Does a 7 year old sleep regression exist?

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Hi,

Does a 7 year old sleep regression exist?

My 7, almost 8 year old son has recently started to delay bed time, this has never been an issue before until recently. He keeps telling me he is scared to go to sleep but can't tell me why. He keeps saying he doesn't want to be alone. I feel like he is trying everything he can think of to stall bedtime.

This has been going on for a week or two now and I'm at my wits end as bed time is taking much longer than it was and I really don't know what to do, or do we just ride this out and hope for the best?

He is and always has been in a bedtime routine, and nothing has changed at home. I have asked him if anything is going on at school and he has said no.

Anyone any ideas what I can try or what this could be?

Thanks in advance x

I’m right there with you! It has been 3 weeks now and my 7 year old keeps waking up and not wanting to be by himself in bed. Saying he has nightmares. Spoke to GP and he said it is very normal at this age and can last 4 weeks.

Oh wow!!

Very, very common in 7-9yr olds. My 8yr olds is going through it, been 3-4 weeks now. His head teacher said she hears it all the time.

Is it possible he's seen something scary on TV or online?

very normal. They’re starting ti understand the world more (e.g death) and it’s scary. My dd had similar and what worked was putting her to bed, then reassurances that I would ‘check on her’ then I did starting at 1min intervals, then gradually pushing it to 3 minutes and then when I could tell she was getting sleepy I’d push it longer. After doing this (took about 30-40 mins) for a week things got easier.