Jayden has a very active imagination and, therefore, so are his dreams. We've got him sleeping somewhat in his bed but the ceiling light needs to be on, his tv, etc.

He's scared of his room, scared to go to the bathroom on his own even in daytime, and on it goes.

He will either crawl into bed with us in the middle of the night or wake me and it's bad enough I am getting disrupted sleep because of Chase too.

I know this is a stage that many kids go through but does anyone have any tips?

My kids have both gone through "phases" of being a pain at night.

We tend to be quite strict about them coming to bed with us now. (OH is disabled and squirmy kids kicking him causes problems).

It means sleepless nights, but we stayed up with them until they were ready to go back to bed. (Even if we let them come to our bed for a snuggle, they always go back to their own bed to sleep).

My DD went through having nightmares for a while (apprently the BFG was cross with her and giving her bad dreams) so I did sleep in her bed with her for an hour or two so she felt comforted in her own bed. (I wanted her to feel safe in her own room, rather than our bed.)

I think once you set that boundary kids decide they have to learn to cope. Sounds horrible, but if you keep giving into your heart and letting them have their way they keep taking advantage.

The few times we did used to let them in with us, they would immediately try it again the following night.

We still have a nightlight for them (They are 6 & 4) but they aren't allowed to watch TV for the last half hour before bed. I read somewhere it stimultes the subconscious and they won't sleep well. That rule also seems to help a bit as well.

telling him story will help dealing that problem.

board games and good books will always be a good alternative too.

my Cole does this too, shes 6 also, wont go to the loo on her own unless i leave the door downstairs open and she can hear me, wont play upstairs on her own, wont stay in the bath upstairs if her big sister isnt up there and has just started a new thing:

she wants me to bin all the bratz out of their room because she had a dream that they come to life and get you she also asked me for a dream catcher so im gettin her one of them, if she has it in her head that it will work then odds are it will (placebo effect eh)

not binnin the bratz, they have over 100 between them, and houses,cars etcetc cost a bomb and the eldest would kill me lol

i think the dream catcher ^ is a good idea to try x

Sorry i cant help ... but its nice to know that its somthing normal that other 6 year olds are going through!

My 6 (nearly 7) year old is fine at night because she shares a room with her little sister but she wont go to the loo on her own ... she wont NOT flush the toilet (i ask her not to if the babys sleeping in the next room) because shes "scared not to flush" but cant say why!
She seems to have quite a few little peculiarities so its nice to know shes not alone with it xxx

Well, the only thing that helps so far is leaving his light on in his bedroom (gosh, it's like daytime in there at night) and letting him bring the puppy to bed. He's been waking up the past few nights because of dreams so between that, Chase and Amanda having a bad dream this week and all waking me up in the middle of the night, the start of my week has been crap.

I have just come in here to post about this! My 7yr old DS for the past two nights has sleepwalked into the living room and then DP puts him back to bed and a bit later he comes back awake this time and mumbles a bit and then i walk him back to bed..when he sleepwalks he talks too, yesterday he wanted 'to fix the thing so he can play' and tonight it was 'i want the bigger one'..then when i just took him back to bed when he came in awake i asked of it was dreams and he said they were dreams but he doesnt know what, yet when he comes in when awake he seems quite scared..so i went and got myself all worked up!
He used to sleepwalk a couple of years ago but then stopped, i dont want it to start again as i worry about him leaving the house when he does it as i did this myself a child.. :s Im hoping its a phase that will last a couple of days or i think i will take him the DRs in a couple of days and see what they say..for i am a neurotic mother lol

well the dream catcher is working for my girllie lol when the heating comes on in the morning it makes it move so i told her that its moving because it caught the bad dream and its stopping it from escaping

much better at night now

i just found out this morning that my 7 year old is having nightmares about being cut open by a man. He said he finds its very hard to go back to sleep. we wondered why he hasnt been sleeping very well for the last couple of weeks. How on earth can we stop this as we said where did he see something like this and he said his m8 at school drew a picture of him being cut up by a man which is ridiculous coz we arent ever gona be able to censor a kids drawing

we are very careful about what we let him watch but it appears they still find a way round it. I really dont want him having these nightmares and want to be able to help him. OH has taken a different view on this and is angry with DS which i know DS cant help what he dreams but OH still cant get over that he is having nightmares and not going back to sleep because of a picture another child has drawn. so you can imagine the atmosphere in my house

If anyone has any ideas please help