8-year-old DS scared at night

[TreeDweller3]

It's horrible. He won't stay in his bed at night: he is genuinely insanely scared that he'll have nightmare and won't let me get out of his sight. So I've got to be with him in his room until he falls asleep. If he wakes up at night, which happens most nights, then he'll run to my bed and get in bed with me. I'm so utterly exhausted. I've two younger DDs and he's passing his fears on to them.

And guess who he's scared of: Puzzler from CBeebies! He was a character in Numberjacks, I think, a few years ago. For goodness sake...

Please send me your wise words...

My DC did this at 7yrs and it has slowly improved. We no longer have to stay in the room but they do have 2 night lights and the landing light on. We also showed them the character they were afraid of being drawn by an artist to show how made up it was. One DC was scared of Scooby Doo and the other was some other cartoon character. It's a slow process but it does get better.