15 Month old afraid to sleep

[Boomerwang]

For a few nights now my daughter refuses to go to sleep. She panics if you leave her and actually runs out of breath with sobbing. I can't rock her to sleep, she will stare at the ceiling with her eyes wide open. I've moved her from her bedroom to ours in case she was seeing shadows or something but she's still petrified. You can tell she's dying to sleep but she won't let herself drop off.

Has anyone else suffered this, and if so what did you do? I would really appreciate some help. I don't really want to just leave her to cry as it's not a whine she's doing, it's blood curdling.

I've managed to get her sleeping by staying in the room with her and saying nothing.

Has anything happened recently for her sleep to be disrupted? Illness, teething etc? Was she sleeping well before this?

She used to sleep all night, every night without problems. She was teething a couple of weeks ago and had a high fever, but seems all right now. When she wakes in the night she screams in terror until I run into the room. Then she has a cuddle, lies down and goes back to sleep.

Just getting her to sleep in the first place is hard, though. She seems to be afraid of something.

I find with my dd (18 months) when she goes through a bought of illness or teething etc and obviously I comfort her to sleep (cuddles, or bring her in our bed etc) instead of her falling asleep in her own cot wich she normally does no problems really messes up her sleep patterns.

I usually put her in her cot and then talk to her calmly, with my hand on her tummy or stroking her face. Once she starts rubbing her eyes and looking glazy, I quietly and quickly leave the room, most of the time that works. If she then wakes in the night I do the same. I find that when she falls asleep in her cot she stays there easier, after about 2 nights of this she's back to sleeping find again.

Could there be another reason for your dd being frightened? Shadows or a neighbours dog barking keeping her up maybe?

Thanks for your responses. Luckily it does seem to be a phase. I only had to sit with her for five minutes this evening before she went to sleep. She must have been tired as she didn't even try to sit up when I lay her down, but she definitely watched to make sure I was there.