6yo DD has mostly always been a good sleeper but recently she's struggling to fall asleep. Reasons include ear ache, sore legs, beds uncomfortable, she's lonely and she just can't sleep. I'm inclined to think it's actually loneliness.
Her bedtime is 7pm and she wakes at about 6:30am. We have tried a later bedtime many many times but it makes no difference at all. The other night she was making reasons until 9pm at night and eventually fell asleep at 9:30pm after I sat with her. The next day she was still up bright and early at the same time as normal but during the day where she was overtired she was screaming and upset. She definitely needs a 7pm bedtime and has always needed more sleep than other children so it's not about that.
I'm fairly sure it's loneliness and I've asked her what the problem is when it's not bedtime and she's reinforced that it's loneliness. So what do we do? We've always been quite firm at not forming bad habits but we try to balance it by listening to genuine needs. I'm at a loss though. She's currently tucked in our bed at her request (on her own I should add) and we'll move her into her bed (she knows this) when we go to bed. First time we've done this but it's been full on of late and we really need to stop and sit down!
We need some better ideas though???