3 Yr. Old Doesn't Sleep Well and Resists Going to Bed

Does she take a nap during the day? I find that if my three year old sleeps too long during the day she has trouble sleeping all night.

When my now three year old was two she started waking up too. She would go to bed just fine and then wake screaming and crying, or she would be playing with her toys in the dark! When I would check on her she would say she was awake because she was thirsty. So...I finally just started putting her to bed with a sippie cup about a quarter to half full with water. She doesn't wet the bed either! 9 times out of ten she doesn't even drink the water though...it's like a comfort thing I guess. But it works. My husband is the same way.

There is still the occasional episode of her screaming or trying to climb into our bed but that's normal I guess. I just pick her up and carry her right back to her own bed.

We also read her and her sister a story before bed. The usual routine is potty, bath, brush teeth, put on jammies, story, hugs and kisses, cup of water, lights out. Sometimes I let them pick out a stuffed animal to sleep with too.

Hope all goes well for you!

Hi J.
Had the same problem with my son when he was in daycare, they had a policy of a daily nap and I asked that they either shorten his nap, take it away completely or just let him lay there. That helped some but at night we would make him a pallet on the living room floor and found a very boring show that he would not like and he would get bored and fall asleep or he would go to his room and watch tv. He shares a room with his older sister and she has a reading log she has to do for school so now he has gotten into books, so she reads to him and he eventually falls asleep. We put our children to bed 30 minutes earlier and told them to jsut lie in bed and read a book. That helps them rest their bodies and minds so they fall asleep easier than normal. Hope this helps you.

Does you 3 yr old take a nap during the day? If they do maybe its time to shrink the nap. This is just a little mom advice I hope it might help. Sometimes children may need to shrink naps, they may not need as much as it seems. See or find out what she is doing during the day.....

That sounds like my 4 and 8 year olds. Some kids are just wired like that. Put a night light and a couple picture books in her room along with a spill proof cup of water. She can only come out of her room to use the toilet. She should stay in bed quietly but it's ok for her to look at the picture books until she can fall back asleep. Some days will be better than others for sleeping. The best I can say is that eventually she will come out of it.

My 3 yr old did the same thing. We eventually resorted to bribery, but it worked. She would go to sleep fine, but around 2 or 3 she would wake up and be awake for several hours. She was so cranky the next day. So we made a big calendar for her wall and bought special stickers that she got to pick out. For every night that she stayed in bed all night she would get to pick a sticker for the calendar. On Sunday, if she had a sticker for every day we would take her to Target and she could pick 1 toy from the "princess" aisle. It took about 4-5 weeks of that until it was routine. After that we fazed it out. She sleeps all night long now, and if she does wake up I would never know. Good Luck!