My son used to sleep at least 12 hours every night, uninterrupted (in his own bed). He has ALWAYS been a great sleeper. For about 2 weeks, now, though, he has been waking up at night 1-3 times and he's scared. He will come into my room and I'll put him back in his bed and lay there at the end of it until he falls asleep again. Most of the time he'll wake up scared again and I'll end up sleeping at the end of his bed until morning. He'll be 4 in May. Is this a common thing with kids his age? Has anyone here experienced this with your children?
He never had this problem before, and nothing in his life has changed. He doesn't go to preschool yet until September, and I'm home with him every day. It's almost like he's experiencing separation anxiety at night. HELP!!
3 is when the imagination kicks in. There is the possibility of monsters in the dark. My 5yr old still has trouble going upstairs alone in the dark.
Maybe a night light or flash light to give him the power to dispatch those monsters himself?
Hi E.
My daughter did the same thing. I just said thank you for calling me. Some of the time she really had to go potty. I decided it was some developmental stage. It didn't last very long for us, a month or 2. And it wasn't every night. I did notice the connection to busier days.
Good luck, A. H
My son did this closer to 3. We saw a "scary man" at Meijers- around Halloween. We got Daddy to get ride of scary man every night which helped. You can also spray water around the room to help get rid of the monsters. It will pass.
All 3 of my bigger kids did that around 3,it seems to me (sometimes their toddlerhood is a bit of a blur, lol). It may be that he's in a little more independent stage while not being quite ready to actually BE independent, if you kwim? 3 is a rough age, especially for boys.
If he's waking up scared then look around him during the day for triggers... Is he in the room with you when your watching tv? Even the news is scary for kids. Any show that shows people hurting things, talking about things getting hurt, basicly anything but PBS kids shows... Ask him what is scaring him. I bet you can link it to something he saw or heard that week. Think of how the imagination plays out when they are playing games... Dreams are 10 times more intense.
I tell the kids that we live in an angel house and that the angels keep them safe. Now sometimes our 6 yr old still has bad dreams but when she wakes up she tells the angels about it so they can chase it away...
This sounds a little like what my husband went through as a child, although he was a few years older than your child is now. Turns out he was waking up because he was having breathing trouble. He now takes asthma medication (so does my 9 year old). But they are both fine, healthy and active. Asthma tends to be worse at night and he may be coughing and that may be waking him up. I don't know what tests are needed but if nothing else works, you may want to bring this up with the doctor.
Best of luck to you.
S.
Does he have windows in his room and he see shadows or anything? I gave my son a flashlight that he can turn on and off when he's scared and it seemed to work. Whatever my children were scared of we tried to make a solution for. Windows? we put the dresser in front of it. Closets? I have a string of lights that I keep on all night, around the door frame. Find out exactly what it is that maybe he's seeing or hearing and go from there:-)
Good luck!! It will eventually go away:-)
