4 year old will not sleep in her room

[Red315]

My 4 year old has always been an excellent sleeper. She has been sleeping through the night wince she was 9 weeks. The last few nights she has been refusing to sleep in her room. I try to get her to tell me what is wrong but she can't or won't tell me. She either wants to sleep in my bed or her 18 month old sister's room on the floor. Then she wakes up her little sister and noone sleeps or she winds up in my bed. I am at my wits end. Is this a phase that will pass? What should I do?


This discussion is related to My daughter won't sleep in her bedroom....

[Ryan1231]

My wife and my two children moved into a new much larger home back in April of 2009.  Since that time my 3 year old daughter has not been sleeping at night.  Both my son and my daughter go to bed at 8:00 pm every nite.  My son goes right to sleep but my daughter will not and says that she sees things and that there is a naughty girl that keeps her awake and that she is scared of shadows.  We now leave her bedroom light on, her closet light on along with her tv.  This seemed to work for about a week but now it is worse than ever.  Last night she called for me around 10:00 pm saying that she was scared and wanted to come sleep with daddy.  I brought her into our bed and within minutes she said that she was seeing bad shadows and wanted to back into her room.  I took her back to her room put her back in her bed and within a half an hour she was calling for me again.  I went in a layed down with her but she still would not go to sleep.  This went on until 4:00 am this morning.  When my wife and I got up at 6:00 am this morning we found her lying on her pillow on the floor outside of our bedroom door.  This is pretty much an every night event.  Is this a stage she is going through or could this be something more?  My wife and I are in desperate need of help.  I feel that it is unhealthy for my daughter not getting more than 3 to 4 hours of sleep and its not doing my wife and I any justice either.

[Encephalomalcia]

She is probably going through a scared stage.  It may be something that she had dreamed about or some noise in her room that scared her or it could just be that she is realizing what being scared is like and wants the security of people around to protect her.  It will pass in time.  You will just have to comfort her and make her feel secure and safe again in her own room again.