Waking up in the Middle of the night...Is This Normal!!!!!!!!

I think this is NOT ABnormal. When my son was about 4, I would wake up to find him playing with his little cars or other toys right next to my bed, in the dark. He was happy as could be.

Now at 41 he has a 5 year old and a 2 year old, they occasionally wake up in the night and want to play.... "PAYBACKS" I tell him.
They seem to do everything he did as a child, like not wanting to sleep in their own beds, not take naps when they are supposed to, not go to bed when it is bedtime, make a mess in the kitchen, etc, etc.

When I was a child, I used to sleep walk, one time I woke up hanging on to a corner of a shelf with one foot on the floor and the other hanging over an open staircase. My parents heard me crying and rescued me.

Maybe that's why I seem to always wake up about 4 am after all these years... ha, ha! Wait a few years, you won't be able to get them out of bed in the morning

I think he's beyond napping at age 5, so he is too awake and not tired enough to sleep. It's also completely normal for an inquisitive child to explore and try to do interesting things to see what happens - like mixing things he found in the cabinet, etc. It's possible that he's asserting himself as a "big boy" who doesn't need a nap when the baby naps. I know you are tired and want to nap with the baby, but maybe either you or your husband need to be awake with a 5 year old!

To start, give up the nap for him. He'll be more tired at night and perhaps he will not wake up. However, he's in the habit of getting up when he wakes up, so you need to re-train him that he stays in his room until it's light out or until an alarm goes off. There are all kinds of clocks and alarms that signal kids when it's an acceptable time to get up.

It's also time to reevaluate your home and where things are. You take things off the baker's rack, for example, and put them away. You put the things he's allowed to play with (plastic containers, etc.) in the low cabinets and you put the breakables or poisons or "off limits" things in upper cabinets with cabinet locks (available at any baby store or on-line child safety/parenting sites). You teach him how to climb safely. You encourage "science experiments" and exploration by having set times during the day when he can pick out the things he wants (within your limits) and play with a sink full of water with funnels and tubes and colanders. You teach him, however, that these occur frequently with parental supervision and during daylight hours, and absolutely never at 3 AM. You also teach him how (and require him) to put things back that he has played with. If it's more work to take things on his own, he'll eventually learn that it's better for him if he does it with you or Dad so the work is divided between 2 people.

If you have to put a lock on his door at night, fine. But explain that he needs his sleep and so do you. People who don't sleep can't drive cars or do anything else because it's dangerous to do things when you're not rested.

You'll have to do this in stages. Start with no nap and staying in the room until whatever acceptable hour of the morning you choose, plus putting on some cabinet locks. Make it reasonable. Before bed, he can choose some QUIET things to take into his room to play with in the morning if he wakes up before the acceptable hour. What he chooses are his playthings for the next morning. If you want him to have quiet time in his room during the day while the baby naps, fine - but don't require him to sleep. If he's sleeping at night and so are you, you won' be as tired during the day and needing a nap yourself. Then the baby's nap time can be special time with parent and 5 year old, something he looks forward to. If he knows he's going to get special time but only if he stays in his room at night, maybe he'll be more compliant. It may take some time, but if he knows that, no matter what, he will lose special time if he comes in your room to play at 3 AM, he'll figure it out.

After you solve the sleep problem, you can progress to teaching him the right skills to minimize injury. Some kids are athletic, climbers, explorers, etc. Mine was. The plus side is, these kids can be leaders, scientists, engineers, etc. We knew our son was going to be climbing the rock walls in between everyone's property (common in New England) and climbing trees. So we taught him to check for wobbly rocks and weak branches to keep him safer. We went on good bike rides, but only if he had a helmet (if he didn't, the bike went up in the garage rafters for 2 weeks). We did water play in the sink and outside, but only when it could be safe and not overflowing. We let him play with all kinds of things that weren't technically "toys" but not the important breakables. We worked out the limits and made it clear to him.

You can't protect him from everything but you have to get to the point where you are not so stressed out from lack of sleep that no one is having any fun. It's also okay to have a child earn privileges - let's see how you do with X, and then we can talk about progressing to Y and Z.

At 5 years old he really should be able to sleep through the night without getting up. I would talk to your pediatrician. You just want to make sure there isn't a health issue involved.

If he is otherwise healthy, he doesn't need as much sleep. I would definitely consider giving up the nap. Many kids give up their nap when they are 3 or 4. Some kids continue napping until the begin kindergarten, but very few schools have nap time in kindergarten.

Start by giving up the nap and see how he responds. Give it some time - at least a week.

Remember, at 5 years old he only needs about 10 to 12 hours of sleep total, including naps!

He's old enough to know his numbers. By this age, we had taught our kids that they were not allowed out of their rooms until the first number on the digital clock in their room was a 6. Until 6, if they couldn't sleep, they could play quietly in their rooms.

Put an alarm on his door, so that when he opens it you will be waken up and can send him back to bed.

My first thought is that he shouldn't need a regular nap at this age (probably why he isn't tired at night).

