Help! I Can't Handle the Sleeping Issues with My 5 Yr Old!

Just tell him no and never give in.

Ever.

When he gets out of bed, take him back. No talking, no arguing, nothing. Every time. Back into the bed and walk out. He sleeps in his own bed, no nightlights in his room, no music, nothing. He doesn't need it. What he needs is consistency.

The key is that you STOP arguing with him. A firm, but quiet "no." And then you take him by the hand and take him back to bed. You MUST get up from what you are doing and physically put him back into bed. This might require you silently sitting outside his door for an hour the first few nights. Just keep doing it until he realizes that there is no getting past you and no wearing you down. Get dad in on it too.

Remember, no yelling or arguing. Just "No. Back in bed." Put him there and walk out. Every time.

I know it's hard, but push through it. The rewards are worth it!

I have five year old twins - we recently moved to a new house and I feel your pain. We made a chart with 100 circles. Every night they get 5 pennies each. (We put it on their dresser) Anytime they get out of bed or act up too much, we take a penny away. Of course if they need us for something important or they are scared, they know they can call us and we will come without taking a penny we only take it away when it's, "mommy mommy mommy mooooommmmmy moooooommmmy -" =) Then, in the morning they each take their respective pennies and stick them to the circles. When one of them reaches 100 we go to party city and they can pick an item from the aisle with all the goody bag toys. Super cheap and they love that they can pick ANYTHING from the aisle! I think the little competition between the two of them helps a little so maybe you can make a chart for him and you and compete to see who will get to 100 first?

It really worked for us. Hopefully you all can get some sleep soon!

Aw poor baby (and you). :)
He's probably just having a hard time adjusting to the new house.
Be sure to create a betime routine.
Maybe stay in there a few mins to help feel adjusted.
It's a new house, new room. He's probably just feeeling anxiety.
You may not need to see the doctor but it's always an option.
Most likely (and hopefully) you won't have to medicate at all.
He's probably just unnerved at the change and scared.
I'm willing to bet this issue will soon evaporated. Just try to work WITH it instead od AGAINST it.
Poor little guy just may have some slight aversion to the change.
Hang in there and develop new routines in the new house.
When he wakes up saying he's scared (he probably is) just go in there to quietly reassure him staying for a bit. He may even fall asleep with you right there.
Wishing you the best! Hang in there!

You have to be firm. You are arguing with him when it should be this! end of discussion.

You are sorta like stop or I will say stop again.

There is no easy way out, you have to put him to bed at whenever and stand outside his room. You hear the handle jiggle, back to bed! He comes into your bedroom before he hits the bed you have to be greeting him on the floor to tuck him back in. Do not lay down with him.

He doesn't want to go to sleep and only he can teach himself how to go to sleep but he won't do that so long as you are allowing him to pull all these tricks.

With my son 5 and then 6 years old we told him he was welcome to come sleep with us BUT if he did, it meant he was watching too much tv (maybe scary tv) and would have to give it up for the whole next day.

He has slept with us twice sense we put the rule into effect.

Oh my son also has a lava lamp and he loves it as well...I am just careful to turn it off first thing in the morning as it should only run 8 hours.

This is my boys, they are 3 and 5. It's not a popular answer, but we had to lock the kids in their room (they share a room) b/c they just keep sneaking out. They would be up until 1 am if we didn't. Once the door is locked and they have no options, they are usually asleep in 20 mins. Once they are fast asleep, we unlock the door.

If they don't fall asleep or at least be quiet, they go in time out, or we make them do chores until they are bored and tired. Repetitive chores, like a warm, slightly soapy washrag and they have to stand and wash the wall.

As for sleeping w us, they can put a blanket and pillow on our floor and sleep next to the bed IF they are quiet and do not disturb our sleep. Most nights though, we keep our door locked.

If he is really scared, make some monster spray. A little glitter in a cool spray bottle. Let him put stickers in it. Add some lavender oil b/c it helps induce calmness. Squirt under his bed or his pillow lightly when you tuck him in. give him an arm massage with soothing lavender scented lotion when you are reading his bedtime story and cuddling.

We leave a table light on in the room and hung a dream catcher over her bed.

