7 year old sleep and anxiety

[Mumoftoddler2]

I’m not sure if I’m posting in the right area as my daughter is 7 years old but for the last 4 months she’s been waking in the night. Most nights she’ll wake twice and on the 2nd waking will struggle to fall back to sleep.She’s slept through the night only twice since before Xmas. Nothing has changed-no significant changes in our lives, consistent home life-mum, dad, older brother.
we have a consistent routine, my kids have always had minimal screen time and we have tried the following:
-magnesium supplements
-melatonin gummies
-sleep sprays etc
-weighted blanket
-sleep stickers from Amazon
-little vibrating sleep aid
-sleep stories
-guided meditation
-white noise
-sitting with her/not sitting with her/having her come and sleep on the floor on a cushion in our room
-reward/consequences for sleeping through the night
she’s most likely suffering with anxiety and struggles to verbalise this during the day so we have also tried a journal and support from school. She’s on a waiting list for support from a therapist for anxiety. I have seen GP twice, 1st time gave me some advice and told me to keep a diary, 2nd time told me to just sleep with her and she’ll probably be anxious til she’s a teen.
she is tired during the day but doesn’t nap
and won’t fall asleep in the car etc. I have some concerns about adhd or asd due to some behaviours being displayed but I am not sure if these are just down to chronic tiredness. I am exhausted and it’s a very tricky place to be right now.
is there anything else we could try? I’m guessing not and we just need to ride it out as she needs us to be close right now but even some moral support would be handy as I’m starting to waver!

I'd try removing the 'pressure' to go back to sleep. If she wakes up, she can come and have a cuddle with you, read a book, do some lego or listen to something (does she have something like a yoto box?).

She doesn't have to go back to sleep, she just needs to have some quiet time. My DD (ASD) gets really worked up if there is any sort of pressure like that on her at all, and so isn't able to fall asleep if she thinks that she has to.

I also put a DVD player and (very cheap second hand) TV in her room. Falling asleep to something on that really helped and since it's just DVDs it didn't have the distraction of apps etc that a tablet has. I think this was the biggest help in getting her settled, I left her with the remote so if it had stopped and she woke up she could easily restart the DVD. If you can get a hold of the Curious George DVD second hand, it's brilliant in that it's calming, there aren't any particularly loud scenes, and the animation isn't overstimulating. It's aimed at younger children but that doesn't matter at bedtime. If she enjoys the movie then you can get a hold of the DVD series.

Does she have any sort of comfort object/stuffed animal?

At this age and experience with my own Toad phases like this have mostly been sparked by stuff that went on at school. From friendship concerns to teacher troubles etc. She knew that something wasn’t right and didn’t really know how to put it into words. Digging at school gave to context and we could work with the teacher and / or guidance counsellors through it. That gave her the tools to put feelings into words. Made a world’s difference to her sleep.

Hi, we went through something similar with my little one around that age, so just sharing what helped us in case it's useful.
What made the biggest difference here was making bedtime feel predictable and calm rather than rushed or stressful. We settled into the same routine every night and kept things very low-key: bath, quiet reading together, lights low, and a short chat before sleep.
One thing that surprised me was how much anxiety eased just by giving space to talk about the day in a gentle way. We started doing a quick "best bit / tricky bit / something I'm looking forward to tomorrow" check-in. We write it in a small journal, just a couple of lines. It seemed to help get the worries out before bed so they didn't end up swirling around once the lights were off.
We also do a simple slow breathing exercise together if she seems keyed up. Nothing complicated, just slow breaths and sitting quietly for a moment.
If you ever want a structured journal for kids, we used The Mindful Explorer and found it really helpful. The main thing was keeping it gentle rather than making it feel like homework or a "fixing" exercise.
Every child is different, of course, but the combination of routine, a short reflection, and a calm wind-down helped a lot here. Really hope things settle for you soon, it’s hard seeing them struggle with worries at bedtime.