Aiden has been a generally not bad sleeper. Sleeping thru is a rariety, however, when he does wake, generally, he will self settle, or, i will just need to pat his back, or speak to him, and he goes back to sleep.

HOWEVER - for a few weeks now.. it has gotten worse. I am at my witts end, and dont know what to do anymore.

Generally, he goes to bed at about 7.30, and asleep by 8. It will mostly take about 20-30min for him to go to sleep, with me either with a hand on his back, or, just sitting beside the cot. Sometimes, he will settle on his own.

Then - from anywhere between 10pm and about 2am, he will start to wake, and spend about an hour of crying in his sleep every 10or so min. I try to sit with my hand on his back, i try to rock him (but he fights me abit), sing to him, to get him to resettle, offer water as well. Nothing works. After an hour, he is generally half awake, and i spend the next hour trying to rock him, and get him to go back to sleep. Eventually, he wears him self out again, and we spend another hour of the crying in the sleep every 10min before he goes into a deep sleep.

He went thru a long stage of doing this when he was abit younger, but, it only lasted 90min to 2hours. Now, 3hours, its a huge chunk of my night.

Last night, i even tried controlled crying, but, he ended up hysterical. I think he ended up going to sleep at one stage, and i was lying on my bed, and fell asleep as well. About 10min latter, he woke up hysterical again, and i snapped and slammed him door and yelled up him. I felt so bad. His cry went completly hysterical and terrified. I left him, and curled up in bed and cryed, i felt so bad for doing that to him. DH got Aiden up, and he sorted stopped crying, and then, DH put Aiden in bed with us. Aiden snuggled up to me, and went straight to sleep. About 10min later, i put him back into his cot, and other then a grizzle about 40min later, he slept sloundly till about 7.45this morning.

What do i do? He doesnt seem to be hungry, he's not wet, doesnt seem to matter if he has a big day sleep, or little day sleep. He's not teething. He has had a viral infection, which has left him fairly blocked up, but, his nose is much clearer now.

Its almost like he is going thru some seperate thing, but, then, he fights me if I try and rock him while he is in the 'cry during sleep stage'.

Any suggestions? He is nearly 16months old.. i thought he would be sleeping thru by now.