Then you may be putting him to bed too early. What time is his bed time?
Does he start school this fall?
Try putting him to bed later. For instance our child of the same age goes
to bed at 9pm. Doesn't have to get up until 7:30am.
Is he getting enough food to eat during the day?
Maybe he's waking up hungry.
I would not lock his room or any cabinets.
Talk to him about not getting up onto counters as you are afraid he will get hurt.
Ask him if he gets up because he's hungry at night.
If that is the case, feed him more during the day (3 meals w/3 healthy snacks in between).
Make sure about 1/2 hr before bed, you make sure he has a snack (Goldfish etc.).
Be sure he's active during the day to expend energy.
Don't ever lock him in his room.....that is unsafe esp in the event of fire or
an intruion/burglar through his window.

I'm assuming he has his own room. Because he's been hurt and it's a ongoing issue, I would put up a child proof door "lock" (like this: http://www.amazon.com/Door-Monkey-Childproof-Pinch-Guard/... ), which keeps ventilation and allows him to call for you but not leave the room, or put an alarm on his bedroom door
(like this: http://www.amazon.com/Window-Entry-Alarm-Magnetic-Sensor/...) and just set it after he goes to sleep.

A second measure of security for you (because you are losing sleep worrying about him) is to buy a video baby monitor and mount it on the wall of his room. You can set the receiver on you bed and check on him to make sure he's still in his room without getting up.

I also agree that he likely does not need a nap at 5 years old, and that's probably a big reason why he's waking with energy to play at night.

With my son, it was never uncommon for me to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and notice that his bedroom light was on and hear him playing.
It happened enough that I just left him be after awhile. He always seemed fine during the day (not overly tired), and after seeing 2 sleep specialists over the fact that he just didn't sleep much (also woke at 5am)....we just figured out that he didn't need that much sleep.

This happened until he was 5. He's 6 now, and sleeps more normally...or at least stays in his room.

But all I can tell you, is make sure his routine is normal, and let him know that the expectation is for sleeping when it's dark outside.
Find a way to gate him or lock him in his room...and put everything else out of his reach on all floors.

So sorry, I was giggling a bit reading this. He definitely sounds like the mischief maker 'Dennis the menace type' But so sorry you are going through all this pain.It is definitely normal. We all wake up at nights sometimes no matter who we are and some of us like to keep busy. I remember reading books in the middle of the night on the toilet.
Does he really need a nap? I don't think so. sounds more like you need a break. It sounds like you are baby proofed pretty good (plastic glass for example) but perhaps you can give him specific middle of the night activities such as puzzles if he is truly up and ready to play.
Also, My advice is to give him some consequences. And let him know what they will be ahead of time. And HERE's the BIG KICKER lots of parents don't get: follow through on them. He is going to be in prekindergarten so I think he will begin to understand that rules must be followed. If you have an infant daughter you definitely need to take some action since you need rest. That screen door might not be such a bad idea. But seriously, how about a gate and let him know big time he may not go past it. Good luck!!

We had to lock the pantry and refrigerator for a while. Our guy would go in and play in food too.

What time does he go to bed? If he's waking up, fully awake, then he might just not be tired enough to sleep that many hours at a time.

If he's going to bed before 9pm start putting him down later. See if that keeps him asleep.

Consider getting a sensors of some sort through out the house or baby monitors turned up all the way in various parts of the house. This way either a sensor will say someone is moving around in the house or the monitor will let you know he's on the move.

At age 5 he might need to get up to go to the bathroom or find you because he's sick so you need to not lock him in his room, by the way a screen door isn't strong enough to keep anyone in a room. They simply kick it once and the screen will come out of the frame.

One thing you also have to consider is they lay down and have nap time in Pre-K. If he's not taking a nap now and starts taking one in school he's going to be up during the night even more. They have to follow school policy on naps, 4 and 5 year old kids have to have that break in the day. If they only go half day then they don't lay down. He will be mentally and physically challenged so he's going to be tired. But once he gets what his body needs he's going to be fully awake again. If he's going down too early to bed then his body is going to be fully recharged some time during the night and he's going to get up.

I would put him to bed later so he'll sleep all night, if that doesn't work then get some sort of system to let you know he's up.

One of my granddaughters did this at about the same age. It scared her parents to death. They laid down rules for her: she could under no circumstances go outside, she must not wake anyone else, and she mustn't do anything in the night she wouldn't be allowed to do in the daytime.

During this period she came to my house for a day or two. She said, "Gran, I just want to let you know that I might get up in the middle of the night." I asked her why she would do that, and she answered, "I like to see the way things look in the dark."

Happily, she grew out of it. But, at the age of almost eleven, she still likes to wake up very early in the morning.

You are the one to know if your son does his nighttime activities with a sense of "Nobody's going to tell ME what to do," or if he's inventive but open to guidance. If he will follow rules, give him some. Let him know what he can do and can't do, and tell him he has to tell you what he did in the morning before you make the discovery yourself. That might take a bit of wind out of his sails.

I might additionally put cameras in the kitchen.

The fact of his starting school soon may work in your favor. He may end up too tired to be very nocturnal.

My son didn't ever do this. However - he did nap when he was 5 AND slept 11-12 hours a night. We finally took away his nap (actually school did - they only allowed naps through kindergarten) when he was 6.

Is this a real question??

He is FIVE?? He still naps??

What consequences have you told him will happen if he leaves his room in the middle of the night and moves things around in the house?

If you can't trust him to not get into things then YOU can't nap during the day and leave him unsupervised.

I still smell a bit of troll...