We are experiencing it at our house. We have tried it all. Without fail our son wakes up during the night. Unlike infancy, when I just fed, changed and soothed him back to sleep this problem comes with a new set of problems. When E spen wakes at any time, he is WIDE AWAKE. There is no slowly getting up or partial arousal, he is as alert as if he had not gone to sleep. So when he wakes in the middle of the night it is a challenge!
When he turned 3 this problem started. Prior to that, he was sleep trained to have a couple books, self soothe and go to sleep. Even when he transitioned to a big boy bed. We managed to teach him good sleep habits and our routine was consistent. We never thought we would have sleep problems because he played so fast and hard all day that sleep was necessary to wind back up his energy levels!
At age 3 we really began to notice extreme behavioral, physical and social differences between him and his peers. And we began to have some sleep problems. An occasional night wakening occurred. It went from occasional to more often than not. Now he is 4 and he wakes every night ~ and I mean EVERY! His sleep habits are strange and hard for us but he never seems to appear tired or slow down at all. Rarely does he fall asleep during the day and if he does, we wake him so that we don't mess up what little routine we have.
He doesn't wake up crying or from dreams. We have thought about nightmares, night terrors and all of the common issues. He just wakes up alert. Like he has had enough sleep and his day is ready to start!
He goes to bed easily. A couple books, milk and he goes to sleep easily. Bedtime at our house for him is 8pm. Most typically around 10:30pm he wakes and needs to use toilet. Most of the time we can get him back to bed quickly and without much problem. Then sometime between midnight and 4am, he wakes. There is nothing from any book or advice or blog or suggestion that we have not tried! We have let him cry, let him stay up, given melatonin, fed him, let him sleep with us, slept with him. He wakes and is engaged and ready to go. Unfortunately engaging mommy means mommy can not go right back to sleep! And thus the exhaustion!
He will eventually settle back down every night. Right next to me. No exceptions. He has to have his B (pacificer ~ yes still, at night to calm the oral needs) and fuzzy bear (that is really not a bear but a lump of soft fur). No matter the temperature, he loves the weight of the blankets and my arm. We have the weighted blankets, bears, pads but they are not the same as mommy. This is unfortunately how we have "fixed" our sleep issue.
There is virtually no way to DO any more activity then we already do. My child is active 100% of the day. We have limited his tv/ipad watching to 1 hour a day and that hour is before noon. We have limited or removed all artificial color & most processed foods. We have limited sugar and don't let him have any after 3pm. It gets better but he wakes and we accommodate the strange needs.
I know there are other parents that feel this exhaustion. And frustration. We want our son to have good sleep habits so that he can function at the highest best level. Sleep is an important ingredient in our lives. I will continue to function at near deprived levels until a miracle happens or we learn the secret to our little boys sleep pattern!
