My Toddler Wont Sleep~!

I would personally try to take away the nap and put him down no later than 8 pm, he is not getting nearly enough sleep even with the nap and poor sleep can lead to lots of things going wrong in school - many kids that are diagnosed with ADD really just have bad sleep habits.

My kids usually wake earlier, and more often, the later they go to bed - the earlier they go, the longer they sleep - it has something to do with getting a second wind and the way the body works with its internal clock.

Look into the book, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child." by Dr. Marc Weissbluth - a large aprt of it has to do with babies, but then it goes on in the second half to deal with bigger kid all the way up to teens!

Good Luck!

jessie

I don't have experience with this issue with a child, but for what it's worth, my husband is a chronic sleeping in the day/up all night person, and his mother told me it started when he was a toddler. He just functions best at night. If I was dealing with this, I would get my child tested as the sleep center, because it really is a challenge (understatement!) to deal with people on reverse clocks. Good luck!!!

I am certainly not a sleep expert, but here is what I would suggest (sorry if I am just repeating what you have already tried...) and I would say it would all need to be done at the same time and for a couple of weeks before it might set in.
Don't give juice or sugar after 6:00pm. Let him have his nap but keep it to an hour. Start getting him to sleep by nine o'clock. I know you said that he has his own routine, but I wonder if you started the routine earlier, if he would begin to adjust after time. And I think this is the most important suggestion I might have (but also one that you might already be doing!). Run that kid all day long! To the beach or river or lake, the park, long walks in your neighborhood, what ever you can do to make his body worn out. I know that my kids sleep so much better (and act so much better) when I make sure they get exercise/outdoor stimulation for hours a day. If I take em out for an hour bare minimum but they need more or they start to go crazy, so I try to get them out for at least three hours a day if not more.
Then I would follow NotJustAnotherJennifer's suggestion and consistently lay down in their with the lights turned off. Hopefully, like she said, he will get bored or relaxed enough to go to sleep.

I hope this helps a little! Good luck!

Okay,
this is what I would do. First start a journal of his routine activities (if you can) and how long he naps for and what he eats. Then I would cut the naps to maybe an hour or 1/2 hour for now. Document everything and see if what he eats or the length of his naps affect his sleep.
If the doctor referred him to the sleep clinic to get monitored you should do it, this is not something where they will drug him or anything like that. It will give the doctor an idea of what is going on. As for your husband thinking that he will grow out of it, he might but then again he might not. The point is that he needs help now, not in the future. Since he is young you or your husband might be able to stay with him overnight. Ask the doctor if that is possible. Just don't leave him without help, children need to sleep! they grow while sleeping, so many good things happen to them when they are asleep that you should try to help him as much as you can. Did you ask the doctor to do blood work? did he suggest any other alternatives?
Start his journal in the meantime, maybe there is something you guys haven't notice and that will make a difference.
Many blessings to you and your family.

I would lock his door (either w/childproof door knob locks or turning the lock around). That will keep him in his room and take the light bulbs out of his light. This will force him to stay in the dark, the light probably stimulates him. I would tell him at night that he can't get up until you say its time and then leave it at that, everyone in the family needs sleep.

Good luck.

I don't have any experience with this, but I've read that sometimes an Epsom salt bath at bedtime can help.

Have you tried not letting him sleep for so long during the day??
I know that can sound kinda mean, but maybe if he doesn't require that much sleep than if he doesn't get it during the day he will sleep at night.

I would make his bedtime much earlier. I have a 3 year old and his is 8. I would keep him quite active during the day, especially in the afternoons, so he'll be ready for bed at 8. I do not agree with locking him in a dark room like someone else suggested. He may truly have a sleep problem. If the new routine doesn't work after a couple of weeks, I would definitely take him to the sleep lab with or without husband's ok. Good luck to you all!

What is he drinking during the day. Is it caffinated or full of sugar, that might be the cause, also what does he eat. Does he get sugar snacks? As a rule children that young need a minimum of 8 hours of sleep a night, he will not grow out of this and it might affect his developement. What does he do during the day, does he play a lot or sit and watch tv? You only gave us info about his nights, there might be something in his days that is triggering this. I would push the "sleep study". Especially if your Dr. referred you to it. God luck.

