Last night was a really bad night for my 3 1/2 year old son. He kept getting up from bed and coming to my room. The first time was at 2:30 in the morning. We got up from bed and took him back to his room he kept saying he couldn't sleep because of monsters and we reassured him that their were no monsters. We leave his closet light on because he's afraid of the dark. He got right back up as soon as we laid back down. So we put him back in his room and stood at the door and he was crying and screaming. This went on for about an hour of us putting him down in his bed and us standing at the door. He kept getting up screaming and crying. Finally he went back to sleep. But then he got up at 4:30am then again at 5:45. He's been getting up a few times every night for about 2 weeks now. But it has never been as bad as it was last night. I don't know what to do my fiance is in school and he has to get up at 7:30am so he's losing sleep and I watch a friends 3 yr old on top of my 3 yr old and 1 1/2 yr old so I need my sleep too! Any ideas????
Hi- here is help- 1st make sure there is no sugar in his diet- sugar messes with the nervous system and can make awful dreams.
2nd check out ChildrensBehaviorHelp.com, we have found their input of great assistannce.
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Try Monster spray!! (water scented with a dash of daddy's aftershave) in a spray bottle. Let him do the spraying before he goes to bed!! Goodluck!!
there was another post on here about monsters a couple of months ago. You could try to find that for some ideas too. Maybe give him his own flash light or something similar. My son has a little mermaid box night light that he loves. I let hum use it whenever he needs to. A lot of talking and a lot of loves will get you through this. Yes, you go without sleep for awhile, it goes with the territory. If he is scared in his room you don't leave him in there to scream by himself, that is horrible. This will pass, but you can't get hung up on all the sleep you are missing, it will drive you crazy! I am going without sleep with my 9 month old now, but i know it will pass. It is mostly your state of mind that will destroy you or get you through it.
I haven't experienced any of this myself but do you think anything he eats might make him more anxious at night? Sugars, food dyes and all that junk may not be the direct culprit but could make matters worse I would assume. Or maybe you can give him some chamomile tea as a part of the pre-bedtime monster elimination process. It may calm his nerves thus allowing for a more peaceful sleep. I think they have a sleepy time tea for children.
Does he watch scary movies? Or is he in any stressful or chaotic situations regularly? I would guess that stress would contribute to more anxiety at night time. Maybe you could avoid those things and see what happens (if that's the case).
I'm sure its a very normal thing he's going through since you read about it and even see it in movies but we still don't want our little ones to feel unsafe and afraid.
I hope he gets past this soon and I hope you get some sleep too!
