[BetteBoop]

Settle an argument between my DH and I.

He has an fixation on getting our 5yo DD to stop sleeping with a nightlight on in her room.

He read some stupid article about how kids with emotional problems are frightened of the dark, and now he thinks we should be encouraging her to sleep in the dark.

I think it's developmentally normal for young kids to be scared of the dark and she will have the light off when she's ready.

So, what do your kids do at night. Lights on or off?

[leosmum]

Nightlights. And sometimes my 4 year old even falls asleep with his lamp on - the horror!! I'm on your side, OP.

[4boysandme]

Mine would never go to sleep if a light was on! We don't leave any lights on overnight, but we live in the city so outside is always an orange glow and never very dark.

[bakesgirls]

I'm a lights off person. My kids have been fine with it so far, they haven't really known any different.

[Gegemite]

My kids have a night light/string lights on as they fall asleep, I turn them off when I go to bed. They're fine if they wake up in the dark though.

[Kat5]

No lights. Our kids have never slept with night-lights or lights on so that's all they really know.

They have reading lamps that they keep on until they're done reading or we tuck them in for the night.

I think at the age of 5 their imagination really takes off and it could become very easy to become scared of the dark/monsters/strangers/robbers etc. I dont think keeping a light on is going to harm their emotional/psychological well-being . I would be more inclined to keep it as an external hall light or something though, so they dont feel dependant on it, if that makes sense .

[JJ]

My kids both like the light off, but if they wanted a nightlight I would happily provide one, or leave the light on if necessary.

I agree that being scared of the dark is a stage many kids go through. I remember it well from when I was little.

[Cheryl_v]

My 13 year old can sleep with his light off but usually has his bedside lamp on all night. My girls won't sleep with their door shut so they get ambient light from the hallway. My 12 year old does sleep with the light off and the door shut but always turns the toilet light on as that room is just outside his bedroom. Personally I like it to be darker than dark when I go to sleep, I went through a stage of sleeping with an eyemask on when I lived in one house with a streetlight right outside my bedroom. It's obviously very personal and changes over time.

[Team Awesome]

My kids aged 8.5, almost 7, 5 and 2 all currently have a night light (it's from kmart looks like a mini lamp and even has an on /off switch) and I get more sleep for it.

Without them I'd get interrupted multiple times a night by each of them, they'd take ages to go to sleep and DD3 was coming in to sleep in with me. So light on house here. I also give their chosen bed toy of the night a big hug and "fill it with love" when I say good night, don't know if it's placebo effect as I introduced this idea the same week as we put the night lights back in but so far so good. Now to just retrain my body that it can get sleep so it should

[SeaPrincess]

We leave the bathroom light on. This way, if someone gets up to go to the loo, I don't have to get up as well.

R