Fear of the dark

[Rosie1507]

We want to know what to do about our 6 year old daughters fear of the dark.  She has been afraid of the dark for a long time but it has gotten worse lately.  We just moved to  a new home.  She has her own room but it is a jack and jill meaning that there is a bathroom and closet between her room and her  twin brothers room.  Now she needs to have not only all the lights on in her room but the bathroom and closet too and the doors to all open (after she falls asleep I turn off all but one light and close doors enough so that the light doesn't shine in her eyes but that she can see she's safe).  She refuses to do this before bed time (she'll open doors and  turn on lights after I leave) even if it's light in  her room without turning on the lamps before she actually feels asleep.  We don't know what to do.  We want to resolve this before school starts so that she gets the quality sleep she needs to be successful in school.

[margypops]

I agree with binsay, and also let her have the lights on its okay, there is some anxiety make sure nothing new has come up to concern her have you chatted to her about her fears, a lot oif children go through this phase, maybe if you done make an Issue of it it may help. Just accept the phase and relax.

[binxay]

Ok, listen, phobias of the dark can have to do with more than just fearing the dark itself, it can have to do with stress which is hard for some parents to understand, but children do get stressed! Even in the summer. Okay, so 6 isn't really very old and lots of 6 year olds are scared of the dark. I was too and a lamp didn't help me, I had to leave all the lights on. My sleep was fine, and I got all A's in school so leaving the lights on isn't really bad except for the whole enviroment thing. Try getting her an mp3 player or something that plays the music she likes. If she's not focused on the dark it probably won't scare her as bad and she can fall asleep to her music. I think young kids like disney music, so yeah, try that.