3 Year Old Sleep Issues - North Wales,PA

Give up naps and adjust the bedtime. His body is telling you it's time. It will be a little rough for about a week or so, but after that you will see him adjust and find nights go much smoother.....plus you'll learn to enjoy a little extra quite time.

As for the ghost, I used to tell my kids that in my spare time I was a monster hunter and ghost and goblins would never come to our house because they were afraid of me lol...it worked, and now the older ones tell the same story to the younger ones when they have any fears :)

At this age, their cognition and imaginations are changing.
Emotions too.
So keep that in mind.
At this age, emotions for example, are not even fully developed.
At this age, a child doesn't even know, "how" they feel, and they don't have the ability to communicate HOW they feel in an accurate way. Many don't even know... the "names" for feelings yet, either.
So all combined, this makes it hard, for kids this age.
Plus at this age, many expect them to act all "grown up" even if they are just 3. The adult expectations of kids this age, often exceeds, what the child really is, Developmentally.

And at this age, they do have nightmares. Regardless of what they watch or not. It is developmental based.

For a boy, it is very important that they learn how to express themselves, and that they are allowed, to. Otherwise, they become pent up and will never learn, how to express their feelings.
I have a son. I always taught him its okay to say his feelings etc. For example.

He's going through an age related phase. Sleep and naps, per kids, are never static. It always changes.
As an adult, we need to remember... that we ourselves do NOT still sleep the same way, we did as babies or when we were children. It changes. Some days we are tired, and need to nap. Some days we don't. But the key thing is to know our body's cues.
You can help teach that to your son. I have taught that to my kids, since they were toddlers. So that... as they got older, they would KNOW... themselves and their body's cues.

And just chat with him. Let him just say whatever is on his mind. Just doing that, will help a child develop communication and how to... say how they feel and "explain" things to their parents.

It's probably time to give up the naps so he can get a longer consolidated stretch of sleep. Since he probably can't tell time yet, he doesn't even have to know that he's going to bed earlier. As the sun starts to set earlier, it will get even easier to shift his bedtime to an earlier hour. Remember that sleep begets sleep, so that the more he gets, the easier it will be for him to fall asleep with or without your poor hubby on the floor!

In our house we replaced naps with BBQT- Big Boy Quiet Time. My son goes into his room and plays for an hour by himself to give me a break. It took some time to train him not to come out... We allowed him to pick some favorite toys to bring in there with him. And we kick it off with a story just like we did before naps before. Sometimes he really does quietly look at books the whole time. Most times he plays rather noisily with his cars on his own. It still gives us both a break, and he seems to have learned how to calm himself down, relax and recharge for the rest of the day during BBQT. He may have actually fallen asleep twice during BBQT in the past year- once when he was sick, and once after his baby brother was born. Also, we had to do some retraining about the rules of quiet time and potty use after he learned to use the potty- coming out to pee is okay, coming out to play isn't. FYI- If it matters, my son dropped his nap at 2 years old and is now 3 and 3 months. At night he sleeps for 12-13 hours.

Did he see a movie or a book or a tv show that put the idea of a ghost into his head? Try and figure out where he got the idea from and address that specifically. If you tell him you have ghost spray you are reassuring him that ghosts are real. For instance 'the ghost in Scooby Doo was scary, but it was really just someone in a costume, and it is a movie, so it's not real, it's just a made up story etc."

It could also just be that he is ready to give up the naps, and once the naps are done with his body will adjust to normal night time sleep. Most kids start going to nursery school at the age of three, so they give up naps at that age.

Given that he has been so consistant about sleep/naps until now, I am doubtful that he is suddenly ready to give up naps all together. He sounds tired wth the accidents & defiant behavoiur... my son's behaviour is quickly impacted by not enough sleep, so I know what you mean! When my son gets overtired from several days of bad sleep or missed naps, it then becomes even harder to get him to sleep or nap, even though he needs it even more! I would go with an earlier bedtime for about 2 weeks and see if that helps. (and keep the nap too) If he is getting more rest at night he probably will be able to take better naps too. As far as the sudden change, I do wonder if it is fear based even though he is not talking about the ghost. Their imaginations are so active at this age. Try to talk to him about it. When he says he does not want to sleep, see if you can get him to tell you why. Also, do you think he would respond to a reward chart? Like if he stays in bed all night he gets a sticker to put on the chart in the morning, then after a few days he gets a small prize or something. Also we have used "sleep rules" with my son before. I tell him that the rules are: he must stay in his bed (actually he sleeps on the floor next to his bed but that is beside the point), he must stay quiet and he must close his eyes. When he tells me I am not tired! I dont want to sleep! I just say, that is OK, you dont have to sleep but you do have to follow the rules, which are....and I repeat them again. If they are laying down quietly in bed, they will fall asleep ;)