3.5 year waking every night

Im at my wits end... every night for the last 2 weeks my dd wakes. Some nights she says nothing is wrong but asks me to sit in her room til she falls back to sleep which is within 5-10 min, other nights its fix my covers, i want water or the new go to is i had a bad dream. Not every night is it the bad dream but this is the 2nd time ive gotten it. When its a bad dream or i got scared she wont go back to sleep. Last week it was 5 am and she wouldnt go back to sleep. She stayed up the entire day, wouldnt nap and didnt go to bed until reg bedtime.
Tonight shes been up for an hour and counting. Im exhausted. Shes exhausted. Its just this constant waking. And its worse on nights when bedtime is pushed back. Tonight she pushed back bedtime by not falling asleep. She rolled around for almost 40 min. She wouldnt go to sleep.
I tried to talking to her constantly about it i get no answers. Shes very bright she understands the questions she just says i dont know mommy.
I tried getting in bed with her when shes told me im scared or i had a bad dream. It doesnt help.

Someone help me! What do i do? I have no idea how to help her which makes me feel even more helpless.
I know my child something is bothering her that its keeping her up...

Re: 3.5 year waking every night

DS (will be 3 in a couple of weeks) recently went through something similar. He wanted to sleep in bed with me every day, and was waking up a lot at night again. Sometimes he clearly had a bad dream, but sometimes there didn't seem to be any reason in particular.

I bought him a fun nightlight (it is personalized - has his initial and his name). He turns it on himself every night before he goes to sleep and it seems to have fixed his night wakings. Maybe try that with your daughter?

3.5 year waking every night

When dd has a bad dream it sometimes bothers her for days and she's afraid to go to sleep. I think other times she just gets into a habit of walking up at night and that's hard for her to break. When it was at its worst a few months ago we got her the OK to wake clock and made a reward chart. She picked a prize and if she stayed asleep for 7 straight nights she'd get the prize. I figured 7 nights in a row would be enough to get her back into good habits. She had one mess up after 5 nights and we started over and she did great. She has her favorite stuffed animal to cuddle and if she remembers to ask she gets one m&m if she stays in bed till her clock a wakes up. On the rate nights she does wake up with a bad dream I let her tell me just a little about it and then tell her to think of the fun things well do the next day. If she's resisting going back to sleep I'll tell her she can't go do xyz tomorrow unless she goes to sleep. Sometimes it's a "super fun surprise" I figure out later but usually there's something she won't want to miss like dance, school, it a visit to grandma's

3.5 year waking every night

She had a night light, then she became afraid of shadows so we took it out. We tried the duller blue night light and it still caused a shadow that scared her so now she has none. I can try it again and see if that helps.
I know its been very windy here and maybe that is scaring her. I raised the volume on her sound machine and she fell asleep after that. Then woke up 5 min later screaming for me so I just slept in bed with her.
The reward chart sounds like a good idea and I will try that starting tonight!
I have tried comforting her and even slept in her bed when shes truly scared. I have the wake up clock, tried that route, that didnt work with her.
I have tried the if you dont sleep we are not doing xyz, that doesnt work with her. She still doesnt sleep. I have taken away her favorite toy for the entire day.
I am going to try the rewards chart with her and hope that works. She loves surprises and I know just what to get her.

If she is truly having bad dreams, which it appears some nights she is, how can I help her with that? She doesnt explain to me what she sees. I know the strong winds have scared her.

Re: 3.5 year waking every night

I think this is pretty normal... Happens to both my kids.
I think it's the REM patterns of sleep (light sleep vs dreams).
I just roll with it, it comes & goes.