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Original poster

What do toddlers have nightmares about?

88 replies

roarfeckingroarr · 13/05/2022 12:40

Just speculating... my 18 month old has crying nightmares now and then, where it's quite hard to wake him up and he's unsettled for a while after. He doesn't speak in sentences yet so I've no idea what they're about.

Anyone have any idea what they dream about? Massive boobs chasing them? A kid at nursery stealing their toys? Abstract bollocks?

OP posts:
LoveSpringDaffs · 13/05/2022 14:26

They'll tell you anything to make you stop asking!

17caterpillars1mouse · 13/05/2022 14:28

When my daughter was 2 it was being pushed into the sea with meerkats (few days after a zoo visit) and daddy not letting her in his club? Lol

Echobelly · 13/05/2022 14:33

DD once woke up sobbing aged about 2 and DH went into her room to find her wailing 'Daddy worry owl! Daddy worry tiger!' - we're not sure whether dad was being worried by the owl and the tiger, the owl and the tiger were worried by dad or if she was trying to express to Daddy that she'd been worried by an owl and a tiger! I suspect the latter.

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DeFuckingLightful · 13/05/2022 14:37

I once had one quite young, it was bloody terrifying (so much that I still remember it today!) of a a load of standard plants that had grown into giants and because they had plant pots for feet they had to jump/leap towards me. Remember waking up screaming and getting into bed with my mum!

RishiRich · 13/05/2022 14:37

Nightmares I remember my toddler DC telling me about:

  • Humpty Dumpty breaking into pieces
  • Being chased by Foxy Loxy who wanted to eat her
  • DD stealing DS' toys
  • Being lost and mummy had gone
  • A big spider in DD's bed

DS used to sleep walk as well and go running from room to room crying and calling for me. Even when I was holding him he'd be screaming for me. It was awful for everyone but luckily he's grown out of it.

DeFuckingLightful · 13/05/2022 14:38

DeFuckingLightful · 13/05/2022 14:37

I once had one quite young, it was bloody terrifying (so much that I still remember it today!) of a a load of standard plants that had grown into giants and because they had plant pots for feet they had to jump/leap towards me. Remember waking up screaming and getting into bed with my mum!

Sorry was supposed to add they were chasing me.

Jenasaurus · 13/05/2022 14:42

My DS had frequent night terrors as a toddler, one I remember in particular, I went in to comfort him, he was sitting up with wide eyes, looked at me and screamed..."not you, I want mummy" So I guess I either looked weird (very likely as it was middle of the night) or he was hallicinating.

Now at the age of 32 he still has nightmares, his girlfriend told me he still sleep shouts, he used to have full on rages and angry arguments in his sleep too. Actually even when he had a minor op as a 4 year old, I heard him shouting at the nurses bringing him back from recovery, he came round angry and distressed so its a familiar pattern with him.

Jenasaurus · 13/05/2022 14:46

My own nightmares that I remember as a child (probably not a toddler though) was I was on a plane with my mum and we went to speak to the pilot as it was flying erratically and inside the cockpit was a bear and it tried to kill my mum, I woke so upset. A recurring nightmare for me was an intruder in the house and having to get to my parents room as they had a balcony outside their window so it was the only escape route. Often woke up terrified in my room alone in the dark and the landing seemed so long to reach my parents for safety.

britneyisfree · 13/05/2022 14:49

In the night garden.

It's a shit show anyway & I felt like it it was designed to get into dreams if that makes any sense, so I banned after that. She's forgotten all about it now and no nightmares since.

ThomasinaGallico · 13/05/2022 15:00

Grrrr, typed a great reply and then my battery died….😖

My theory is that young children have a lot of ‘being chased by monsters’ dreams that gradually disappear as they approach puberty, to be replaced as they get older by the ones about light switches not working, flying or not flying, impossible exams, being naked on the bus etc. The monster dreams I think are essentially ‘prey’ dreams, the most basic animal ones you can have, and they drive the child to seek protection and to process fear.

Beetlewings · 13/05/2022 15:08

My dd used to wake crying somethings because she 'couldn't find me' it breaks my heart even now

MargaretThursday · 13/05/2022 15:08

Dd1 spiders in the bed
Dd2 being strapped into her buggy (she had massive tantrums in her sleep about it)
Ds me not being there

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 13/05/2022 16:00

Losing favourite toys
Being strapped into the buggy and going in a direction you don’t want
Being chased by a dog

hollyivysaurus · 13/05/2022 16:04

My DS was once hysterical about a dream that involved a banana! And my oldest once had a bad dream about a tractor at that age too.

Despinetta · 13/05/2022 16:13

Jack Frost coming up the side of the bed. This then necessitated her shoving all her socks down there to keep him away.

HorseInTheHouse · 13/05/2022 16:15

Bees on his face. Bad mice. That kind of thing.

BiscuitLover3678 · 13/05/2022 16:18

They take on so much more than we know. Any passing comment or expression about something.

FartSock5000 · 13/05/2022 16:26

They pick up imagery you would never realise. At 4 years old I had a vivid nightmare of my mum lying in her bed, bloody and dead. Her room was dark with the curtains billowing out and the only light from a white street light outside the open window.

It obviously affected me as my creche/nursery made a detailed report and I vaguely remember speaking to someone officialish who gave me a doll and a green lolly I didnt like. My mum kept and I joke about it now. Looking back, my waste of space Dad probably put a horror movie on and I saw things I was too young to process. He was a dick like that.

I think noises, television and fear of abandonment must get into tiny undeveloped brains of babies and kids and express fears we don't concern ourselves with as adults.

GoldenOmber · 13/05/2022 16:31

One of mine woke up once sobbing “mine yoghurt, dropped it!”

AliasGrape · 13/05/2022 16:37

Last night my DD was crying/ shouting 'no poo poo wet' in her dream. She had a poo in the bath a few months ago and I still plays on her mind I think.

Another one I've heard her shouting about is 'daddy nam nam no'. She calls food nam nam so I guess daddy was stealing her food? Or perhaps trying to get her to eat a tomato or some other equally horrifying food.

FabulousKilljoys · 13/05/2022 16:37

My eldest DD is 26 and I've just remembered another of hers from when she was around 2yo. I couldn't understand why she was having nightmares about socks and (literally waking up screaming about socks), and shrieked if she saw a coat hanger. Turned out her gran was letting her watch Wizadora when she was at her house and she was terrified of the living socks in the drawers and a character called Hangle which was a talking coat hanger!

ThomasinaGallico · 13/05/2022 16:59

I used to get quite creeped out by cars moving by themselves. Not sure if that was Herbie or Christine!

I also used to have a really abstract nightmare that involved moving geometric patterns - wonder if that was 1970s Dr Who or the Death Star, or some other 70s scifi/horror?

Cyw2018 · 13/05/2022 17:01

Falling down the toilet.

SamVimesFavouriteDragon · 13/05/2022 17:20

spiderlight · 13/05/2022 13:44

Broken bananas? Asking for the blue cup and then being given the blue cup?

Haha my (usually pretty articulate) 3 year old woke up inconsolable two days ago and all he could say was 'not the blue cup, mama!'
The day before I had given him a blue cup instead of a grown up mug and he was mildly put out but not really bothered.
The night had turned it into a horror story clearly 😂

myyellowcar · 13/05/2022 17:22

Mine had a nightmare about a scary bus that lit up. That’s the only one he’s ever mentioned. He does spend an extraordinary amount of time thinking about buses.