Child keeps getting up at night

If a child gets up at night, there are reasons

Sleep disorders occur very often in children up to 3 years of age and are usually caused by neglected "sleeping habits". In children older than 3 to 4 years of age, sleep disorders may be due to nightmares or fears. Make the following thoughts:

• Children up to 3 years of age have to learn certain "sleep times". Infants do not differentiate between daytime and nighttime and learn with the relatively fast growing brain to fall asleep on the bottle or mother's breast. If you then put the baby in his bed, he will initially continue to sleep.

• Already up to the 4th, 5th By the month the brain is so developed to send certain signals when the sleep habit is interrupted. D. H. does a baby at the age of four or five months sleep on the bottle or Mother's breast and then put him in his bed, he is usually immediately awake again to complain about the unpleasant change.
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• Your child has to learn to do without a bottle or Mother's chest, falling asleep alone in his bed. Of the sleep alternates between deep and dream sleep as well as light sleep. D. H. every person, including a child, wakes up from time to time to subconsciously check whether the real world is still okay.

• Avoid the situation that your child could get up again and again later at night. Rehearse with your baby again and again to be awake during meals as well as the "burner" in order to then fall asleep in his crib. Doctors recommend putting the baby on the move to lay and look after him in the meantime.


How to get your baby to sleep through the night

Of course, it's exhausting when small children just keep waking up and ...

• Teach your child / baby to sleep rituals. Sing him a song, cuddle him, play a hand puppet show, etc. Then turn off the light and move away. Monitor your child's sleep rhythm. Small children who need less sleep at night, i.e. who wake up for 1 to 2 hours at night, should Put to bed an hour later and get up an hour earlier in the morning.

• A child can only sleep when they are tired. Therefore, fixed, individual sleep times, play times and meals are very important. If your child gets up after their "afternoon nap", take them out of bed so that they only associate the bed with "sleep". Some children need a long or short nap until they are five years old, others only until they are three or four years old. Orientate yourself to your child so that it learns to get to know the bed as a restful "place to sleep".

• Only give your child such "sleep aids" that they can get themselves, such as: B. a teddy bear lying in his crib. A pacifier, on the other hand, can be a hindrance because the child has lost the pacifier and cannot find it again, because he fell through the bars, it needs parental help and will cry until the parents come. The older child, who lacks a sleep aid, gets up again and again if necessary to ask the parents for appropriate sleep aids.

A child who keeps getting up at night suffers

If your child keeps getting up at night, see what is wrong with them. For toddlers who are unfamiliar with set sleep rituals, sticking to this can be a difficult transition bed and get used to bedtime. Start introducing bedtime rituals now.

• Give your child a "cuddly toy" with them in bed. Read a "bedtime story", say goodbye lovingly, and emphasize that you will get up together the next morning.

• Arrange to leave the door ajar, to turn off the light and, if necessary, to leave the door open. play another children's cassette. Accept when your child gets up to see if you are still there or to have a drink. That creates trust. But then make him promise to fall asleep.

• If your child gets up again and again, assess the "possibilities" that relate to the nature of your child need to be adapted, i.e. based on how anxious or less anxious your child is: Z. B. you could agree to close the door when they get up again (see if your child is scared of the dark - in which case this tactic would not be suitable).

• put a mattress on the floor of your parents' bedroom and allow your child to sleep there that night (do not let your child sleep in your double bed, separate exactly between "your" and "our" Sleeping place). Clarify with your child the next day whether they still need "their" children's room or whether you can now furnish it.

• Does your child get up again and again at night because, for example, B. sleepwalking, having nightmares or showing fears you should see a pediatrician. Children who sleepwalking or who experience nightly "fright attacks" need careful, understanding, but at the same time phenomenal action. It is therefore important that you contact the pediatrician in such a case. Consult a child therapist.