8 Year Old Is Now Afraid of Sleeping Alone
He has never been a good sleeper, always talking in his sleep, having bad dreams but he did at least sleep in his own room and bed. If he did have a bad dream, he would come to our room and I would take him back to his, cuddle him, pray, tuck him back in and all would be fine. I do sleep in his room when he is sick because his room is at the opposite end of the house and I want him to feel that I am near in case he needs help.
There are no other alternatives for the location of his room and I know he is upset that we are on opposite ends but it's always been that way. I just can't bear to lock him out. Also I often sleep on the couch because my husband and I both have acute health problems and we disturb each other. When I sleep on the couch, I am just outside my son's door yet he still won't stay in his room. He'll sleep on the floor next to the couch. I could survive that but he wakes me up off and on during the night. I've run out of ideas to try.
We've done the night lights, in fact, three of them at once, talking about it, praying, tucking him in with his many stuffed animals, snuggling, a snack before bed, reading wonderful cheery books. He says he's afraid of everything such as the dark, someone breaking in, a fire with our wood stove, and something scary he saw in a movie. We are careful about movies that are not appropriate and we don't have TV.
He has a very high reading and comprehension ability and on occasion he browses the newspaper when it is on the kitchen table. That has plenty of scary stuff. If he hears some thing on the radio he picks up on it right away. He keeps putting on all the lights. I asked him to draw a picture of the things he is afraid of but he says he will just color the paper black. Other than this he is a very happy go lucky, cheerful, high energy, social, extremely talkative, bright little boy with an impossible strong will.
He is a difficult child in that he wants to control everything and we are very often in a power struggle. We work very hard to be consistent with him but he never gives up. I thought he could be manipulating us but I truly believe he is afraid. I am so exhausted I'm at my wits end. Does anyone have any thoughts about this?
Dottie from NY
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