How to get a toddler to sleep alone without hours of bedtime battles
Children suddenly developing intense bedtime anxiety and refusing to sleep alone forces parents to spend one to two hours lying in bed just to get them to sleep. This exhausting process drags bedtime out late and disrupts the entire household's rest, leaving parents sleep-deprived and struggling to manage work the next day.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- Most of it landed at once — the busiest month was September 2026, with 8 people.
- It is not one crowd: 9 people on Reddit and 1 on Stack Exchange ran into the same thing.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Leaving the room briefly and returning after a little bit, increasing the time away over several nightsDid this help you?
- 2Sitting in a chair in the room and gradually moving it further away from the bed each nightDid this help you?
- 3Asking the child why they are afraidDid this help you?
- 4Establishing regular evening rituals like reading a book and giving a goodnight hugDid this help you?
- 5Using praise, encouragement, reward charts, or challenges for sleeping aloneDid this help you?
- 6Sitting with the child until they fall asleep and then sneaking outDid this help you?
- 7Using a timer method to gradually space apart check-insDid this help you?
- 8Using nightlights or monster spray to address fearsDid this help you?
- 9Staying in the child's room until they fall asleep, resulting in lengthy two-hour bedtimes.Did this help you?
- 10Staying in the child's room for an hour to an hour and a half until they fall asleepDid this help you?
- 11Using a bedtime routine involving games, stories, a nightlight, and a story boxDid this help you?
- 12Returning to the room to stay until the child falls back asleep if they wake up and find the parent goneDid this help you?
- 13Laying with the child in bed until they fall asleepDid this help you?
- 14Co-sleeping or setting up a pallet on the bedroom floor for the childDid this help you?
- 15Using 'monster spray' or room spray to clear the roomDid this help you?
- 16Giving the child protective objects like a special toy, glow-in-the-dark bracelet, or guard-duty stuffed animalsDid this help you?
- 17Sleeping in the same bed with the childrenDid this help you?
- 18Putting children in a bed together and gradually phasing out parental presenceDid this help you?
- 19Transitioning children to shared rooms or pushing twin beds togetherDid this help you?
- 20Continuing to cosleep and nurse to sleep until the child naturally grows out of itDid this help you?
- 21Using a floor bed in the child's room and having a parent sleep on a separate mattress nearby to ease the transitionDid this help you?
- 22Nightweaning while continuing to cosleepDid this help you?
- 23Gradually increasing intervals of leaving the room and returning to check inDid this help you?
- 24Using specific bedtime warnings and consistent tuck-in routines with stuffed animalsDid this help you?
- 25Singing a final goodnight song as a cue that the parent is leavingDid this help you?
- 26Roleplaying sleep routines with dolls or stuffies during the dayDid this help you?
- 27Providing a special bedtime-only stuffed animal scented with the parentDid this help you?
- 28laying with the toddler on a floor bed to help them fall asleepDid this help you?
- 29Full-on laying down and cuddling the child until they fall asleepDid this help you?
- 30Allowing the child to get into the parents' bed in the middle of the nightDid this help you?
- 31Using a reward system like a treasure box after consecutive days of independent sleepDid this help you?
- 32Sitting in a chair in the room as a transitional step instead of laying next to themDid this help you?
- 33Putting a twin mattress on the floor next to the parents' bed for the child to useDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My 6 almost 7 year old still needs us to put him to sleep at night like full on lay down and cuddle him.”source ↗
“He almost always wakes up in the middle of the night and gets into our bed.”source ↗
“So tonight, we set it up for him to go to sleep on his own and he starts crying saying he’s not ready and does not want to. I couldn’t just leave the room with him crying. But I also feel defeated and hopeless”source ↗
“waking up with a 6 year on top of you or Thor foot on your face is making sleep difficult”source ↗
“My daughter has been preoccupied with “monsters” in her room at night for a while now. The past couple weeks she will wake up screaming and crying a few times a week, for one of us to come lay with her in bed, she will turn on the light at 1-2am and struggle to fall back asleep for hours sometimes.”source ↗
“I wish I could just cosleep with her, because it’s precious, but it doesn’t seem to be the best for either of us. She keeps me awake all night, gets up extra early, and then she struggles to sleep solo even more.”source ↗
“She’s 4 and we moved and things seem to have shifted where she can’t be alone in any room in the house. Most importantly, she won’t go to sleep without someone in her room.”source ↗
“My son is 6 and I have a lot of issues when it comes to bedtime and sleeping. Bedtime has always been a struggle but it just seems to be getting worse.”source ↗
“I've never been able to leave the room once I've put him to bed, I've got to stay in the room until he's sound asleep before I can even think about leaving.”source ↗
“He needs a lot of reassurance that I'm there and that I'm not leaving him. If he wakes and I've gone there's major panic, he gets upset, I've got to stay until he's asleep again.”source ↗
“Have left it too long, being beside her until she falls asleep since she was a baby.”source ↗
“I have been trying to leave her to sleep herself after we read a story but she gets very upset and it's very hard to talk any kind of reassurance or sense into her.”source ↗
“My 4 year old has always been a great sleeper. All of a sudden he says he can’t sleep alone. He’s scared and needs to sleep with mom and dad.”source ↗
“It’s causing the bedtime process to be 1-2 hours. For the last few days he’s only fallen asleep with me in his bed.”source ↗
“Except when it drags on til 11pm and then my other one wakes up at 2-3am with teeth pain screaming and takes an hour to get back down and then I have to be up at 530am for work where I have a hour plus commute. The lack of sleep is becoming dangerous for my wellbeing.”source ↗
“My 4 year old is the bigger issue in all of this since he’s very used to me sleeping with him…he’s the one who would be more difficult because he’s used to the bad habit we’ve created…he’s very anxious and worries about everything 😅”source ↗
“That's what we've been doing for years, and what I'm trying to get away from”source ↗
“Both our boys were originally sleep trained but it went to crap when they hit the age of 2. I have have been sleeping with my 4 year old for the last year or so and my 2 year old has been progressively getting needier at night which is really a nightmare for my husband.”source ↗
“they are just scared to be alone and I don’t know what else to do that is practical for the situation we’ve come to.”source ↗
“With my second one though, I haven’t sleep trained him at all. He’s exclusively breastfeeding and cosleeping.”source ↗
“He can be put down in the crib but only really lasts for a 30 minute nap and then freaks out.”source ↗
“I tried a couple times to sleep train him but he was much more upset about it than my first and I couldn’t even last a minute and went and got him.”source ↗
“Really what I’m trying to ask is when would he be able to put himself to sleep? Has anyone else had this problem and when did you stop cosleeping and put them in their own room?”source ↗
“My two-year-old refused to sleep in his room by himself, even though he's confident to sleep by himself without coddling mum. He's also very anxious being alone. How can we, as parents, help him to be relaxed and to sleep without someone by his side?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 19Why is my toddler staying up until midnight refusing to sleep?
- 12How to get a busy toddler to sleep on an overnight flight
- 3How to help a seven-year-old with sleep anxiety
- 6How to snap a toddler out of night terrors?
- 16Why won't my baby sleep in the crib?
- 12How to help a toddler with a sudden intense fear