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My 2-Yr-Old Twin Son Can't Go A Night Without Waking, Other Twin Sleeps Fine

My son has a twin sister. They both just turned 2 this month. My daughter sleeps through the night and has done so since 4-5 months old. My son has only slept through the night a few times throughout the last two years.


He has had ear infections twice. And we thought it was teething, but no matter what he wakes up during the night. He wakes up SCREAMING and started waking up screaming at the age of 8-9 months. And it didn’t stop since then.

Some times he’ll go back to sleep within 20 minutes, other times he is awake for HOURS. We also have a 9 month old who is a pretty good sleeper, but also a light sleeper, like my other son. My 9 month old wakes up to breastfeed during the night but quickly goes back to sleep.

All of our kids have co slept. We eat organic foods, we make sure not to give the kids too much sugar at bedtime, we make sure they are fed before they go to bed and we give them chamomile tea at night, and they have formula and rice cereal right before bed as well, to make sure they don’t wake up thirsty or hungry…I do not know what to do.

I have read numerous sources and I have NO IDEA what the answer is. I once tried cry it out, against my judgment and my son cried for 3 hours STRAIGHT at 12 months…so I just stopped, not to mention he learned how to get out of the crib at 11/12 months.

What, WHAT else can I do? Thank you in advance!

-Sleep as hell in Manhattan, NY

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Welcome! This site is continuously being created by students of Dr. William C. Dement's Sleep And Dreams course at Stanford University.

We made this site as a call to action for people all over the world to live healthier, happier, safer, and more productive lives by learning about their own sleep. We have faith that reading the information provided on this site will motivate you to be smart about your sleep deprivation and strategic about your alertness in order to live life to your fullest, most energetic potential.

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