Question: My 6 year old son has to have someone sit with him to go to sleep at night, otherwise all hell breaks loose. I know this is probably our fault … and I know that I was exactly the same as a kid (now 44). Some nights he will sleep through the night no probs … but many nights he gets up and wakes us saying he can’t sleep, we send him back to his room … sometimes this works and sometimes he switches on the hall, bathroom and his bedroom lights. One night I found him camping on the floor outside our bedroom door with pillow, quilt and blanket.
It all brings back so many memories … the first time I remember getting consecutive good nights sleep was when I was pregnant at 38 years old. I spent many of my teenage years crying half the night because I couldn’t sleep, reading books to all hours and on occasion I got no sleep at all. I am convinced that I do need at least 6-8 hrs a night but that is me living in fantasy land. I know teenagers hormones can play a big part in their sleep patterns but my problems stemmed from early childhood to the present day. A lot of my issues when I was a child where I didn’t like the dark so the hall light was left on for me all night, I wanted company .. I didn’t like to be by myself and used to sneak into my parents
bed in the middle of the night (I had this down to a fine art without wakening anyone, most of the time). I continued this behaviour until I was about 12-13 years old.I remember as a teen laughing hysterically about really silly things … and I put this down to exhaustion. On the whole I am absolutely certain this all affected my school work and other areas of my life. I was never taken to see a doc or anything … just suck it up and get on with it. In my late teen years I had to teach myself that it was ok not to sleep otherwise i was going to drive myself demented. Once I fell pregnant at 38 I slept like a baby it was fantastic and for the first one or 2 years after – I slept reasonably well. Now 6 years later I definitely sleep better than my younger years but often if junior wakens me through the night it takes on average 2 hours before I get back to sleep.I see my son going the same way as me and really want to help him but don’t know how. I know his issue is like mine was he doesn’t like being on his own … so quite often I get up and get in beside him just to try to ensure that he gets some decent sleep… probably not the right answer but if it stops him being like I was … I’ll do anything try to help him. Jxx