My 5yo dd has never been a great sleeper but she's always gone down by herself (it's just the staying down we've always had problems with :/)
However, a few months ago (seems like years ago now!) she suddenly wouldn't go to bed, said she was scared of monsters and since then has progressively got worse. Is now scared of anything that makes a noise, won't go upstairs/to the toilet/in another room on her own. And this makes for difficult nights.
It started with me having to pretend I was going to bed, and I'd have to stay in our bedroom until she had fallen asleep before I could go back downstairs. And if she woke up in the night I would have to go sit with her until she got back to sleep, otherwise she would scream and wake the whole house up!
We've tried numerous things... lots of reassurance, some monster spray, encouraged her to take teddies to bed to keep her company. Before Christmas we moved our youngest dd (3yo) into her bedroom in the hope that the company would help. It worked for a few nights but then she reverted back to waking and crying and then of course waking her sister up so we had to move her back into her own room.
The last week has been awful. I've reverted to letting her fall asleep in front of the tv which I know is a really bad habit but I'm that exhausted I'm willing to give in to any measures to get her to sleep :( But now she wakes up around 1am and I have to sit with her. Then when I go back to my own bed she only lasts about an hour before waking up again! The only way to get a decent sleep is to sleep in her bed which I don't want to get in the habit of but is becoming an increasingly attractive option...
I know around her age kids get a lot of fears so I know we'll get over this phase in the long term, but in the meantime if anyone has any advice on what we could do to help her sleep it would be much appreciated :)