Let me begin by saying that ever since DS was an infant he had difficulty settling down at night. Sometimes he would be awake until the wee hours of the morning and I would nurse him for hours on end desperately trying to get him to relax.
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Now, at 6 (almost 7) he still has difficulty falling asleep. I cosleep with him and his younger brother. He has an unusual fear of the dark and being alone. Not that the fear is unusual, but the intensity definately is. If I tell him I have to go to the bathroom he will grab onto me and go to the bathroom with me. Even during the day if I am in the kitchen, so is he. If he wants a toy, he will ask someone to come with him and will cry if I ask him to go alone (say if everyone is in the middle of something). He won't even go to the bathroom alone in the day. He has told me that once he had a bad dream about Woody (Toy Story) "peeking" at him and that he feels scared now.
But he certainly didn't feel scared of Woody when he was younger, but still the same fear of being alone.
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Now, we have a very loooong bedtime routine to try to get him to unwind. We read chapter books and oodles of picture books. Sometimes he reads to me and then I read some more to him. Most of the time I fall asleep before him and he is still tossing and flopping around. Ever since he was 2 he has been doing something that appears to be masturbating, although I'm not sure if that is actually what he is doing. It. drives. me. nuts.
I have tried music, but he says it makes him feel like crying. We have a fan or a white-noise machine on every night that seems to help a little bit. He sleeps from about 11 or 11:30 until 8-ish in the morning and spends the days being emotionally explosive.
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I am wondering about trying a nice organic tea for him to sip...or aromatherapy. Something to just help him relax. He just has such a hard time winding down, laying still and relaxing. I have tried massage, but it just makes him giggle.
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He comes by this honestly. As a child I would go to bed at 7:30pm and lay there until after 11pm when my parents went to bed. Then I would be sooo tired in the morning and my parents just figured I had to go to bed earlier!!
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It would be fine if DS would just sleep in in the morning. We homeschool, so he can sleep as late as he wants, but I have to get up because I work from home and I have to start at 7:30am. So he usually wakes up shortly after, sees I'm not there and screams out "MAMA!!! MAMA!! MAMA!!! MAMA!!!" and then he is awake for the day. I feel like he is not getting enough sleep.
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Any tips?
