My 2.5 year old won't sleep past 4 am.

[JRREsq]

Hello,
My son is 2.5 and up until about a month ago was a great sleeper--going to sleep on his own, sleeping 12 hours, napping 1.5-2 hours waking up happy.  He slept through the night at an early age and has really never had a sleep issues, even through the teething years.  
About a month or so ago we went on vacation for a few weeks to a location that had a 3 hour time difference.  Because of the limited sleeping arrangement he slept in the same room as my husband and I or his 3 year old sister.  

When we have returned he has acted liked he is afraid of his room. We knew this was likely due to his 2 weeks of sleeping with other people.  So we patiently would get up with him at night, put him back down, and repeat.  It seemed to get better for a few weeks but lately he'll wake up hysterical again!  He'll beat his door[we keep it shut or he'll wander] with anything and everything he can find--books, toys, hangers pulled from his closet!  We have gated the closet, removed the books and tried to go in and reassure him back to sleep.  He'll typically fall back to sleep but only for 30 min-a couple hours and then wakes again in hysterics.  
We have seemed to get a  solid 4-5 hours in the beginning of the night before it all begins.  And despite the night wakings he is up for the DAY at 4am.  He goes to bed between 7-8pm--without a fuss.  8 broken hours of sleep for such an active small child seems too little!
We have tried going in, consoling and leaving.
We have tried letting him cry it out.
We have tried taking his pacifier away[that he had still only at night due to the request of his speech therapist for muscle tone issues]
None of the above has worked.  [he has his pacifier back]

We are at a loss and willing to try anything as it has been months since any of us has gotten a full nights sleep.
Thank you for any help you can offer.


This discussion is related to 2.5 year old refusing to sleep suddenly in her room at night.

[margypops]

Is his 3 year old sister kind to him you say they shared a room,when you were on vacation,  He also slept many hours for a 2.5 year old 12 hours then another two during the day , try cutting some of it back,he may not be tired enough. You have to be consistent as he is also getting mixed messages, he knows if he yells enough you will go into him, best to sit in the room and leave him there .or leave him to yell.,once you give way you are back to square one. .

[kp0807]

Our son was an awesome sleeper... much better than his sister about going to bed and sleeping through the night.  At his 3rd birthday our son entered preschool for the first time, had strep for 3 months, would wake up screaming from sore throats, plus we were totally stressed due to the economy... and it was like the floodgates burst.  For 6 months he was up 4-5 times a night, and started all kinds of anxious behavior.  We had to do something... we started sleeping with him, did everything we could to reduce his anxiety... took him out of preschool, changed our routine to be more consistent, changed our discipline techniques, limited his TV before bedtime, no movie theaters (he had only been once), reduced our own anxiety through several means... It has gotten better.  About 10 months after it all started - he finally slept through the night!!!!  We still lay down with him to get him to sleep, but he drifts off faster now and doesn't seem to mind we sneak out.  We will start trying to get him to fall asleep without us as the next step...

We have all kinds of other issues to work out with him, as we've discovered he has Sensory Processing Disorder which has fed into his anxiety, as well as potentially Post Traumatic Syndrome from an event at preschool... but at least the sleeping has gotten much much better...

SO I hope that you are able to find ways that works with your families to help lessen the anxiety.

[jamilynb]

We moved about a month and a half ago and we are having this same problem.  My 2 year old would go to bed without crying every night and sleep 12 hours, prior to the move.  Now she screams and cries every night and every nap.  Then she was waking up during the night screaming and if I didn't go get her she would stop crying and just stand in her bed...sometimes this was from 3am on.  It has progressively gotten worse and worse.  I asked the pediatrician what to do and she said to go in, pat her back, sing, etc to calm her back down to sleep.  Yeah, that didn't work!!  
So now we have let her back in our bed at some point during the night, but no one is getting rest.  I'm sure she was overtired & overwhelmed with our move because I sure was.  
I have a friend who has had luck with a 'sleep fairy' leaving little treats for a good night of sleep, others who swear by not going into the room no matter what, etc.  
I'm so stressed out trying to decide what the best answer is!  I think we are going to switch her back to the crib & start over with crying to sleep. I feel so bad because it seems like she needs me!!  

[babygirl6152]

Does he get a nap in the day? You could try withholding that but that is pretty drastic- or try putting him to bed 30 mins later every night for a week then move on to 8- 8:30- 9:00 til he gets back to sleeping toward daylight?