DS in tears over sleeping in own bed.

[CollyWombles]

My DS is 8 and being (very slowly) assessed for ASN.

A few months ago, he began screaming in the night and running into my room shaking, clearly scared . I think maybe night terrors. His elder brother and himself have bunk beds and one morning I found them sharing a bunk. My DS told me he had got scared in the night so had got into bed with elder DS who was fine with it.

Gradually, DS began sharing a bunk more and more with elder DS whether I put him in his own bed or not.

This has led to them not settling at bedtime now so after catching them messing around an hour after bedtime, I put DS in his own bed. After 15 mins I went to check on them and found DS crouched in the corner of his room, sobbing his heart out.

Once I calmed him down, he said he couldn't sleep on his own because 'bad things' visit him in the night and he knows they aren't real, but they feel real to him. He said the nights last a long time when he is in his own bed and that I sleep with DH so why can't he sleep with someone too.

He is a very anxious child in general, not liking to be in any room on his own, or going upstairs on his own. He has told me before he sees things like rainbows everywhere or scary black lines or evil giraffes. I have spoken to GP and had his eyes checked.

What should I do here? Has anyone else had this issue, or similar? I don't want DS to be distressed and it's hard to know what to do.

[RocknRolla]

I had similar with my Dd who is 5 and has autism. She has bunk beds and sleeps on the bottom bunk and what we did was put attached a curtain around the bed frame so it was more like a tent and in it we put a dream catcher and she has a torch that she takes with her. We also got a bottle of lavender spray from Avon and told her to spray it anytime she seen the monsters and they would go away. She still has some bad nights but not as frequent as they were now.

[CollyWombles]

Well I'm pleased to say my DS is fast asleep with his new tented bunk bed! As is his brother, didn't want him to feel left out. Thank you so much.