Giving up midday nap – having night terrors

[SIZE=medium]Both my twins are now starting to give up their midday nap[/SIZE]. They will turn 4 in July so I can’t complain. The problem though is that on the days that Gareth doesn’t nap he has terrible night terrors that is caused by being over tired.  ( He sleeps through on the nights that he does nap.) I have made their bedtime earlier by 1.5 hours ( time of nap was normally hour to 1.5).  What can I do to help him through the transition period or will I just have to hold thumbs t hat this is short lived? Help, please.

 

Since reading your post, I have been trying to remember the sleep problem one of my twins had.  I think it was right after the age 3 and when he was napping intermittently.  (We were dealing with toddler beds, starting preschool, and awaiting the arrival of a sibling as well, so other stuff was going on with them.)  If I spent the time to try to get him to nap, bedtime would be a drawn out nightmare.  If we ditched the nap and went with an early bedtime, he was waking 3 times per night (and up for the day at 6am).  I don't know if he had night terrors but for the first waking of the night (usually around 12-1am), he would be crying hard when he woke and would be totally out of it.  Then he woke every 2 or so hours after that but was easily put back to bed.  If asked, he never remembered waking in the morning.  I remember it being a really stressful time but besides letting him nap, nothing helped with the wakings;  I just gutted through it.  I think it lasted about 2- 3 months.  I wish I could be of more help to you!

 

One of my twins has always had phases of nighttime terrors and now nightmares when going through transitions. There is nothing we can do to prevent this, every change or big developmental step triggers a few weeks of this and then her sleeping pattern settles down again.
 
So, I would not say that being overtired has to be the trigger if you feel he is getting enough sleep overall. Hopefully it will be better once he settles into his new rhythm.

 

My boys have night terrors periodically. They usually occur about 2 hours after they go to sleep, so I have started going in and gently stirring them about 1.5 hours after they go to sleep to disrupt their sleep cycle. It works most of the time. It took me a few weeks to figure out the pattern. I also find that they're more prone to terrors if they've had crappy food during the day (birthday parties are the worst!), or have been doing something exceptionally over-stimulating during the day. On those nights I even co-sleep, or let them sleep together because I think that the extra natural disruption helps to regulate their sleep cycles too. I have a lot of theories, as you can tell
 
It will probably just take them a little bit to settle in to the new pattern, but in the long run they'll benefit from having a long solid sleep

 

[SIZE=medium]Thank you so much for all the good advice.  Luckily nothing has changed besides giving up the nap. I will give “waking him up to disturb the sleep pattern” a try.  He also does not remember the night terror and if he wakes up after that he is very easily settled. I will just have to live through this phase and remember this will also pass. :unsure: [/SIZE]

 

My opinion, if he still needs the nap, let him have it. Maybe quick 15 min nap? Not all 4 yr old kids give up mid day naps. My kids still take nap. My boy naps 3 hrs/day. Girl naps 1-2 hrs/dAy. And all their friends at school take nap.

My boy used to have night terrors from 1-2.5 or even 3. I used to just come in move him around a bit. It helped but not 100%. He used to have it around midnight. And if I stirred him, he would have it around 1. And I had to keep doing it. Ugh. He stopped having those since last yr. sometimes, he told me he had bad dreams. Comparing to his sis, he dreams a lot!!!?? And he does remember most of them now. Weird huh? But I used to have nightmares when I was little until high school. So is it generic?

Also, I just remembered .. At our 4 yr checkup, their pedi told me that boys would grow faster them girls at this age. So they would sleep more and deeper! Which I think it's true. My girl eats more but sleeps less then his bro. But since this yr, he gets bigger and taller then her (since birth until end of last yr, they always had the same height)