For three weeks my daughter Mia repeated the same unusual sentence every night before going to sleep.

“Mom… my bed feels too tight.”

At first I assumed it was simply one of those odd expressions children use when they cannot properly describe discomfort. Mia was eight, full of imagination, and occasionally a little dramatic when bedtime approached.

“What do you mean tight?” I asked one evening while pulling the blanket up around her.

She shrugged.

“It just feels like something is squeezing it.”

I pressed my hand into the mattress.

It felt perfectly normal.

“You’re probably growing,” I said. “Beds can feel smaller when you get taller.”

She didn’t seem convinced.

That night she woke close to midnight and walked quietly into my room.

“My bed is tight again.”

I went in to inspect it. The mattress, the frame, the sheets—everything appeared completely ordinary.

When I told my husband Eric, he laughed.

“She just doesn’t want to sleep alone.”

But Mia continued insisting.

Every night.