To ask for your bad dream strategy for 4yo?

[barneymcgroo]

Ds4 sleeps pretty well most nights. On occasion, he has a bad dream and then seems to be up for hours with a series of procrastinating requests (water, hanky, sore tummy, repeated bad dream even when I know he hasn't been to sleep, etc etc.)

When he's had a bad dream, I go and comfort him, suggest nice things to think about, reassure. But the protracted requests for attention (it's now nearly 6:30, he's been up since 4) leave me and him grumpy and irritable in the morning.

So what do you do?

I'd let him come sleep with you so you can all get on with it...it's not spoiling, it's entirely normal for kids to go through these phases IMO

Yea depending on the time if it's early hours I get in her bed and we go back to sleep but if it's 5 onwards she gets in my bed and we try (but usually fail) to go back to sleep until at least 6...

My mum used to tell me - if I had a bad dream - to dream her into it and she'd save me. It worked!

Definitely get in bed with them, bad dreams are awful. I normally make up a story for them to think about as they go back to sleep. So if they're into cars have a story which involves them winning a race in the car of their dreams. Something relentlessly happy, making them the centre of the story.

Maybe go and and choose a dream catcher together. It might not work but gives something else to focus on?

We have an audiobook player, (tonie box one) so a quick cuddle then if she's finding it hard to go back to sleep she will put an audiobook on and drift back off to that

Bed sharing was our answer too. It has lessened as she's got older and now at 8, she hasn't been in for months.

My 5 year old gets in my bed most nights at the moment as she says she’s scared or has had a bad dream. She’s a really restless sleeper and kicks me and rolls around meaning I have a really rubbish sleep and am a grouch the next day. I’d love to know the solution!

I bought my DS a dream catcher when he was little and having bad dreams.

With my youngest I would climb in with him till he fell asleep then either sleep myself or go back to my bed.

With my middle one - monster spray helped.....have a spray bottle with water/essential oil (if you like). And a nice label 'monster spray' was ours.....and spray to keep monsters away.

Do you take him to the loo when he wakes up? I find if I take my DD for a wee and give her a drink in bathroom after, she quickly settles back. She often won’t say “I need a wee” but I know she does

Thank you all, these are great ideas. Unwilling to have him in with us, as we're due dc3 in a few weeks. Could send DH in with him though.

Will have a look at dream catchers, that's a good one.

Yep, went for a wee, had water, had a hanky (he's inclined to announce he has a nose bleed), all the usual things.

@Ilikecheeseontoast I had a friend who used to say that if they wanted to come into their room, there would be a sleeping bag on the floor for them. And all of a sudden, their own bed was MUCH more appealing!

Thank you all. X

My youngest is like this - either she stays sleepy, in which case she goes back to sleep but immediately falls back into another bad dream and wakes distressed again, or she’s wide awake having been very scared and she needs some time to calm down. Either way she seems to need an hour or two awake as a “reset”. I think we forget how real dreams can seem to a child and that if they’ve just had a really scary experience their body probably just isn’t ready for sleep again yet - so instead of lying in bed awake and alone they come up with ways to get you to keep them company. Sometimes I read a story, sometimes we listen to music or an audio book and occasionally I stick the tv on a fairly “safe” cartoon like alphablocks and doze with her.

Im going to try this tonight. Thank you x
am so tired today that I can hardly string a sentence together