. Has nap some days, others has none. It is exhausting/infuriating and let's be honest boring as hell for my dd. Sorry, no magic wand but hope it improves very soon for anyone going through this.

We've have an almost 2 year that is up all night still and it's beyond exhausting! The screaming for hours has stopped though which was horrendous. I think we have a low sleep need child too and he just struggles to stay asleep. Take it is turns and sleep when you can ❤️

Sure its not teething? One of mine did this and it turbed out it was molars bothering him. Once they were all through it just gradually stopped.

So I’ve tried all of the above later bed time no nap, shorter nap, changed times of day of nap. Nothing helped and this has been 6 months of it now. However someone suggested to try magnesium, and so I thought I’ve got nothing to lose! She’s had it for 2 weeks and she’s slept through nearly all of them 12 hours+!! I can’t believe it. And her day time naps are longer too. I’m praying it lasts, but so far so good. 🥰

@Jessyatesamazing update! Can you share which/what magnesium you buy? I have an 18 month old who has always been an awful sleeper! Thank you

@seven201 I am using the mighty kids magnesium bisglycanate. I’ll add the link below for you. Still going strong she’s sleeping through I honesty cannot believe it!

https://mightykidssupplements.co.uk/product/magnesium/

Jess xx

@Jessyates thank you. I’ve just ordered it. Long may the sleep continue for you!