2 year old does not sleep

I have a 2 year old son who refuses to sleep. I put him to bed at 8:00pm almost every night, but will still be up with him at 11pm or later. He gets out of bed repeatedly and comes out of his bedroom for no apparent reason. I did get in the bad habit of letting him watch a movie while he goes to sleep and then I turn the tv off when he's asleep. He also hardly ever takes naps! He could wake up at 7am, not have a nap all day long, and STILL not go to sleep at night. I'm starting college this coming up week and I have a feeling things aren't going to go very well if I cannot have some study time at night. Please help!

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

If you encourage any assistance, such as watching television, that a child then relies on to fall asleep it will be a problem. The goal is to have him fall asleep on his own. It's important that you set a firm limit about staying in his bed, not getting up as he is doing. You have to 'take charge' of this. You don't have to focus on his falling asleep - Mother Nature will take care of this. What you need to focus on is the behavior of his getting out of bed.