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4 yrs old and terrified at night

2 replies

Northofthebordermum · 18/09/2023 10:26

Completely broken here after weeks of interrupted sleep from my 4 year old.

He's been waking up in the night for months now and coming into our bed. I put up with it for the last 12 weeks or so as frankly I was too tired to put him back in his room. However i can't get a decent nights sleep with him in bed next to me. So the last two nights my husband and i have been taking it in turns to put him back in his bedroom.

But he's waking up literally 5/6 times during the night! When we put him back in his room, unless we lie with him until he goes back to sleep (which can take up to 20mins), he cries and screams and says he's scared until we give in (we also have a 1 year old and he keeps waking him up). He's a fairly sensitive, imaginative child and he just seems utterly terrified of being on his own.

I really don't want to give him long term anxiety but equally i need sleep...He doesn't watch much tv and only Cbeebies/julia donaldson stuff. Any advice?? I'm debating getting a camp bed which can go in our room for him to sleep on, but that feels like i might be making a rod for my own back. how can i get him to stop being so scared, stop him constantly waking up and get him to stay in his own room??

OP posts:
hdbs17 · 18/09/2023 11:16

You need to find out what it is he's scared of.

Is it just being alone?

Is he imagining things in his room?

Is it the dark?

Anothernamechangeee · 18/09/2023 11:18

Have you got a nightlight? That absolutely solved it for ours. We got a colour changing one and she chooses the colour before bed. Was waking 3-4 times a night before and started sleeping through when we put it in

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