Bedtime monsters - I'm about to lose my mind!

butterbeansmama

I feel so bad for him and no amount of telling him that there is no such thing is working. I did order a nightlight clock (the one that changes colors at a certain time in the morning) so I'm hoping the light from that will help.

but he has resorted to sleeping with the sheet over his head. He will wake up from a nightmare all sweaty and hot from having the sheet over his head. I am now turning the ceiling fan in his room on low and changed his sheets from flannel to very thin cotton.

I did tell him that I would keep the door to his room open halfway until he falls asleep, (I have a nightlight in the bathroom up there that with his door open shines somewhat in his room), that seemed to help a little bit tonight, but he is still waking in the middle of the night from bad dreams.

I hope this is one phase that passes quickly.

*MirrorMirror*

Are they in the closet or under the bed or something?

Put one of his toy heroes in front of the closet (or wherever) and tell him it will protect him.

butterbeansmama

funny you should mention "toy heroes". He is obsessed with superheroes right now and the new sheets that I just put on today are superhero sheets. He is currently sleeping on a pillow case of Captain America...lol. They don't seem to calm him though (even though I have mentioned that they will protect him). I just don't want to make a big deal of "protecting" because I don't want to give him any idea that there are monsters, kwim?

He doesn't say where they are. He just says, "it's very dark in here" and wants one of us to sleep with him (which I'm not willing to do, since that will have to stop eventually). If he wakes up again tonight, I will turn on the lights and ask him where the monsters are and show him every inch of his room.

buffalo_buckeye

Sorry . We are going through a very fearful stage right now too. I know you don't want to play into his belief, but I'm sure to him they are real (at least his fear is real). Hopefully the clock will help, but I agree with maybe leaving a light on and giving him some "power" over them like the water spray or one of those foam swords or something? Hope he passes through this phase quickly too!

femmegem

Personally, I wouldn't worry so much about sending him a message that there are monsters. He believes there are to the point he's sleeping with the covers over his head.

It's a phase, he'll get through it, but it sounds like just telling him there aren't monsters isn't really comforting him, so why not try getting some "monster spray" or giving him a stuffed animal to help protect him?

DS now sleeps with a small lamp on in his room. It's one with three levels of lighting, so we leave it on the lowest level (the dimmest) and that's really helped him. He also has a huge stuffed husky (in sig pic) that he sets up to watch over him sometimes. Most nights he's fine now and seems not to worry about them.

His class also read the story Abiyoyo about a month or so ago and they did a whole unit on it. It's about a monster who terrorizes a village until a boy lulls him with a ukelele and his father, who's a magician, makes him disappear with his wand. Maybe you could introduce him to the story (if you google Abiyoyo you'll see a YouTube video of Pete Seeger singing it) and have him make a magic wand of his own that he can take to bed to "zoop" monsters away.

Just some thoughts. I hope something helps him!

butterbeansmama

He already sleeps with a lovey and isn't really attached to any other stuffed animals that he has.

I will try the superhero watching over him trick and hope that the clock nightlight will help him too. He does have one of those foam swords. Maybe I could introduce that at bedtime as well.

Thanks girls!