I had a brother who was the same way! I used to walk the halls with him while my parents slept. Pray over your son that the Lord will give him sweet sleep. Make sure he doesn't have chocolate milk, chocolate candy or anything that has chocolate in it, as well as coke or tea in afternoon. Let us know the outcome. Oh by the way, my brother is now grown with four children and he considers himself to be a night owl....Last piece of advice put a Bible CD on low in his room at night....the word of God brings peace, healing and deliverance.

Whenever I drink a simple Dr. Pepper, I am up until 5 AM wondering why I can't fall asleep. So, first of all, remove any caffeinated drinks from his diet. Reduce day-time nap to 1 hour only. Wake him up and take him to the park to run and play!!!

Neither of my children were great sleepers. We totally dropped naps by age of two and that helped. Try getting rid of the naps again. Don't let him nap more than a few minutes, 30 at the most. It may take a while. Also there is melatonin. Our 13 year old started taking melatonin years ago and that helped. Not sure what age you could start giving him some. Melatonin helps to regulate the sleep cycle.

Personally I would end the nap! The first time he does this and is up the entire time through the day--keep him marching til after an early dinner, bath etc. and put him to bed at 7:00! (This will be very unpleasant for you and I'm sure YOU need him to nap on those days, but hang tough!)

He's not getting nearly enough sleep, and it's not healthy. I'd start the bedtime routine about 7:30 and have him down by no later than 8:00. Blackout curtains to make his room dark, no lightbulbs when he turns the light on in the night, a knob cover so he can't leave his room, and some white noise. Tell him this is all to help him stay in bed and sleep like a big boy. If he's still staying up all night after a week, do the sleep study.

Go to the sleep lab, this can't be good for your kiddo or you and hubby! I thought my little guy was bad, but I will keep my mouth shut now! Good luck, I hope you find some relief.

Wow, I thought our toddler was bad, but this does seem a bit extreme. Our 3 yr old won't go to bed at night even though we have a really good routine that we do every night. It takes anywhere from 1-3 hours to get her to sleep. She wakes up in the night a couple of times a week, but if I go lie down with her, she'll go back to sleep after half an hour or so.

Have you looked at his diet? Maybe there's something with dyes or sugar or caffeine something that he eats and you don't realize it is having that effect?

My only suggestion would be to do the exact same thing every night for a week - take him back to his room, turn the light off, tell him it's sleeping time, and lie down and not say anything, no matter what. Even if he stays up the whole night the first time, after three of four boring nights in a row of that, I would think he would give up and go to sleep. I completely understand why you've tried different approaches, but maybe he needs a consistent response to get him to understand that there is only one option at that time of night.

If that doesn't work, I would think you really do need to have a sleep study done. Sorry to hear that! Hang in there!

I'm surprised your doctor suggested sleep study as the 1st thing. My initial thought is that he's not getting enough sleep. I know when my big kids were little they would say if they are waking early (like 5-6AM), try putting them to bed earlier. Sounds counter intitive, but it works. Seems to me he's just not getting enough sleep and maybe try putting him to bed earlier. You'll probably have to adjust his bedtime by 30 minutes every few nights instead of going from 10PM to 8PM overnight. Besides, you and hubby need grown up time too!

Just curious if you've tried to remove the nap? Not sure if that would help at all or not. My son wakes up at 5:30am, and I thought that was early : ) Sorry I don't have any real answers for you. Hopefully it's something he'll grow out of. It wouldn't hurt contacting the sleep lab, although I'm not sure what sort of relief they could provide other than a diagnosis of some sort.

I didn't read all the responses so this may be redundant. You need to help him reset his body clock. For whatever reason his body has gotten into this routine and his clock needs to be fixed. Fix his room where absolutely no light can come in. Put him to bed earlier and teach him he is not to get up. Check his food - could be a food allergy. White noise is good too. It will take a while to change his routine but you need to be the one to decide his bedtime routine, not him. If he come to your bed in the night, take him back to bed immediately. Tell him it's bedtime and time to go to sleep. If he gets up after that take him to his bed and don't talk or interact with him. It may take a while but I believe you can do it.