Afraid of dark OR delaying tactic?

[MeAndVee]

DS has never been afraid of the dark.  Has never been afraid of monsters.  Infact we went to the book store and he insisted on getting a monster book.  But it breaks my heart when he cries for me saying he is afraid and when I ask what he is afraid of he tells me there are monsters in his room.  I have a night light for him that is on a timer and it shuts off at a certain time.  Read that night lights are bad for your sleeping eyes.  Anyway.  I don't want to do any AP here as we are finally on track with sleep after being out of control with it.  Once asleep he stays asleep!  Its just getting him to sleep.  How does one deal with monsters and fear of the dark?

[anna*]

I think the nightlight on a timer is a good idea, it does seem to be very common for a fear of the dark to kick off around this age, so I would expect it is real. As for how to deal with the monsters, well, a couple of ideas:
1) Tell him that he is the boss of his bedroom. No monsters can come in if he says so, and if they want to come in then he makes the rules. Then at bedtime you can make a big show of walking around the room 'bossing' all the monsters out - No monsters in this bedroom, you are not allowed, you're going to have to go out the front door and go away.
2) Put some lavendar oil in a water spray bottle and make 'Monster Spray' to spray around under the bed/around the curtains etc - it keeps monsters away.
3) In the daytime, encourage conversation about monsters and let him use his whole imagination as to how scary they could be - but also how funny they could be... so explore 'what if there were monsters in my bedroom'. Well, mummy and daddy would come and get them out! 'what if the monsters just wanted a cuddle?' 'what if the monsters were really scared of little boys?' 'what if the monsters gave you a secret chocolate cookie in the middle of the night?'

[MeAndVee]

Great suggestions.  And as luck would have it I have lavender oil in my room!  So we'll give that one a try for sure.  Thanx.  Will let you know how it goes for him.