Scared to sleep!

[Hawest1]

Ok recently my 3yr old says he's being followed by a 'red ghost' he says it stands at Windows watching him. This obviously freaked me out a little bit but just said that everything was ok cause no matter what was scaring him mum was there to scare it away. The past few nights he's ended up climbing into my bed during the night with the same excuse 'the red ghost was there'
Last night, we all ended up awake at 3.30am due to my youngest being not well & screaming the house down, so we all jumped into my bed & cuddled up, my 3yo then said 'mum can u close the door' I said I couldn't reach due to his brother being stuck to my arm & his reply was 'but mum it's looking at me, please turn the light on I'm scared' so neither me or him has slept a wink since 3.30am! How do I deal with this as it seems to only be getting worse no matter what I say Please help!?

You need to approach it from a 'there's definitely nothing there stance'
At the moment you sound as if you think there is! And he's picking up on that.
Don't tell him you'll scare things away, tell him there's nothing there. Maybe make a big play of checking the electrics and toys in his room and maybe even 'find' the source. Check there's no light coming from downstairs and if there is switch it off and if it's a street light explain to him what it is.

He will no longer sleep unless there is a light on, usually the hall light but the other night when I can up the stairs I found him in my bed with the big light & lamp on. I've told him plenty times there is nothing there & i still get the in scared, so I've to turn the hall light on & prove to him the baby monitor is on before he will even attempt to go back to sleep (he shares a room with his baby brother)
Last night when the latest one kicked off when I got up to turn the hall light on I said 'see nothing there no need to be scared' but it was hours before he fell back asleep & even then it was only for half an hour.

I was like this as a child. Telling me it didn't exist, or sleeping in the same room as a sibling made not a drop of difference. Sleeping with the light on did.

I would ask him to explain what the ghost looks like, and why it only comes at night, or when you're not around. It's very very real to him, and telling him it doesn't exist just makes it not seem a real problem to him.

The only thing that helped me was sleeping with the light on or sleeping with my mum.

Oranges that was your experience, but you don't know what would have happened if your Mum had consistently and cheerfully said,'oo it's horrid being scared, there's nothing there, big hug and back to bed with you.'
I wasn't suggesting you left him in darkness btw, just checking that there isn't a red glow from some source.

Just noticed these, it apparently does appear when I'm there, there is a few times we have all been sat watching a film & he's jumped up & said 'mum I'm scared' & I asked why & he says 'red ghost is there'
The last few nights he hasn't been as bad, but that may be because I have gotten him some new night lights (supposed to be part of his xmas as 'Santa' is giving them a new bedroom) & I said 'because Santa knows u have been a good boy & that u have been a little scared he agreed that u can get these lights early because he doesn't like it when his good boys get scared' & since then he seems to have been ok, he does still come threw during the night some nights but he hasn't seemed as scared & this morning I got 'Santas lights are working mum I'm not so scared anymore' hopefully this keeps up & he gets over this eventually. He was really beginning to freak me out with it all, the 'ghost' seemed to follow him, he'd see it at his dad's, here & at my mums.

Are you sure the red ghost isn't Santa? Is there something in his room that has Santa on it and he's connected this thing about Santa coming into the house with a ghost idea?

We haven't even got our decorations up yet so I doubt it will be Santa. He's been going on about it for a while so my thinking is he maybe seen something on the run up to Halloween & it spooked him.

I agree to not just do the "it doesn't exist" as it clearly does to him as he keeps seeing it.

If you get him to talk about it and describe it perhaps, maybe you can build on what he says to spin some sort of story about how it is nice, and is there to help him?