DD5 has had sleep anxiety for a long time. Before bed she talks about being scared of having nightmares about a villain (Maleficent, Mrs Trunchbull etc) coming to get her. She asks for reassurance that they are not real and what to do if she has a nightmare. I think she has an overactive imagination and is sensitive but I’m also worried that she displays another behaviour typically associated with anxiety (picking her nails). I go between thinking it’s perfectly normal for 5 year olds to be worried about villains “getting them” to worrying that it goes deeper than that and I should be doing more about it.
I reassure her that the villains she is worried about are not real. We used to allow her to watch Disney films such as Moana but stopped this as they all have a villain and seem to scare her a lot. She is an advanced reader and seems to enjoy Road Dahl books but again we have stopped this.
When she has nightmares we talk about them and reassure her that they are not real.
Any advice on how I can tackle this?