Nightmares!

[karma]

Our 4 year old DS has recently started having what he terms bad dreams and is getting really spooked by them. So much so that he doesn't want to go to sleep at night, and is often waking up and shouting for me. We've tried to reassure him but this doesn't seem to help. It's really draining for me as he always wants me in the night not his dad (how convenient!)
We've given him a torch and the landing light is on so his room isn't dark, but he is still really unsettled. Any advice on how to deal with this and how long this phase may go on for?
Many thanks.

has something changed? Diet nursery friends games?

School? seen something on telly?

When he wakes up with a bad dream try telling hinm to turn the pillow over -it makes the bad dream go away... my kids believed it... and the cool side somehow helped them to go back to sleep!

Hi, have youtried making a "DreamCatcher"? Sounds too simple but it really worked for my 4 year old godson. He was having nightmares, so we made him a DreamCatcher out of an old fishing net, and he decorated it with lots of coloured feathers, sparkly bits and pieces and the like, then we hung it above his bed. If he woke with a bad dream, he swung the net about, "caught" the dreams, then in the morning he and his mum went outside and shook the net into the bin. And he has stopped having nightmares!! Hope this helps.xx

The dream catcher sounds good to me - my dd went through a phase of nightmares and night terrors (scary)

She used to complain of monsters under the bed so we used to 'eat' them up. It became a game in the end ot eat the monsters just before she went to slepp but it worked.

Reassuring rarely works as the kids beleive the dream and need to know it has been 'dealt' with in some way - a bit like our irrational fears I suppose (spiders et al!)

It will pass - it sems to happen as their brain becomes more active and before they can fully process unusual things, but it is hard at the time.

Yes, I agree with willowcatkin, the kids actually have to see action being taken for them to believe everything is ok. Not pushing them to say what the dream was about helps to, as it prevents it becoming too real, if that makes sense. Leting the child see that you believe him and do something positive to banish it is enough, they don't want to relive it all.Hope it all settles down soon for you, I remember having a horrible recurring dream when i was a child and it scared me witless!!!

Dreamcatcher has been very successful with my DD as well. We've needed to "top it up" occasionally if she did have a bad dream which we did by adding more feathers. She seems to have grown out of it pretty much now (7) and I nearly passed in out shock the other day when she had found a dozy bee on a leaf and popped it in a jar. Her nightmares were often about giant bees and for years she had been terrified of them.

Another vote for a dream catcher here, really worked for my DS (6). Now, on the rare occasion that he has a bad dream I just say 'oh, we better clean it out in the morning, it must be full' When things were really bad I also got a plant mister water bottle thingy, filled it with water and would spray the monsters under the bed/in the cupboard where-ever. Usually when DS had a bad dream it was because he had over heated so be sure that your DS isn't wearing too much or has too many covers or that he has cocooned himself in the covers (a dead cert for overheating with my DS).

Thanks for all those tips, will definitely try dreamcatcher idea.