Sleeping for a Normally Good Sleeper

My daughter, also 4, does the same thing. I was talking with someone and they said that at this age they start getting really vivid dreams and sometimes can not separate them from real life. Just the othr day my daughter , who loves Disney princesses and watched sleeping beauty, looked at her wood panelled wall and remarked that the witch was on the wall. I looked and the wood grain did sort of look like the witch.... I told her it was just the pattern and that was that. Luckily she hasn't mentioned it yet but she is always making excusses not to go to bed and/or running into our bedroom to beg to sleep with us.
-A.

Hi T., my husband and I went through the same thing with my daughter, she just turned 3 at the end of April, but it wasn't as "pleasant" as just having to go pee. There would be some nights when she would wake up, starting out with a little crying and ending up in a full fledged temper tantrum. We would have to take her downstairs because her room is right across from my sons who is a year old and we were afraid that because she was so loud that she was going to wake him up. I would let her "cry it out" and would keep asking her if she was done crying and as soon as she said that she was I would ask her if she was ready to go back to bed and usually she was. I would put her back to bed and we wouldn't hear from her until the morning. Thank god my son is a sound sleeper, but it happened quite a few times and I too wasn't quite sure how to handle it until my husband and I decided to take something from her that she enjoyed greatly. Each night before she goes to bed she takes a bath, brushes her teeth, and then we read a story and I rub her back for a few minutes before I leave her room. That night that she had her "fit" as I like to call it, I told her before she went back to bed that I would not be reading to her the next night before bed. That night we followed the regular routine and as she was brushing her teeth I reminded her that we would not be reading a story and that if she wanted to have a story the next night she needed to sleep through the whole night. This ploy worked well and she has only had one or two bad nights since then. Because she likes this so much I also use this for other things as well, it seems to work much better than a time out. I hope that this helps and good luck to you!

Dear T.,
I am going through the same thing with my 3-year old now. It is really frustrating... Finally, she told me about her dreams/imaginations of crocodiles in her room. She wants more light in her room now and we go "crocodile hunting" before she goes to bed (throwing balls in her room to scare them away). It's been three nights like that now and she is slowly getting better. She still comes to me 3-4 times at night and wants me to take her back to bed and make sure everything is ok. At least, she is not screaming anymore and her visits are getting less frequent. I'll start rewarding her now for being "brave" and staying in her bed and I hope she will stop waking up at night soon. I would suggest talking with your little one to figure out the reason of this behavior and then "attack the reason". Good luck!

Maybe it's a stage they go thru. I'm having the same problem with my 4 year old. She has always been a great sleep since born , then all of a sudden, she wants nothing to do with her bed. She has always preferred her bed. I had enough the other night and made her stay in her bed. She was screaming and flipping out for 2 hours. I have a 5 yo boy and 13 mo girl that I didn't want to wake, but I figure I have to put my foot down about it. She only says it's too noisy in the house, which there is no more noise in the house than there was before ( refrigerator kicks on and my dog snores ).
Well, since, she has had 4 nights sleeping thru the night. I have rewarded her also for sleeping in her bed. She got a little basket for her bike.
Good luck and I hope you both get some sleep soon