My 8 Year Old Suddenly Won't Sleep

What changed in the last 2 weeks?? Did she sleep over at someones house that might have shown a scary movie?? Is she saying she's having nightmares?? Are you and hubby fighting in front of her?? Has anything tragic happened in her cirlce of family or friends? I'd start asking her questions to see what's bothering her. Maybe you two go have a girls lunch so it's personal and private with out dad.... I always opened up to my mom after a day of bonding.

If it is nightmares, try playing kid music or storys on cd (storynory.com has some that can be downloaded and wrote to cd) and put a cd player on repeat to play all night. This might distract her mind from her fears.

My dad made a very poor choice when I was kid, allowing my brother, age 6 at the time, to see part of The Shining (.... ????... Dad, what were you thinking???).

Anyway, my brother literally had nightmares for over a year after that. Having sleep in the bed wasn't an option for my parents either. My mom ended up setting up a sleeping bag next to her side of the bed and when my brother got too scared or woke up scared, he could come and lay on/in the sleeping bag next to Mom and he'd reach up and hold her hand until he fell back asleep.

If you and your DH both work, try to split up the work of dealing with it, and definitely do talk about it in the morning. You might also want to leave a low light on, so that she when she wakes up its not dark and scary. Is she old enough that she could write down her dreams? Sometimes writing them down, especially right after she wakes up, can help make them less real, and also help her remember them so she can talk to you about them later.

This may sound morbid, but I remember that at about that age I started to really grasp the concept of life and DEATH. It was scary to talk about, as well, so for a while I didn't want to tell my mom what was scaring me.
Just an idea,
R.

You need to have a conversation with her during the day.
Also there is nothing wrong with telling her you really need to be able to sleep at night, so you 2 need to figure out how to solve this.
Have her tell you what she feels like when she wakes up.

I do think some kids go through bad dreams. They can come in clusters.
Usually they are triggered by something. An event, worry, imagination.

What has changed? Is she getting ready for school? How was her school at the end o f the last school year? Does she have friends? Is she worried she will not know anyone in her class? Is she a perfectionist that worries a lot?

Also I noticed that sometimes,when our daughter was about to go through a growing spurt she would have a few bad dreams.

My mother told me that whenever I had a bed dream to roll over. The dreams would go away. It worked great.

Our daughter used dream coins since she was little, but your daughter may be too old for them. You place a coin under your pillow and it takes the bad dreams away.

Our daughter also had a CD player with music or books on CD that helped her calm down and feel safe.

DO NOT ALLOW HER IN YOUR BED!

If you are married, have your husband take turns so it does not always fall on you. He can say, "Mommy needs to sleep, she is exhausted"

Talk to her during the day. Maybe she is having nightmares. I know that my son, 6, can see something on TV and interpret something totally different then what is going on. I am not married so I can have a special night that my son and I have a sleep over. He wants to sleep with me every night but that is not an option. I always rubbed my kids' back when they had a bad dream. I used to have a radio playing in my son's room when he was younger and when scary music was playing he would have bad dreams. Maybe you can play with her during the day and find out what is going on.