We have long known that our toddler Little Miss has been frightened by sudden or loud sounds. A car backfires, the car alarm goes off, something is dropped that clangs, even her own talking stuffed toys have been known to cause her to burst into tears if they have gone off suddenly.
It’s not all that uncommon for these type of reactions, toddlers are often easily startled by loud or sudden noises, so it’s no big deal - as long as I remember not to hit the car alarm button when one of the doors is open 
But we have discovered of late that the other end of the spectrum is just as upsetting to the toddler.
Anyone who is foolish enough to read this blog on a semi regular basis would know that Little Miss is prone to nightmares, and waking up in tears in the middle of the night. For the last couple of months we have been struggling to get Little Miss to actually tell us what has been going on. But every time we have asked she has just clammed up and withdrawn into herself so we decided not to push it again.
A couple of nights ago it happened again and I went in and stayed with her for half an hour until she calmed down. Another little night terror averted by Dad the superhero I thought.
The next morning though Little Miss informed Wife that she had been scared last night before Daddy had come in, but that my being there made her feel better (hooray for me). But this next bit is the key, she informed Wife that she had become scared again when I left because it was quiet again.
After a bit of exploring it turns out that Little Miss is not only afraid of loud noises, but that she is scared of being in bed at night when it is quiet as well. She used to listen to music at night as a baby to help her settle, but that was stopped a few months ago when it was thought that she was actually staying up listening to the music instead of going to sleep. My little party toddler does love to boogie.
Now it turns out that all those times she listened to the music as a baby to help her sleep may have lead to a situation where she needs background noise to actually go to sleep. I have to say I have a degree of empathy with her as until I started to live with Wife I always went to sleep with my television on - often I actually just fell asleep on the couch watching a dvd or something, ahhh the good old bachelor days.
So now we have relented and put a new little stereo in her room so that she can listen to sleepy time music when she goes to bed. I just hope we now don’t continually find her up and dancing to music with her fairy wings on in the middle of the night.
We also have to hope that the reason she hates silence isn’t because then she can’t drown out the voices in her head imploring her to start fires or something 
I’m glad you got the nightmares figured out.
As for the midnight dance party - I have two insomniacs that are often sneaking into their playroom at 3 am. The conspire to have fun while we are sleeping. At 3 am, my answer is “Don’t wake me up!”
My toddler used to wake at the drop of a pin, so we started playing her soft, classical music all night. It seems to work well. I hope it works for you, too!
Taking your cue, readers of my blog would know that our toddler sleeps in our bedroom. It’s a tradition- I didn’t start it. Don’t ask (how we do “it” if at all
Anyway, your mention of background noise does seem to make sense. It clicked with me while reading your post that our bedroom’s air conditioner (and we have it going everynight in this tropical country) is old and does rattle-hum. Which means there is effectively a “noise” all night.
As I usually wake before she does in the mornings, this morning I actually left the air-cond going while I got ready for work, just to let the noise continue. Other than drowning out the noise I would make with the opening-closing of drawers, like you I think it does help her stay asleep…
Forgot to ask, what music do you now leave on for Little Miss?
Something I may try too..
Toddler Daddy,
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I like sleeping with music playing through the night too. So because the boys co-sleep with us, they are sleeping with music through most of the nights too.
Btw, my boys also don’t like to sleep. For the past week, because Daddy’s been working till most ghastly hours, the boys have taken to sleeping about 12am+. That explains my slow to catch up on what’s happening in the land of my blogbuddies.
Hope you get some good rest on more nights.
Jlow - We play track 12 on a cd called BabyDub on repeat (I am not sure why we do that we just do. Previously Little Miss has had everything from classical instrumentals through to Brian Wilson’s seminal work ‘Smile’ on repeat. Quite and eclectic mix.
Also Jlow Usurper sleeps with us, and still is at the 6 month mark.
As a bit of an update Little Miss has been sleeping well for the last week, but as for the baby - it seems it is Usurpers turn at being a night time pain!