I would do that, but my wife is against it.

Her 88 year old father sleeps in the room next to us, and needs to go to the bathroom a few times in the night.
The bathroom door is across from our door.
My wife is not thrilled about various issues of lack of privacy with her father in the house (how much did you spend for this?, etc).

She wants that door completely shut from him at night.

What about a crate in your room then?

I would resign yourself to having a few sleepless nights.

Ear plugs for your wife if she is not happy about the noise and teach him not to dictate. At the age he is he should have the bladder control to be able to go through the night. However - if he starts whining I would get up and put him outside - then come back in and leave him again.

Making sure you give him NO attention (don't look/talk/or touch him)

I would also stop greetings in the morning. When you wake up - go and open the door for him but put the kettle on, go to the bathroom etc then eventually go and talk to him.
Make sure everything is calm and stop as soon as there is any indication the greeting is going to go OTT until he calms down.

He needs to learn a bit of self control by the sounds of things.

I agree...but somewhat in defence of my mistakes here:

We've had him over 4 years, and the problem is quite new.
He was always happy to sleep outside of the room, and patiently waited for me to wake up.

I guess I figured he would go back to his old habits...before I gave proper thought to it, I had a new routine on my hands.

There were some good ideas above, which I will try...which did not involve causing the entire family to suffer.

Haven't read all the post but if it was me, I'd either allow him upstairs and keep him there or keep him downstairs and stick too it regardless of the whining. If he makes a fuss, ignore it, he's trained you well to get you up when he whines and he needs to learn to settle through the night if you can't keep your bedroom door open.

Maybe the dog is being disturbed by the gentleman`s trips to the bathroom? That sounds like the reason things have changed. Dogs are really nosy!
Try leaving a radio on in `his` room (the dogs!) to see if it helps?

Has Ernie ever been crate trained? I think Labradork's suggestion of a crate in the room is a good one.

I'm sorry but I had to laugh at that bit! Of all the dogs we've ever owned, it's my husband they will awake in the night, never ME! We now have separate rooms, so that hubby can stay downstairs and do his nightshift toilet sessions for the dogs, while I zzz peacefully away upstairs, whereas, if I were to swap around with hubby, none of the dogs would EVER have woken me up (and never have) during the night unless they had the squits or were desperate, really, really desperate for a wee! Now why is that then?????? I tell you why it is, because your little doggy has sussed you as the soft touch around the house maybe??!!! My last gsd who is no longer with us, got him up one night at around 3pm as per usual, waited until he'd put on his dressing gown, she sat staring at him from the hallway as if to say "hurry up", she then watched him go all the way to the back door through the kitchen, open it up, look back at her, so she just gave him a big smile and calmly walked back into her bed and went to sleep (still with a smile on her face! ) Says it all really doesn't it???!!

I will try and think of some ideas for you now!!! I had to laugh when I read that, sorry!

If you don't get up and deal with it what happens? When Patches first arrived he would do something similar (he sleeps in our bedroom and would wake up about 3am and ask to be let out). The first couple of times I did and took him outside incase he needed the toilet but when i worked out he was just being difficult for want of a better word, I ignored him. It was a nuisance to beging with but eventually he would pad back to his bed and then be told very calmly what a good boy he was. Now he doesn't wake me up in the night. I think it's all about routine - change it. It might be a pain in the backside to begin with but hopefully it will get better.

Ernie doesn't need to pee.
He just wants my company on the living room couches.

I think this is how it started:
If I wake up in the middle of the night, I fall asleep better if I go to another sleeping place (don't ask me why...who knows?)

When this occured, I would often go to the couch opposite Ernie.

I guess he liked that routine, and started "demanding" it when I didn't initiate it.

I will have to figure out a way to break the routine with a minimal of disturbance to others.