Ok her I go again. LOL
Just recently my 2.5 year old is not sleeping. On Friday she did not get a nap during the day. She just refused. We took her for ice cream and then to the park. She was so tired that she couldn't keep her eyes open. Well when we got home she was wide awake and didn't go to sleep until 11pm. Then was awake at 12:30 and then again at 2:30. At 2:30 she got up and started to play. We could not get her back to sleep. She finally fell asleep @ 8:30am. Same thing with tonight. We went to the NJ State Fair today so she didn't get a nap again. She faught it all day. She fell asleep on the ride home @ around 9pm. When we got home we carried her in. She slept for about 15 minutes and now she is wide awake and it's 12:20am. Do you think that it's insomnia or just over tired? We are both just so tired but she is full of energy. Plz help! Thanx
Her routine is off. She is over tired so maybe you could take a day or two and not go on a big outing and get he back in to the groove of naps and early bed time.
Try this- it might be the milk. Try reducing milk intake. Also, do not give milk later in the day.
Milk causes an imbalance of magnesium to clacium ratio.
Magnesium can help induce sleep. So try giving magnesium citrate daily. maybe 100 mg. If stools get loose, cut back the dose.
My daughter does this (and my son used to too) when she misses her nap or gets over tired. She will fight sleep and seem to get hyper. (Spent the day at the water park today and it took about two hours to get her to sleep I doubt she'll sleep through the night and she'll be up ready for the day at 6 a.m. no matter what!) Her sleep will be restless too and she wakes often too on these days. And we do have a rouge day here and there where she'll refuse to nap, even when I know she is tired!!! My friends tease me about being too strict about naps, but my kiddos need, them. I wouldn't get too concerned just yet. Sounds like your schedule has just been a little "off" for a few days.
My 4 year old son also gets hyper when he is overtired. He rarely wakes up in the middle of the night but bedtime can be a real fight when he is overtired. If you are okay with tv or videos I have gotten my son to sleep watching a video with all the lights down and sound very low, especially if he can snuggle with me. I only use this once in a great while when nothing else has worked and I am exhausted too. If I'm not exhausted then I will read him a long story.
I have struggled with insomnia for years, especially during my second pregnancy. Sleep and tiredness has cycles. If you miss getting to sleep when you are sleepy then you get a second wind (your body secretes hormones that keep you awake) and in can take a few hours to be sleepy again. It is quite possible (and frustrating) to be totally exhausted but unable to fall asleep.
My son usually won't nap anymore but if he gets overtired he needs to go to bed early for several day or get tricked into napping (like a car ride in the afternoon). Good luck getting her back on track. My kids are totally off schedule right now too. Their behavior is terrible when overtired!
With all the activity, she has had to change her sleep patterns by forcing herself to stay awake.
Her schedule is causing the insomnia...
Sounds like her routine has been interrupted. When she refuses to nap do you have her stay in her room and rest? She needs that regular routine everyday. She may fall asleep when she's resting or not. She's reaching the age at which some toddlers start to give up a nap. You didn't say if she naps in the morning.
You can play soft music during nap time. Give her books to look at. Encourage her to be quiet but don't be overbearing about it. This will be a new routine and it will take time for both of you to adjust.
Not sleeping well can be the result of being over tired. And if you're tired and frustrated while dealing with her not sleeping she picks up on that and becomes anxious on top of being tired.
Find a way to relax and build a new routine. If necessary to keep calm, let her play in her room when she wakes up. Don't work so hard at getting her back to sleep. One cause of insomnia in adults is the strong sense that they need to get back to sleep and this keeps them awake. The professional recommendation is to get up and do something until you're sleepy. Try that with her.
Talk to your doctor, it could be a variety of things, including what she is eating and when, having a steady routine (getting her down for a nap at home rather than letting her fall asleep in the car, etc.), or insomnia in some form. My in-laws have said that my husband never slept as a child, even back to toddlerhood, and they would find him wide awake at all hours playing or looking at books. He remembers hating naptimes in nursery programs because he couldn't sleep, and as a young adult even struggled to sleep with prescription medication. (He has tried everything and still sleeps very poorly most nights, no matter how exhausted or how active he was, and the drugs just make him hallucinate since they don't work on him anymore.) So, your pediatrician is your best bet for now, but try to be consistent with her.
