kids sleep

My kid is really struggling with sleep. We had a very definite ‘before’ life and now thankfully in our ‘after’ part of life. But he says at night he can’t distract himself from all the memories and feels weird so can’t get to sleep.
He needs me to physically be with him and will only fall asleep in my bed, holding my hand. I then move him to his bed for rest of night, but then he often wakes with nightmares and finds his way back to me.
I have a doctors appt booked for him and we have had support from child mental health team in the past

I guess I’m just looking for some hope from someone else who has been through this, that it gets better over time.

I’m now my kids solo parent and it’s exhausted doing this every night and means I get no time to myself in evening, as it takes over an hour to get him to settle then sleep. I’m then exhausted and then fall asleep soon after him!

It’s so tough to see the effect of years of abuse on your kids. I kind of don’t blame my kid for wanting to be close to me. He says I make him feel safe. I’m just soooooo tired.

Thanks for reading.

I found that keeping bedtime super predictable helped a lot, especially when my child afraid of the dark. What made a real difference for us was adding a soft night light and a short calming story before sleep. I also kept conversations light and reassuring so it didn’t feel like a big scary issue. Small tweaks like that sometimes take the edge off for everyone.