4 Year old - frequent night waking

[mas36]

My four year old son has, for the last couple of months, been waking frequently at night from about 1am and coming into find me. He is not upset when he wakes and returns to bed without a protest although in the morning he says that he has bad dreams or is lonely. He used to be a great sleeper with hour long naps in the day and slept at night from 7.30pm to 6.30am. His sleep pattern has been disturbed previously when he moved from cot to bed and when we took the stair gate off his bedroom door but this was shortlived and corrected itself within a few weeks.

We are reluctant to allow him into bed with us as he wriggles about so much that everyone's sleep is disturbed! He started school last week and is doing half days, having previously done 4 days a week at nursery. He stopped napping during the day about six months ago. I have tried rewarding son with stickers and the promise of a treat or money if he stays in bed all night but this has had no effect. Any ideas from anyone who's had similar problems would be greatly appreciated.

He has told you why he is waking up and it sounds like he needs a bit of reassurance at the moment. I'm sure much of it is about starting school. My ds does this without fail when he experiences big changes.

I usually either let him in bed with us. If he wriggles too much I take him back to his room and lie down next to him (usually on the floor) I often fall asleep myself and end up waking up in his bedroom. It seems to go in phases though and evnetually he stops waking up (until the next time)

Sorry of that isn't what you want to hear but that is pretty much what I do.

Sympathies though as my ds is also going through a stage of this at the moment. He has just gone back to nursery after a long summer break and is finding the transition hard.

Oh my goodness mas36, you could be writing about my 4yo DD!

She does exactly the same thing and has recently started school. I think that its the change which has affected her (school along with moving house).

After being in a state of despair and exhausted, I have told her that she is not allowed to come into our bedroom at night as I partly think she was waking up and unsure if it was morning or not. I've put a clock in her room and shown her where the hands need to be before shes allowed out of her bed. Next to the clock is a reward chart with a picture of the clock and for each night she doesn't get out of her bed she gets a sticker to cover a number. When she gets 12 stickers she gets a reward. I can't say if this will work but she hasn't got up for the last 2 nights, which I am very chuffed about! Good luck!