Reply to 13 yo DD afraid to sleep alone

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[quote=Anonymous]....and no, there's been no traumatic experiences.  Ironically, she's my NT child but I'm posting here because it's now gotten to the point where it's impacting her ADL and because the posters on this forum typically have more constructive suggestions.  I'm sure you know what I mean! :lol:

DD has slept alone since about age 9.  Prior to that, she shared a room with her brothers.  At first, it was because we only had a 2 bedroom place.  Then, it was by choice.  When she was 9, she had an accident and needed care that would have been disruptive to her brothers so we put her in the extra bedroom.  She was fine with that and once she was better, she decided she wanted her own room.  That was fine with us as we knew the day would come when the girl would be separated from the boys.

DD has never liked being in the basement by herself (even though it's only 4 feet under grade) but that's pretty typical.  But, about 2 months ago, she developed this fear of sleeping alone.  She said it was caused after she watched a scary movie and it freaked her out.  No big deal, I thought, she can take the little dog to sleep with her or she can sleep in her brothers' room.  She said the little dog doesn't help (but still takes the dog with her to sleep) and she said sleeping in her brothers' room won't help. They're too 'oblivious'.  We also have a very large dog and we talk about the fact that he would take down anyone that tried coming into the house.  She acknowledges that but she's still scared.  A few times, DH or I would stay in her room until she fell asleep but she still insists that the light be on - and I'm not talking about a nightlight.  I'm talking about a light bright enough you can read by it.

We have excellent sleep hygiene - no screen time 2 hours before bed, no caffeine after 3:00, good exercise, good diet, consistent bedtime/wake up, takes Benedryl and melatonin before bed, does a mindfulness exercise before bed, etc.  Intellectually, she knows this is irrational and I believe this is a form of anxiety (which her brothers have, just not about sleep) and it's getting worse.  She's not getting enough sleep and the sleep she is getting isn't good quality.   How do I help her?[/quote]

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