My 7 year old son is scared to sleep in his room. Please help?

[jads1970]

My son is 7 years old and I can not get him to sleep in his room.  I put him to bed in his room and around 3 or 4 am he comes in my room.  My husband or myself ends up staying with him the rest of the night because he keeps coming back into our room.  He is scared of monsters and thinks someone will break into our house; I just don't know where he gets these ideas from.  He checks to make sure the alarm is on at night.  He is not just scared at night it is also in the day as well, he won't go in the basement on his own and he has a hard time going upstairs during the day.  If someone is with him he is fine.  We read together before before bed, so we have some kind of a routine here.  He has always been this way.  Can someone please help me?  I want my son to be confident and well adjusted.


Thanks, Jads

[DeeSquared]

My daughter went through a similar phase.  She was in the 3rd grade.  She was afraid she'd be the last one awake at night, topic of a show she watched without permission.  She would lie awake at night and cry worried she would be the last one awake and something bad would happen.  It lasted for MONTHS.

We tried many things.  I had her think of happy thoughts to wipe out the scary ones.  I would give her something to think about when the scary thoughts came into her head, like plan her next birthday party.  I would help her get started.  I promised to stop by before I went to sleep to check on her, and if she was still awake I'd stay.  Usually she was asleep.  

We had a talk about Jesus being with her, and had her practice the Lord's prayer when she got scared.

We talked with her pediatrician also, and the Dr. suggested making sure she was tired and ready to go to bed before getting in bed.

She eventually got past it, and we have a promise that she will not watch anything that she thinks will creep her out at night.  She is now 13, and still does not watch scary movies.

Good luck.