5yo sleeping with duvet over his face… advice needed

[NorthFacingGardener]

5yo DS has taken to pulling the duvet fully over his head to sleep (not with his nose poking out or a little gap - often lying on his back with the duvet fully over his head).

At the start of the night I just take it off his face once he’s asleep. But in the middle of the night if I do this he stirs and pulls it back over straight away… So I end up staying awake until he’s back in a deep sleep and trying again.. often multiple times. It’s destroying my sleep, it’s like having a newborn baby again.

Logically I know he’s probably not going to suffocate… but in the middle of the night I don’t feel that in good conscience I can leave him with a duvet on his face for the next 6hrs or whatever until the morning.

I have of course explained to him WHY he needs to leave his face out.

He says he is scared of the dark.. He already has a gro clock that glows but am going to try a night light as well. Not convinced it will make a difference though.

It’s really affecting my sleep… any advice appreciated.

He’s 5, his instincts will move it off his face if he isn’t able to breathe properly. Nobody would be able to sleep unsupervised in a bed with a cover on it if there was a risk of suffocation.

I get why it feels hard but you just need to face up to your fear. Does his father live with you? If yes, what does he think?

Appreciate the response, and the instinct bit is what people have said to me when I’ve mentioned it in real life… but surely if you’re asleep and you’re not getting enough oxygen it makes you more sleepy?!

Yes I have a DH.. he is more relaxed about it than I am (and sleeps more solidly). I think the issue is that I always wake up in the night anyway, but now instead of turning over and going back to sleep I feel I have a duty to go and take the duvet off DS head (as I’m awake anyway).

Could you try one of the wearable sleeping bags? They have legs and arms and feet and do adult sizes. I would be eoth you in theinhaling the carbon dioxide make you more sleepy and not automatically pulling it off

Can you tie/sew some ribbon in and tie the foot of the bed so he can’t pull it over his head for now?

He’d just move down the bed, surely?

Would he wear a sleep mask?

It’s fine, it’s not airtight fabric so oxygen is getting through the weave of the duvet cover and the duvet itself so he won’t be reducing his oxygen intake in any way.

Try an eye mask maybe. Or let him wear something with a big floppy hood to bed so he can have it pulled down over his eyes/nose without making a seal.

For what it's worth, my cats often crawl under my duvet with me to sleep and have yet to suffocate in 13 years, and they don't leave air holes either.

This is the kind of reassuring response I was hoping for 😅 It’s just given me a flashback to Covid when we were all breathing through fabric masks and were fine.

I did this ALL the time when I was a kid and I still do it now and I’m 51. Never suffocated.