I have one of these. We have had some luck with reward charts. A poster board we make together. For each night he goes to bed w/o a fight (define the rules) he gets a sticker. If gets a week of stickers he gets to choose a fun activity (bowling, park, pizza for dinner etc). I don't think this is a long term solution, but it did work for a while. The other thing is that I just lay with her (for 10 minutes) in the dark to calm her down, we talk about the day, sing a lullaby etc... then I go. I say I'll be back to check on her, and do in 10 - 15 minutes. Usually she's asleep. Best of luck !

A new house and a new baby on the way are both very big changes. Moving probably threw him off kilter - I suspect that "this too shall pass" as he gets used to everything.

Meanwhile, I suggest lots of love, lots of reassurance. Help him build his "base" again, and he should start feeling safe enough to sleep through the night.

A flashlight really helps our son - we explained that he needs to turn it off before he goes to sleep so that the batteries won't wear out, and he's actually very good about it.

Good luck - and I really think this will pass as he gets comfortable again!

We have had to deal with this a lot. We have gotten our kids to go to bed okay, but waking up in the middle of the night is terrible. My son has night tremors and so it is particularly scary when you hear a blood curtling scream! What we did was set up a little blanket and pillow on the floor of our room. If they woke up with a bad dream or where scared they just could come in and lay down. It seemed to work! It only lasted 2 weeks. 1 week for my girl, 1 week for my boy. Now they are sleeping in their beds all through the night! We also have a lavender oil that if they are especially bad at going to bed we rub on them that seems to calm them down a lot.

I liked someone's idea of the pillow and blanket on the floor for the kids in your room (I doubt they would like sleeping on the floor of your room when they have a nice comfy bed in their room). I also have another suggestion for bedtime that helps with my 5 yr old. He has 2 bedtime passes (you could start with more and slowly take some away to almost none if you want but I'm fine with always getting 2 passes). These are tangible pieces of paper that I have laminated so they can be reused every night. With the bedtime pass he use it for whatever he wants (in our home we put time limits on the passes though like they only last 5 min and then he has to use a second pass). My son's favorite are to get a bedtime snack, a drink of water, to stay with mom or dad for a few extra minutes, play cars, etc. He's tried to use it to watch TV or play computer games these things we don't allow (to much stimulation before bedtime doesn't work well with him and these activities take to much time). But the deal is he only gets to use his 2 bedtime passes and then that's it, it's time to sleep. Mom or Dad won't talk to him, argue with him whatever. Then is the time to be firm. This is similar to the penny idea someone had except instead of taking some privilege away ($.5) he gets these no matter what. My son would freak out if something was taken away and then we'd be having issues calming him down etc, so we don't use that method. When the bedtime passes are up if he leaves his room again we don't talk to him we just silently escort him back to bed, shut the door and leave. It might take awhile to get him going but it has saved us from his 50 excuses to get out of bed at night.

He needs his rest so he can stay healthy. It is during sleep time that our bodies fight infections off, fight viruses, etc...he must get enough rest. Please call the doc and find out if they can make an appointment to see your child. They may not want to medicate him, if they do it may be a very minimal amount of some medicine that will relax him just enough to go into REM sleep... he may also need to do a sleep study.

When my son went through this,a lava lamp was a life saver. We tried night lights...not bright enough and made "scary" shadows. Music was a disaster...he wanted to change it, didn't like the song, it was too loud or too soft. Books on tape kept him up later, because he enjoyed the stories. Punishment didn't seem to phase him either. The table lamp I bought was too bright. He couldn't fall asleep and when he did, he slept really poorly. I think all the light interfered. So finally I bought a lava lamp at Spencers. I let him pick the color. It's bright enough to light up almost the whole room. But it's also dim enough that it doesn't seem to interfere with his sleep patterns. On nights he is restless we tell him to watch the bubbles to relax (turn it on early so it's warmed up). We hung a flashlight near the door (keeping it in bed was a distraction that kept him up) so he could get to the bathroom. A year later, he still uses the lava lamp every night but no longer needs a flashlight. I am stocking up on lightbulbs so when you can't get them next year, we can power the lava lamp for a while! :)

I know you've said you've tried music and such.... but here is another idea.... I know people that really like these tracks: Peaceful Sleep for All and Toddler Sleepy Time. They are positive suggestions on sleep and believe it or not, most kids like listening to them.
So the theory is that when we are relaxed, our subconscious accepts these suggestions and really helps us to sleep. If you are interested, you can try one of these for him. Good luck!
http://www.hypnobabies.com/store/view_sub.php?id=9&cid=9