Logan (is 7) hasn't been sleeping well for months now, he keeps waking up at 2am telling me he can't sleep, at first I caught him secretly watching movies (at 2am)in his room so I took out his dvd player, but he isn't having nightmares or thirsty so I'm at a loss at why he can't sleep? He normally goes to bed at around 8:30 and wakes up at 7am. He's not sick or anything and I'm really getting burned out with hearing him yell at the top of his lungs MOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMY! He scares me out of deep sleep and I have problems falling back asleep cause my heart feels like it's gonna burst out of my chest lol. Tonight we are going to try soothing music in hopes he stays asleep but since school starts soon I really need for him to get all the rest he can kwim?? Any advice?
I haven't ever experienced this with my kids but recently I have experienced it for myself. I think it is due to a new medicine I started but it is driving me crazy because I just wake up out of the blue at night and can not get back to sleep. I just toss and turn and then I am exhausted the next day. Not fun when you have 4 kids to take care of. I am not sure what his routine is at night but I have heard to maybe turn off the tv and electronics at night. Sometimes when we are wired into those things right before bed they disrupt the sleeping. I am really bad about being on the computer or my ipad right before I go to sleep so I need to try it myself. Wish I could help more.
My dh goes through a spurt like that about 2 weeks before school starts each year. I think it is anxiety about change in routine. That reminds me - school starts in 3 weeks here... I guess my sleep will be gone soon too. It seems to help to talk to her about what she thinks school will be like and what sort of summer her friends had. The good thing is that it is fairly short span and generally she is back on track by the end of the first week of school. Probably because she is so tired from all the nights of no sleep followed by busy days at school! Keep reinforcing the night time expectations and drink lots of coffee. You'll get through it! Sending good thoughts your way!!
Is he active during the day? My kids woke me for years around 2-3, and now I'm lucky I can sleep through the night myself! However, when they're very active and mentally engaged during the day, they tend to fall asleep through the night. From the sound of it, though, your real problem (like mine was) is having him NOT wake YOU up out of a dead, sound sleep. Along with the music, can you try settling him in with a book that won't keep him up? So when he wakes up, it's right there, he can turn on his own light, and read until he goes back to sleep. Set something up where if he wakes you up without being sick, he gets some sort of response. Also, if he doesn't wake you up, he gets a positive response in the morning? (special pancakes, etc?)
Maybe some white noise in his room? I know I sleep better when I have the fan on. I don't have it blowing on me, I turn it toward the wall. Its just the noise of it to drown out any OTHER noises.
thanks for the advice girls I'm def gonna try some of these idea's and hope he can sleep through his nights again, he's been really moody lately and I think once he sleeps all night again he'll be my happy go lucky little boy again
I was thinking the same thing....some white noise might help. One of my sons sleeps better with the ceiling fan running.
They have those radios that actually play a lot of different noises including a white noise sound. I find the ocean waves one to be very helpful in falling asleep. Chirping crickets... not so much but everyone should have one or two that help them.
I will totally second this. My hubby and I can't sleep without our ceiling fan on. And my boys share a room and always sleep better with a fan going in their room too. They even have noisemakers at Target or online that just produce white noise and I had such good luck with them when my boys were babies that I now give those to Mommy's at their baby showers.
Aw, that's tough. I wonder if there's some external factor that's waking him at that time, like a noisy neighbor getting home from a late work shift or something? Or maybe it's just a timing thing in his sleep cycle? Does he fall asleep easily on his own earlier? DH is a night owl, and so if DD (10) wakes while he's still up, she is able to easily get back to sleep, since the environment is the same as when she first falls asleep (TV and lights on in the family room), but if it's after he's gone to bed, she sometimes has a harder time of it. Not sure if there's really anything useful in that... just thinking out loud. I also love white noise. DD actually has one of the white noise machines that we run in her room, and we still have her baby monitor set up, solely so that I can hear the white noise in my room, because it helps ME sleep. One of these days she's going to demand that we take out the monitor and then I'm going have to go buy my own noise machine.
I'm not quite sure to be honest, my neighbors are very quiet (they have kids) and don't work late so I don't think it's anything outside it may just be his inner clock since this has been going on for so long, we tried the music last night and it didn't work. He fell asleep but didn't stay asleep at about midnight he started waking up, he's wide awake when he is yelling too. He falls asleep very easily (always has) it's staying asleep that we are having prob. with I'm gonna try white noise tonight and hope it works *sigh*
Is it because his name is Logan? LOL (I only joke, because my friend's son is named Logan and he's never been a great sleeper EVER) I second the white noise. I like a fan in my room but I've never seen much of a difference with Nicholas. My son and I both are insomniacs - apparently all my BAD genes are dominant - so we're both melatonin takers, but melatonin really only helps me fall asleep, it won't keep me asleep. Doesn't sound like falling asleep is your problem. Magnesium can help a lot with relaxation and sleep, especially if he's a little anxious. I had Nicholas take this Kid's Calm Multivitamin for a while this past school year when he was going through an anxiety bout (another thing he inherits from me). Could he be going through a growth spurt? Nicholas will go through a phase of sleep problems - can't fall asleep, can't stay asleep, nightmares, etc. - and then all of a sudden all of his jeans are too short and then he starts sleeping better again.
have you tried bumping his bedtime back an hour to see if that just kicks him back into a normal sleep schedule? it could be anything really.. connor has had sleep troubles for various reasons his whole life.. It is incredibly frustrating and I completely sympathize with you.
I wish!! The little bugger, I have now realized that he's not waking up cause he's having trouble sleeping, it's a game for him. He'll walk in to my room fully awake and say, Hi Dad what are you doing? Then when my husband doesn't reply he'll shake him awake and repeat himself. It would be totally different if he had a nightmare or if he was upset because of something but no I honestly now think he's doing it cause he can. Last night he woke us up 4 times between midnight and 4am. and all times he came in nothing was wrong he was playing around. Both me and dh are so tired that we are considering sleeping in a motel room for a night just to get a nights sleep (he'd go one night and I would go a different night) Logan is grounded today and has lost his video game he was supposed to get this weekend so we will see if punishing him will work.
