DC wants lights on to sleep?

[MamaSnoo]

Part of the problem is I am a sucker, and I have not been putting my foot down on this one at all. We have had so many sleep issues, I am just happy she is sleeping!

But, DD wants to sleep with the overhead light on. It has a dimmer, and is probably about 20W when dimmed all the way down. We have tried a nightlight, but not adequate to her. If she wakes up in the middle of the night and finds that I turned it off, she sobs, and someone has to go back and turn it on. She is almost 3.

Anyone with a similar situation?

Is it ok for me to just let this one go?

Other ideas for how to deal with it?

[shawnandangel]

DD LOVES Twilight turtle. She can pick the color of the stars (blue, amber or green) and it looks so pretty on her ceiling at night. She likes for the moon to be right over her head! It has an automatic timer so it will turn off 40 minutes after being turned on. We've had ours since Christmas and have used it every night. Still on first set of batteries.

DD was wanting us to leave her light on at night before Twilight turtle and I would have to sneak back in the room and turn off the light after she fell asleep. Now she starts telling me what color she wants her stars as soon as we start getting ready for bed.

http://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Twilight-Constellation-Night-Turtle/dp/B000BNQC58/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296190190&sr=8-1

[ellies mom]

Let her keep the light on. If she is sleeping, go with it. I wouldn't even bother turning it off after she falls asleep. My oldest is seven and she still likes to fall asleep with her bedside light on. I just let her. We have the twilight turtle. The youngest loves it but it wasn't enough for the oldest.

[elephantmeg]

we have LED christmas lights in the kid's room. It works for both of us and it's enough light to see what is going on when DD is crying, take DS potty or for them to "read" a few min after bed!

[wellyes]

If she sleeps with the lights on, I don't see why not.
I have the turtle, maybe I'd give that a shot first if I were you. It's an amazon baby item, so you get to return it for free (they pay shipping) if you don't like it.

I remember reading a study that linked light exposure at night to health problems-- but that's ANY light exposure at all, including night lights. Or even just opening the fridge door to get a snack. It is not something I would worry about.

[Indianamom2]

DD is 6.5 She goes through phases with needing the lights (in varying degrees) on and off, but usually on.

Up until very recently, she had to have some lamp-type light on all night or she would wake up very upset.

We have used, with good success, very dim light bulbs in her lamp, Christmas lights strung around the ceiling of her room (until they died!), nightlights and right now, a combo of something akin to the twighlight turtle and complete darkness.

I think whatever helps a poor sleeper sleep is just fine. Lights were the least of our worries when it came to sleep!

[lablover]

My DS (7) has to have the lights on also. I think he was around 4 when the nightlight was not enough anymore. I tried two nightlights and that didn't work. We installed a dimmer switch and I put it down really low once he is asleep. If he gets up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night he will turn it all the way up before he gets back into bed. We just go with it these days.

ETA: We met with a psychologist a couple of years ago for some severe social anxiety he was experiencing at the time and I had mentioned the light thing and she suggested putting lines on the dimmer (start off with pretty high lines) and rewarding him when he was able to go through the night without raising the switch above the line. Then reward for going a stretch of time. Then lower the line gradually until you get to the point you are aiming for. Obviously your DD is not old enough for this tactic, but it's something to think about in the future. As I said, for now we are just going with it - I will probably attempt this method sometime in the future.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Both of my kids sleep with the light on, at least till they fall asleep. we would turn them off when we went to bed. For a long while ds1 would wake up crying in the middle of the night if he woke to find his light off (most nights) so we stopped caring- sleep was sleep. Ds2 will just get up and turn his lamp back on in the middle of the night. Both only sleep with a small lamp on, not much light.

Beth

[MamaSnoo]

Thanks for all the support. I have no heard about this much from my friends IRL, so it is good to know DD is not the only kid like this. She will not tolerate having it turned out when she is asleep; she wakes up sobbing for someone to turn it on.

The dimmer on the light does go down really low, but it is still directly overhead. I am going to look into some of the ideas here and try to do something that seems a little less direct (and a little dimmer if she will let me get away with it!)

Thanks again!

[army_mom]

DD also has the twilight lady bug and has recently requested we leave her nightstand light on. We have a red light bulb in the lamp so it isn't overly bright and lets her sleep with light but not harsh light if she wakes up in the middle of the night. I used to go in and turn it off but she didn't like that when she woke up in the middle of the night (and she often does but will put herself back to sleep) so we decided that was a battle she could win!

We have had her twilight lady bug for almost 2 years now and have only changed batteries maybe 3-4 times so not bad with the battery drain.

[randomkid]

DD was also not a good sleeper and it takes her a long time to settle down at night. She was probably around 3 when she wanted more light in her room at night. Prior to that, we used a small night light. I think what happens is that they become more fearful as they get older. DD was afraid of all the shadows and imagined all kinds of things in her room. I found having more light on eliminated all of that. She can now see what everything is and doesn't get scared like she used to. We have a small lamp on her chest of drawers and I put a 15 watt bulb in it. It is dim, but lights up the whole room because it is a lamp, not a nightlight. I figure if she needs a light to sleep, fine by me. At least she's sleeping!