4yo overnight screaming and early waking. We're so tired!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes! Some of you sound really rigid. My oldest only slept 10 hours at this age even without the nap. It stinks but that’s how it is. She still goes to bed later than many of her friends but now sleeps reliably until 7. My younger one has always been super inconsistent. We try to keep him quiet but I think it’s a lot to ask of a kid especially if they are scared. Haven’t your kids ever come into your room shaking from a nightmare? The problem with many of those ok to wake clocks is they are really bright. My kids are sensitive to light and we found it was better to just say the clock has to have this number (6) here. A 4 year old can do that just fine. But I would think sometimes they need help to understand it’s really the middle of the night and they need to try to go back to sleep. One of my kids has been up for the day way too early and then had meltdowns at school, so for us it was important to emphasize they trying to sleeping aspect of it. YMMV

It is called lazy parenting, where parents' needs come before the kid, that they allegedly had because they wanted a child. They should feed their kids only iron-depleted foods, I hear anemic kids make for great sleepers!

No, sorry all the pediatric sleep experts agree with us. It’s not laziness, it’s actually harder to ensure good sleep. Your kids are chronically sleep deprived.

WTheck! Locking your kid in the room is never ok. Knowing your kid is awake and you lock him in is not sleeping. You can't make a kid sleep, if the kid does not want to sleep. OP should give her kid a nap or get up, this is not a 16 year old we are talking about.

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01/31/2023 12:14

Subject: 4yo overnight screaming and early waking. We're so tired!

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Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:The focus of the OP seems to be on her inconvenience. Aren't you at all concerned that your kid is unable to sleep? What is happening in your home?

OP here - my husband and I are definitely sleep deprived and not functioning great due to this, but of course the main concern is ensuring our son being healthy and getting enough sleep. Given all our efforts to reduce the possibility of overtiredness, or help him stay in bed and get extra sleep, we are wondering if he is just on the low end of sleep needs getting about 10 hours overnight. He's refused to nap for a few months now, though he knows he can if he wants and has the opportunity to do so every day at school.

We don't feel comfortable locking him in his room, barring a legitimate safety issue comes up. And I have no desire to punish him for waking up and not knowing what time it is, and he obviously can't help screaming due to nightmares or night terrors. I mentioned the screaming in case it pointed to overtiredness, which again, we've tried to prevent.

What I believe IS reasonable is having boundaries and rules around nighttime just as we would any other time of day. So the focus of my question is trying to teach these boundaries to a very strongwilled little kid who isn't responding to the frequently recommended approaches, while simultaneously setting him up for success to get the good night's sleep he needs.

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01/31/2023 15:52

Subject: Re:4yo overnight screaming and early waking. We're so tired!

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Anonymous

I have similar issues with my 3 year old. Currently we are trying the following (after doing all the sleep hygiene stuff mentioned before):
Magnesium supplement everyday
Melatonin free sleep supplement with L-theanine
Probiotic - I read that these things could help with ADHD and I suspect my son has it and these things couldn't hurt
Weighted blanket

Good luck! From one tired mama to another.