Six year old woes

My husband and I were talking the other night about how we have noticed that our daughter doesn't smile as much as usual and suddenly she is very fearful at night and has trouble sleeping. Remembering back to when I was six years old, I was very fearful as well and I wonder if this is just normal for her age? I would go to my parent's room every night and sleep on the floor just to avoid my room. I didn't even care if they punished me, as long as I could be out of my room.

Looking back, I think my fears were somewhat valid, since my room was at the front of the house, while my parent's and sister's rooms were both at the rear of the house. So I was worried that a burglar would break in through my window and my parents wouldn't hear since they were on the other side of the house. I guess if a burglar was smart, they would probably break in through the back of the house, but as a kid I always thought my room was a sure target.

Our current house has a strange room layout as well, with the master bedroom on the main level, and all three of the other bedrooms in the basement level. So her room is under ours, but her brother is down there too, so it's not like she is all alone. When we originally bought the house, we were planning on using the third downstairs bedroom as the master until the kids were older. But we underestimated the size of our bedroom furniture and it just didn't fit in that room. At first, the kids had no problem sleeping down there and would only come upstairs sometimes during the night, but lately it has become more of a regular occurrence mostly with my oldest.

She says she can't fall asleep because she is worried she will have a bad dream and wants us to tell her something to think about to help her fall asleep. So we do and she goes to her room. Five minutes later, she comes back and says it didn't work and do we have any other ideas. Last night, we told her she could turn her light on and read a book. She said OK and left our room. She didn't come back for over an hour, so I went down to check on her and the lights were all off and she was asleep. So maybe books will help her. That would be good reading practice too, since she is just beginning to read. As for the sadness and lack of smiles, we're still baffled.