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Our brains try to make sense of what we see, so I think he probably did see a shadow or something that his brain interpreted like a person or ghost and he hasn't been able to forget it. It's hard when they are young to explain it and I don't have any firsthand experience to share. Would you be able to try to let him fall asleep with the light on for a while? Put up a curtain where he thinks he saw the ghost? Can you try to explain that ghosts aren't real and his imagination is creating them? That's so high-level for a kid, not sure they would understand.

Hmm... sounds like he is legit scared, so I am guessing he saw a shadow or something. Does he have curtains in his room? A night light? If not, maybe making some simple changes like that would help him feel more secure. How old is he? If he is old enough, maybe you can ask him what you can do to help him feel better at night.

EDIT: Just saw the age in the title, so I guess it could go either way. Another suggestion would be to play some soft music or an audio book at bedtime?

Poor guy! Has he seen a TV show that would have said something about ghosts?

I agree with @TemperanceBrennan: I think he saw a shadow and his brain associated it with a ghost. Do you have a curtain over the window? Does his window face the street? I know a friend of mine's son was kept getting scared when cars passing their house at night because the lights from the cars would shine through the window and make "shadows" on the walls that looked like they moved.

@littlebug: what about leaving the lights on?

@littlebug: why not? Do you think he won't fall asleep? It will get rid of the shadows.

@littlebug: A few months ago my 2.5 yr old started complaining at bedtime that a monster was biting his toes at night.

I tried to engage him in a conversation about the monster in sort of a light-hearted, no big deal sort of way - and I tried to "humanize" the monster by asking questions about him (what's the monster's name? What's his favorite food? Does he share his toys with his friends?) and by saying that the monster probably just wanted to go home to his mommy and daddy to eat dinner and go night-night. We also made a big production out of saying "No thank you, monster! Eat your OWN toes!!" and doing sort of a drumroll with our hands in the corner where DS said he'd seen the monster. This usually made DS laugh by the end of our routine.

Your little guy sounds truly scared, which makes the situation much harder to deal with (as opposed to my little guy who is a gold medalist in stalling). So I don't know if our approach would be effective but maybe worth a shot? It sounds like you're doing all the right things, being comforting and providing nightlights. Bedtime phases are so tough.

Yikes. I would move. Haha.

What kind of exposure to other older kids does he have? I mean, I feel like the ghosts in the book can't possibly be the reference that's making him think "ghost" right?? Or maybe kids have steel traps for memories??

I really like the idea that @noelani: shared about talking to him about the "ghost".

His doctor might have some advice too. I assume this is pretty common.

@littlebug: I think that fears like this are common at this age and something likely did prompt the initial reaction in the middle of the night. I think it might be important to meet him on his level on this--he thinks he saw a ghost and now he is scared. I think one thing I would try is to help him feel equipped to deal with the ghosts, like using the spray or practicing telling the ghosts to go away. My LO sometimes stalls by talking about monsters and she thinks it is funny when we shout with our "brave voices" to tell them to go away.

@littlebug: sounds like maybe he had a bad dream since it happened in the middle of the night.

Both of my kids have been scared of something at bedtime.

For my DD it was an easy - lets looks under the bed - all clear, lets look in the closet - all clear - lets look behind the curtain - all clear and she would go to bed.

DS was and still is a little tougher. He didn't buy into any of the sprays or checking for them. He was scared and to be honest I slept in his room one night and heard things too so yeah...... anyway he is almost 7 and still falls asleep with a light on - once asleep I turn it off and he STTN. I figure if it makes him feel better to have the light on then I'll leave it on for as long as he needs it.

@littlebug: Oh that's such good news! I hope it keeps up!!

@littlebug: L just started telling me "I'm afraid of the shadows" at bedtime so maybe this is a normal developmental thing, paired with it being darker at bedtime? Bc they're almost the same age...

@littlebug: i just feel like a child shouldn't have to go through figuring out if they think they're seeing a ghost or shadow. as adults we can shrug that argument off and think about it later or have our own opinions or keep that all very private. a child relies on you for what's what when it comes to fear and confidence. to me it is not the same as imaginative play.