Almost 4 yr old bedtime

beckymason1988

So my daughter will b 4 in July and recently bedtime has become an epic nightmare.she used to go to bed great and now this.she stalls and fights us and keeps getting up or she cries or yells.its a huge fight and she will screw around in her room for 2 hours.which also means she's not getting sleep.i am at my wits end an everyone just keeps tellin me its a phase but this can not b a phase.the switch happened so fast and I just think this can't b a phase.this is not my kid 

dufferoo

Ugh I hate phases like that! But the fact that it came on so suddenly is precisely what makes me feel like it is indeed a phase. If it were a true need for less sleep or a shift in circadian rhythm, I think it would have come on more gradually. A few things that can inspire such phases beyond age: she could be fighting off illness, dealing with some subtle stress, a shift in temperature or daylight, or maybe the first few nights of fighting sleep for one of those valid reasons got her sufficiently sleep-deprived that now she's too OVER-tired to sleep. I think as in every phase, you can play detective as deeply as you want, but if you can't truly get to the bottom of this specific scenario, chances are it really will resolve itself with time.