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My daughter (2y10mo) has never consistently been a great sleeper. She dropped her naps incredibly early, and lately, she has been waking up after only a few hours of sleep at night and telling me that she's done sleeping. She does eventually go back to sleep and will get 10-11 hrs a night, but when she wakes up, she's up for awhile.

Just the other night, she woke up at 3am, woke me up, and when I tried getting her back to sleep, she started asking a million questions...Is it daylight yet? Why not? What makes the sun rise? Are the sun and moon friends? Can we go visit the moon? Are the stars out too? Why are there stars only at night? What's a shooting star? Just nonstop questions for awhile. We finally got back to sleep around 5am or so...at least 5am was the last time I saw on the clock! She also talks in her sleep nightly and will occasionally sleepwalk.

Anyone else's kids have these kind of sleep issues?

Yes, but a much earlier form with our DS16mo. There is always resistance to fall asleep, late bedtimes, frequent night waking, eagerness to keep learning and doing. He was like this as a newborn--even extremely physically active in utero-- and I have since come to believe that these are just temperamental traits.

Over the last several months, we've had the most success with a pre-bed whirlwind of activity. We take an hour or two and provide maximum stimulation. I also find we have fewer night wakings if we include a lot of physical activity before bed. In our case, we went to the gym in our loft two hours before bed.

I realize these suggestions might sound ridiculous, as most authors I've seen recommend a decrescendo of activity pre-bed. This is what "works" for us. YMMV.

Our (now 7yo) son's sleeping had zero correlation with the usual day-night cycle until about age 5y6m.

We dealt with this very early on. DD would wake up in her crib, and we'd do all the usual checks for hunger/wetness/chilly/illness/other distresses, and when it became obvious that all she wanted was to play, we'd just tell her good night, and go back to bed. Later when she was more articulate, and she wanted to stall by asking questions, we'd just say, "Ask me in the morning." If she pressed, we'd say, "Now is not the time for questions. Now is the time for sleep."

If you're getting up with your child and playing with them for two hours in the middle of the night, you're basically encouraging and rewarding this behavior. Why would they sleep at night when they can play with mommy and daddy?

DS has never needed much sleep and woke hourly for longer than I like to remember. Like Dude, we used to do "we can talk about it in the morning; it's sleepy-time now". You don't have to be unkind, but you do have to be boring, IMO.

FWIW though I dealt with lots of people saying we should ignore him, leave him to cry, etc, to my mind the early hard time has already paid for itself: he quickly became a child who sleeps well, has no reluctance to go to bed when tired, doesn't worry if he wakes at night, entertains himself when he wakes three hours earlier than anyone else, does not suffer from insomnia etc. I think as with so much else, if you possibly can it's worth keeping the long-term goals in mind.

You don't have to be unkind, but you do have to be boring, IMO.


Frame-worthy. LOL.

We have not had a full night of sleep in 4.5 years. DS4.5 was never a good sleeper, never slept through the night and when he was 3.5 he started sleeping only about 4hrs a night (or day). We tried sleep meds, Melatonin ... nothing worked. Finally about 7 MONTHS later Melatonin started working ... most nights. He still wakes up during the night but thanks to Melatonin manages to go back to sleep. Our younger one (turns 3 in couple days) did not sleep more than 2hrs straight for good first year and half of his life. Around 18 months he started sleeping through the nights and was a WONDERFUL sleeper and napper! ... till her turned 2 and then things went south with him too. Now we never know if he'll sleep or not, if he'll nap or not. He tends to pass out on the kitchen floor in the middle of the day to take a quick nap on the cool tiles (reminds me of a puppy far too many times! lol) ... can't fall asleep at night, and when he does fall asleep in the evening like a normal kid, he wakes up around 10pm-11pm and is up all through the morning just to fall asleep around 7am to recharge a little.

Here's how we solved it so we wouldn't go insane ... gates in the doors to their rooms and let them do whatever as long as they try to stay somewhat quiet. Except the younger one's idea of fun is to laugh loud and jump on his little table, play music, dance, jump ... We tried to NOT give them any electronic toys that would keep them wound up but that didn't work either. So these days, as long as the older (more demanding and challenging one) is asleep, the younger one is free to play with whatever he wants. He only calls for me when he runs out of batteries or juice / food . He spends the nights playing with Leappad or listening to books / reading books and playing word games and puzzles on my Kindle.

Basically ... neither one of them is able to turn of their brain. I used to have a lot of sleep problems and know how they feel. We don't really let it bother us at this point (unless the younger one is "relaxing" by happily kicking with his feet into whatever's nearby! The only time it interferes with anything is if either one of them has a therapy appointment or the older one preschool in the morning and it's hard to wake them up after only an hour or two of sleep. To be honest, I have to admit to actually calling the school a few times, reporting DS4.5 sick because I was so exhausted, I simply could NOT get up when the alarm went off. I can't imagine what life will be like when they are both going to school full time someday in the future. Homeschooling is a very reasonable solution for us the way things are.

I just ordered Indigo Kids Sleep CDs (it is like guided meditation or something) the teen one for dd12, and the kids one for dd5. I do think that these are skills that can be learned. Right? lol!

I am so glad I am not the only one! My DGS7 will be homeschooled through a K12 charter school next year, but the last 19 days of this year are going to be rough. He missed all last week, because of sleep issues and is out today because *I* am too exhausted to cope with the "I hate school" and sensory issues this morning. Thanks for letting me vent, and please bring on the homeschool ASAP! LOL!

A plug for ruling out medical issues that can contribute to poor sleep such as iron deficiency (can cause or contribute to restless legs, can look like a can't quite get comfortable toss/turn thing). Or pinworms, highly prevalent at preschools/daycare, can be carried completely silently or cause minor symptoms of itchy butt at 2 am. Probably others.

With DS we didn't find a medical cause for him needing less sleep than us parents... but we do find he sleeps best with the lights painfully bright.