[Unatheowl]

Dd has recently gone into her big girl's bed and has started to insist that we leave a small lamp on in her room. It isn't very bright and I have found a very low wattage bulb to put in it but it would be bright enough to say, read by. She insists that it is on all night.

If I turn it off whe she is asleep she wakes up and freaks out and either calls us or turns it back on herself. Her reasons are that she is 'scared'. I'm sure that it is mostly attention based. I actually don't mind if she keeps it on all night, it doesn't bother me however I am concerned about the quality of her sleep. she also tends to wake at 5 am and tik that the nights over. She has a Gro clock which she understands how to read so no excuses about not knowing what time it is.

Is there any reason why I should insist she turn it off? Would it affect sleep quality by essentially sleeping every night withi the light on? Perhaps I'm just looking at it from my point of view and I personally wouldn't be able to sleep. Anyone else have a child that insists on this? Any comments would be appreciated.

[Suz01]

Our 2 year old was getting up crying without the little night light. We put a little low volt plug in light that is very soft in her power point and had very few issues with waking now. That's just our experience, as an infant/ toddler she didn't require it. Only since being in toddler bed. My rationale is I'd rather her be able to find us in the night if she has too.

[zibble]

Is the gro clock on the brightest setting?

[DylJayBen's Mum]

My 3 kids have all had night lights. The 2 older ones when they were younger I got some coloured light globes red, green or blue and they just set off a nice glow to the room but were not bright in any way. My youngest 2year old has a night light that we got from bunnings and you plug it into the wall and it changes colours, it is his "magic light" as he started waking every night again and driving us insane until we found it. I don't think that there is anything wrong with it. Whatever works for you guys as a family

[Unatheowl]

Is the gro clock on the brightest setting?

I did try that, because it is really bright but she doesn't seem to like it??! She insists on the little lamp (curse Myself for showing it to her) which is actually a whiter light. The gro clock is a blue light.

[Unatheowl]

Ok thanks for replies. It's just when I check on her it is so bright in there I think surely its affecting the quality of her sleep. We do have small night lights but she doesn't want them. I don't want her lying in the dark freaking out all night and I would rather she can find us/the toilet easier.

[pinkplane]

Both of my girls are terrified of the dark and flatly refuse to sleep without their lamps on.

I don't think it affects their sleep and they don't wake up early from it so it doesn't bother me.

Can you get a lower wattage bulb for your DDs lamp, or a pearl one to make it a softer light?

[Therese]

I don't think there is any harm in leaving it on if it means she sleeps better.

[Tesseract]

In terms of circadian rhythm stuff I would be trying for a low orange light. Orange is the opposite of blue, blue equals sky equals day to our primitive brain.

[caesie'n'linc]

My kids don't like sleeping in complete darkness either
We don't close bedroom doors in our house though so i just leave the toilet light turned on all night. I have the toilet door open completely when they are going to sleep but once they are asleep/when I go to bed then I pull the door almost closed so that just a sliver of light comes out. They can still see the light is on, they can push the door open easily without needing to reach the handle (ours are really high, my 4yr old can only just reach them), but the light doesn't keep me or DH awake.

I don't think there's anything wrong with having a small light on at night. I used to hate complete darkness too, it wasn't until I was about 15yrs old that I could be the last person in the house to go to bed, before that I'd "forget" to turn something off just so I didn't have to be in darkness LOL