Should my two boys share a room?

[Nutgirl]

Looking for some advice from people who have siblings sharing a room.

DS's are recently 5 and 2. Older DS has always slept well - he does wake up early (6ish) but it very well trained with his gro clock. Gets up to go for a wee and then sits quietly in his room till his sun comes up on his clock at 7.

Younger DS has never been as a good a sleeper (much lighter sleeper and wakes up more frequently in the night). He goes to bed fine, usual routine then we leave him in his cot with music on and he goes to sleep fine. However, he wakes up super early. Previously it had been 5ish but just recently it's been 4am and I am at the end of my tether! We don't go into him until 7am because I know he is fine. On the few occasions I have gone in cos he's dropped his ducky, he then just asks for something else (music on, I want a cuddle, I get up now, not tired etc). He shouts and yells until we go in at 7 so I can't get back to sleep. DH works shifts and when he is on earlies he gets up at 5am anyway so DS2 can hear him and this may be half the problem but not a lot we can do about this.

We bought him a gro clock to see if we could start teaching him the difference between day and night but it's not made any difference so far - think he's a bit young to get the concept.

Anyway, been reading up and have heard that siblings who share a room tend to sleep better because they feel reassured by each other's presence, and that it can strengthen their bond. We would quite like to free up a bedroom as we don't have a spare room / study space so having them share could work out well.

But I'm worried that whilst it may help DS2 to feel reassured and sleep better, it could also disrupt DS1's sleep and mean that he gets woken up super early by his younger brother who thinks it's wake up time at 4am!

Any reassurance from parents who have been here and done this?

Thanks!

Try it, move the cot into ds1 room if it doesn't work out simply move it back. You'll never know if you don't try.

We just moved DS8 and DS2 into the same room. Both are rubbish sleepers (we all are - FOMO). It's really benefited them both. They now have a combined bedtime routine with shared stories / chat and DS8 goes to sleep earlier.

I didn't know about the research you allude to but that makes sense.

It hasn't yet helped with DS2's early rising (have many sympathies with you on that point) but I am hoping it will. It's been 2 weeks so far.

Don't think the benefit of a spare room comes anywhere near matching up to good quality sleep for all of you. I'd put them each in a room of their own.

My 2 dss chose to share a room for years despite having the option of a second bedroom. In fact until they were about 4 and 6 most nights they would end up in the same bed.

At various times both boys announced they wanted their own room and one or other moved themselves into the spare room (with lots of rearranging of 'stuff' ). Each time I'd find them back in tyhe room with their brother before the night was out.

Let them choose naturally when it's time to have their own space. It's much more natural for children to sleep bundled into a pile with others. They'll grown up soon and stop letting anyone into their room, let alone a brother.

My two son's share a room, they are 5 and 10, it's not ideal to be honest, my 5 year old is rarely asleep when his brother goes to bed and they end up giggling, chatting until sometimes 10pm and if he is asleep he's snoring and keeps the older one awake, I don't mind the giggling or chatting, but they both wake up so tired and my 5 year old son's behaviour has changed since, which I think is down to the lack of quality sleep, if we had another spare room, they wouldn't be sharing, but my daughter needed her own room as she was sharing ours and waking in the night a lot still and waking up at silly o'clock in the morning That doesn't happen anymore now she has her own room. Some parents it works really well for, but you can always trial it and see what works best.