My 4yo has always struggled with sleep, especially staying asleep. He’s never consistently slept through. We were in a good place however towards the end of last year when I’d say he’d sleep through 50% of the time and the other half he’d wake at maybe 2-5am and resettle within seconds of a cuddle.
However he’s suddenly very scared of the dark, and the sound of anything in the house (eg pipes / radiator) scares him even more. He’s been telling family members elaborate ‘spooky’ stories of what these noises are. We’ve tried helping him not be scared of the dark which didn’t work, and now we’re trying leaving the landing light on, which seems to be going even worse, he’s waking within a few hours of going to sleep and won’t resettle at all. He is up for hours at times and ends up in our bed which I don’t mind but it’s so early, most of the time we’ve not even gone to bed.
is this a stage that will pass itself? I’m not sure how to navigate.