4 year old waking in the night again - any advice?

[spalex]

Hi,
I'm after some advice please!
My 4 year old has started waking 2 - 3 times regularly in the night again, having 'bad dreams'. The thing is, she doesn't really seem to be having bad dreams (she's not distressed at all), and I think it's more an excuse to get us up to put her back to bed and comfort her. She has always been a good sleeper, and I'm not sure how best to approach this now. I feel like the more often we get up to comfort her / put her back to bed, the worse the problem is getting - am I making a rod for my own back here?!
There don't seem to be any underlying issues I can find that would be making her upset, and she is otherwise a happy, healthy child.
Anyone have any suggestions before this gets out of hand?
Thanks

[LucyCat]

Is she starting school?

possibly this may be praying on her mind - even subconciously?

Have you tried a sticker chart? We used one for a little while with dd1 at roughly the same age, just to get her back on track when she had a 'wobbly' phase - it's a real shock to the system when they've been excellent sleepers isn't it?

[spalex]

Hi LucyCat,
She's going into reception next week, but she's been happy in the nursery unit in the same school for the previous year - so I don't think it's that. I had thought it may be because we've got another baby on the way - but this one isn't due until January, and she doesn't appear to be bothered by the whole thing anyway!
She loves her stickers, so that is definitely worth a shot - thanks.
I guess with all these interrupted nights at least I'll be more prepared for number 2's arrival!

[fondant4000]

Hi Spalex,

My dd has always been a not very good sleeper but she has also recently being going through a spate of waking up in the early hours (she's 3.6 I'm expecting in Nov).

It's not so much bad dreams every night, as the fear of having bad dreams. She wakes up, sees its dark (have nightlight on), and gets spooked - worried that monsters/bears are going to come into her room. Just her imagination going crazy.

Tried rewards, but it didn't really address her fears. She can also be quite calm about them, but doesn't like to talk about it so I know for her it's real.

Then last week I hung some sparkly bangles up in her room near her fairy lights. Her dad happened to say 'that will keep the monsters away, they hate sparkly things, monsters only like gloomy things'.

That night she slept right through. Next morning she said she wasn't worried about the monsters because they would see the sparklies when they came into the room and run away (couldn't believe it actually worked - we'll see if it lasts!)

BTW trying to say no such thing as monsters, or can't get in the house etc. didn't work at all - just made her angry we didn't believe her!

[spalex]

Great - I think I'll give the dreamcatcher thing a try as well to see which works best for her. Perhaps a combination of that and the stickers will help - it's deinfitely a good place to start. Thanks so much for your tips.
ps - I'm a new member here - can someone please tell me what 'dd' stands for?!

[spalex]

Oh I see!! And I'm therefore guessing that by process of elimination 'ds' is dear/darling son...
I feel enlightened!
ps - I already know what you mean about it being addictive!

[LucyCat]

didn't realise you were a newbie - welcome!!