Posted by DMan on October 26, 2008 at 00:06:59:Hey, I thought I'd post a description of my own sleep issues as a child (age 4-10ish) and what they felt like, to try as best I can to give a child's perspective. I was afraid of sleeping in the dark and sleeping alone, and I also was very anxious about the idea of not getting enough sleep, or having a sleepless night. My parents did all sorts of things to try to help me get over this, but ultimately I think I just had to grow out of it. Nothing they did made much of a difference while this was going on. I often felt compelled to wake my parents up, looking for comfort, but afterward would feel horribly guilty for disturbing them. Also, without any basis in reality, I would start to think they would hate me forever (very scary thought for a child) on those nights when I deprived them of a good night's sleep. In general, I'd get very emotional during these nights and I'd have strong emotional reactions (characterized by crying) to silly things. I remember one instance of this involving a Super Mario Brothers poster in my room, where I looked at whatever character Mario had just defeated and felt bad for it (reading this now actually makes me chuckle a bit). Thinking back, I think I associated the defeated, drunken-looking character with how I anticipated I would feel in the morning (I was also anticipating feeling this way alone, without the support of my parents -- again a terrifying thought for a 7-year-old). Of course, in reality I was perfectly fine in the morning and by ten o'clock, I'm sure I had been reassured by my parents that they still loved me. Anyway, I don't know if this is useful to anyone, but I will say that I got through it and I'm now a well-adjusted young adult in graduate school without sleeping hangups.