DS6 has been having a terrible time falling asleep, staying asleep, and going back to sleep after he wakes up in the middle of the night. For the past year or so, he has slept face down in one of his baby blankets, with a top sheet wrapped tightly around his head and shoulders and tucked in all around him to protect him from monsters. Now, this position is no longer comfortable to him, but he refuses to go to bed any other way. When he can't sleep, he panics and and cries out for us. We've tried talking to him, sitting with him, letting him cry it out, letting him sit up and read, but nothing seems to help. The one night we let him read at 4 am, he never went back to sleep and was of course exhausted the next day. Because we can't make him sleep, by the end of the night everyone in the family is frustrated, angry and exhausted.
Any suggestions for how to deal with monsters, stubbornly-held bedtime rituals that are no longer working, or general anxiety about sleep? This is one phase that needs to be short-lived.
