Should my DCs sleep in the same room?

[RuthChan]

I have DD aged 4 and DS aged 2.

DD was a nightmare sleeper from the very beginning, but has finally settled down since turning 4 in November. She was at her worst while aged 2, when she refused to stay in bed in the evenings. She could be out of bed anything up to 30 times a night, before going to sleep, for every reason and excuse under the sun. The worst of this phase lasted about 7 months.

DS turned 2 in October and was, until a couple of weeks ago, a much better and easier sleeper. Now I am suddenly seeing echoes of his sister. He gets out of bed every evening. Last night he was out 15 times, taking off his sleeping bag and turning on the light. His apparent goal is to go to his sister's room and he hates me enforcing him sleeping in his own room.
He has been in a bed not a cot since last August, so it's hard to enforce him staying in bed without returning to his room every minute.

They get on very well and are very close. DD loves looking after DS at the moment.
I am therefore wondering if it would work better to put them in the same room. It might give DS reasurrance to stop him being so scared of everything and DD would probably love it.
I haven't mentioned it to them to sound them out yet. I can't do that unless I actually decide to try it.

Does anyone have any experience of putting children in to sleep together?
Please tell me about your experiences.

Thanks!

Why wouldn't you?

Ds1 and ds2 shared until ds1 was 10 when we moved. We gave him the basement.

I shared with my 3sisters. It was fab

I think it's good for them. My DDs (4 and 9) share a room through necessity; when DD1 is away at a sleepover DD2 often wakes up and looks for her, and ends up climbing in with us because she misses her!

I have exactly the same age gap though mine are now 9 and 7. They've always had their own rooms, but they much prefer sleeping together in ds's bunks. I would definitely do it - one of my main threats now if I want them to stop squabbling (in general they get on very well) is to tell them I'll put them in their own rooms!

The dds still share (now 14 and 12) and it has been fine until recently. We now dream of separation.

It's worth a try at least, and if it doesn't work out you can always swap back.

My DD, 3.5 and DS2, 2 share a room out of necessity as we have another DS who is 8. It can get a bit hairy putting them to bed at times, especially if one (usually DD) is kicking off. We stagger their bedtimes though so one is always asleep before the other, and they take it in turns at being first to bed. DS2 is still in a cot though; I am dreading his transition to a bed as I know he will be out of it several dozen times before settling.

I also remember when DD first went into a bed she had a phase of getting out of bed. We can't have a gate at the top of our stairs, so we put it on the door of her room to stop her getting out. Several nights she ended up falling asleep on the floor behind the door once we got fed up trying to get her back in bed....she grew out of it pretty quickly. Maybe because we ignored her and left her to it?

Thanks everyone.
All positive replies there.

CrispyCakeHead: Don't worry I had the same issues with DD. She too had several occassions of falling asleep on the floor locked her room during a tantrum. I tried to avoid doing that, but sometimes it really was the only answer.
I am really hoping to avoid such things with DS especially as he is less stubborn than his sister.

Right then, I will discuss it with DH and the DCs. We might try it with a matress on the floor before actually moving beds between rooms.

Just to follow up:

I moved DD into DS's room on Friday.
The past three night have been far easier than I had feared and both of them seem really happy with the new arrangement.
They now have a bedroom together and DD's old room is their new playroom.

Thank you for your encouragement!