asd child problems with sleeping in the dark

[knat]

dd is now 5 and was always great about sleeping in the dark until about 2 years ago. Since then we have tried various things usually main light on all night on dimmer although this was resulting in her waking in the night (a problem that we go through generally and then not going back to sleep for 3 hours or at all). We've tried a lamp at the other end of her room which works ok but she's reallyh complainng of being scared of the shadows that the lamp gives off - so she's scared of the dark and scared of the lamps!!!!! Bedtime is becoming pretty awful again with th elight issue (she loves teh dark outside but not in her room) anyone got any ideas. Part of me thinks go strong and put no light on but i don't want to upset her if her fear is real!

We have a fibre optic star in ds's room, it's bright enough to see the room, pretty enough to be calming but dim enough not to wake them up.
Any good?

If you look here there is a picture of the box (being opened by DS, lol) I can find out where MiL got it from if you like?

do you have it instead of the main light? More importantly does it cast shadows? if you can let me know where it was from tht would be great thanks

We have a lava lamp in DS2's room. That doesn't cast shadows (I don't think - will look carefully tonight) although it gives off quite a lot of light. She may or may not like the "lava" effect, though.

ds uses a christmas light with lots of little star shaped led lights from Ikea it is bright enough to see once dark adapted but doesnt cast any bright shadows. It plugs in and is hooked to the ceiling above the bed. I guess it could move in a draft which might be disturbing but ds is in a draft free possition. We leave the main light on till he is asleep if required. He also has a low wattage (cool bulb) lamp he can control but he was about 6 before we put this in for him. On holiday we always take a couple of nightlights but frankly they are a bit too dim to see by.

My DS has an illuminated globe - it is so diffuse it does not cast shadows - it also taps into one of his interests.

We used to have to leave his main light on, but he has chosen to leave his globe on instead by choice.

Its real trial and error - good luck

dd2 the same but not asd. she slept in the dark until she stayed at grandmas for 2 nights and came back petrified of the dark. ho hum.
literally screaming and hurling herself headlong along the corridor to find light (dd2 has cp and hurling herself anywhere is fairly problematic lol)
we just did it gradually.
had a few setbacks along the way (two powercuts in the middle of the night, to which she awoke and found blackness - you can imagine how much fun that was) and then spent a month each time crying before she went to bed in case there was powercut lol. battery powered light also ran out one night...
as is said, we just did it gradually, using slightly less bright lights every couple of months and darkened it gradually. we are now down to a very dim baby monitor light and a plug in night light outside the open bedroom door. this is currently ok as long as the door is wide open, but if it ajar or closed we have the same screaming and hurling out of bed trying to escape routine...
fwiw we did try hardball a couple of times, but it soooooo isn't worth it with some of our kids x

dd2 also 5 and scared of the dark since 3 lol...

the moon light from ikea goes close enough to the wall not to cast shadows btw... it was one of the ones we used along the way...

Or a really low wattage overhead bulb, if you can get one. I was exactly the same - would be petrified witless by the dark or unexplained shadows. Er, still am.

my little boy has a fishy light, its like a fish icture roating around with a plastic cover that has riples on so it looks kind of like they are swimming, not sure where it was from though but its bright enough for him, no shadows and nto easily broken -he has thrown it and allsorts and its fine! will look on ebay and see if i can find one the same and put a link on for you to show you what i mean!

cgi.ebay.co.uk/REVOLVING-FISH-AQARIUM-LIGHT_W0QQitemZ220342574270QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_HomeGa rdenLightingLampsLightingSM?hash=item220342574270&trksid=p3286.c0.m14&trkparms=72%3A1296%7C66% 3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318 its the same kind of thing as this except ours is flat and wider like a rectangle not a tube/cone shape. we also have lava lamps, fibre optic ones, glitter lamps, a rpojector, etc etc all as i have tried to make his room like a sensory room!

what about looking at the baby type ones where its anightlight and you can take the top bit off to make a torch?

cgi.ebay.co.uk/REVOLVING-FISH-AQARIUM-LIGHTW0QQitemZ220342574270QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUKHomeGardenLight ingLampsLightingSM?hash=item220342574270&trksid=p3286.c0.m14&trkparms=72%3A1296%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A 12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

maybe this will work now - sorry im no good at links! or if not its ebay item number 220342574270!