My 5-year-old wakes up terrified

[Louise40]

She moved to her new bedroom a week ago and at the weekend she stayed with her cousins. She loves going there and there have never been any issues before. Two nights ago on returning she had a night terror which was terrifying for us and her first one ever. Later in the night, and again last night she woke several times shaking with fear and saying everything was scary in the room. I think she's imagining things at night. This morning at 5am she came into our bed for the first time ever, and not something I want to encourage but I don't know what to do about it. She's scared to go to bed now because she's worrying about it too. We are all exhausted and worried. As well as this, we have a 6-month-old who wakes up frequently in the night. My 5-year-old has never before been a problem at night. This is already causing conflict with my husband who thinks we should be harder on her and that bringing her into her bed (or me going into hers) is no solution and she'll just start to manipulate us. I think she needs me and most of all a good nights sleep.
Has anyone else experienced this and any tips as to what we should do about it?

Dd went through a short phase of this. Someone told me that the thing to do was acknowledge her fears and not to dismiss them as daft. She was afraid that there were dragons and one was going to come and eat her. I said that I was fairly sure that there were no dragons but I knew for a fact that dragons were scared of fairys and I hung one a "dragon catching fairy" in her room. I also said that if she saw one she could roar at it and it would run away. Problem (largely) solved.

Can you ask her what she is scared of and then set about dealing with the fears and giving her a mechanism to deal with them other than coming into your room?

Can you find out what she's scared of? Then as GL says take the fears seriously ("monster repellent spray" or whatever). If it's non-specific scary stuff you could try one of those dreamcatcher things; some children seem to find them reassuring.

Hello thanks for your advice! She says she's scared of "everything" but last night she said it was the crease on her pyjamas(??) and on the curtains which is why I thought she must be imagining something weird. Could you tell me what a dreamcatcher is? Never heard of that. Thanks again

They are kind of nets with beads and feathers on which native americans believed caught bad dreams.

Better explanation and picture at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcatcher_(Native_American)

If you don't like this, you could get her something more suited to her tastes to be a "guardian" and keep bad things away from her. As I said, I taught my children a "magic roar" which scares way anything (actually including me - its so loud!).

bless, the crease on her pyjamas????? thats so sweet.

My dd, has night terrors. It started when she was about 4, but she had been going thur tough times with my dh leaving.

I think they do suddenly become aware, of things that could be potentially scary. Did you have bad dreams as a child or your dp?

I know I did, and i can remember being like dd.

The night terrors are really scary to witness and upsetting I know, but they don't actually remember them.

I just comfort dd, even tho she can't hear me, and it goes eventually.

my dd has a dreamcatcher, and it eases her mind if she's feeling nervous. I always say it will help her if she needs it.