Bad dreams - come and talk to Hunker about them

[hunkermunker]

DS1 having bad dreams. He's always had a seemingly active imagination whilst asleep, though not overly given to fancy when awake.

But he did, when he was two, wake up very upset because Thomas the Tank Engine had "too many jobs to do", so he seems to have an internal fret clock that doesn't turn off easily.

Last night, he woke up upset because he'd dreamt his hand was on fire.

Don't know what I'm asking, really - maybe does anyone else have a 4yo who has bad dreams? It's interfering with his sleep (and mine!).

DD started nightmares at this age. We found a dreamcatcher worked for a good few years. Sounds nuts I know but definitely worth a try. You just have to explain how it catches all the dreams, destroys the bad ones and only lets the good ones out, or something along those lines.

This might seem like a strange response... but when DS2 (nearly 4) was waking up with what seemed to be bad dreams - it was actually that he really needed the loo. He had woken up at a point in his sleep where he was actively dreaming and that's why he was blurting out his strange dreams. We started taking him to the loo just before we went to bed and his bad dreams/waking stopped. Might be worth a try.

we got dd to turn her pillow over and bash it really hard to squash the dream. Nuts but effective...

I think it's very common at this age.

With my ds I found that he was more likely to have a bad dream if he hadn't been mentally stimulated enough during the day. So for example during the christmas holidays we went through a real phase of him having bad dreams just as he was drifting off to sleep, and on reflection I noticed it had started at the point school had broken up and he just wasn't getting the constant mental stimulation his brain needs. Once he went back to school everything was fine again.

Is your ds very bright? If so it may just be that his brain is working overtime and because it's not being worn out it's making its own things to wear it out, iyswim?

Dd started to have nightmares at around 3½/4.

One of which involved being stuck in the attic and daddy couldn't hear her calling for help. I think this phase lasted a couple of months but with the odd one still occuring now she's 7. We've always tried to be sympathetic and nto dismiss her fears.

Would a version of monster repellant (a spray thingy with water and a little essential oil for scent) help? It could be a nightmare repellant.

Does he always wake up, or does he just have a restless night making him tired the next day? If he wakes up then something that he can switch on himself might soothe him back to sleep without him falling straight back into the nightmare. A white noise cd or a nightlight that changes colour for instance might distract his mind from the nightmare just enough so that he can fall back asleep.

There is a technique that has worked very well for me, but I think he's probably a bit too young for it still. Basically if you have a recurring dream you think about it in the daytime and make a story from it giving yourself a super-power or something that enables you to sort out whatever it is that is scary in the nightmare. Keep doing it and you will eventually remember and use the super power in your dream.

DD once woke up screeching having a nightmare that a naughty rabbit was sticking a carrot in her ear

What about a bead curtain on his door so the bad dreams can't get in? That's what worked eventually for DD.

my nephew (3) has been having a series of bad dreams recently about jungle animlas coming into his room, and animals are one of his favourite things so its strange that they are the things he has nightmares about.

anyway - one of his large soft toys - a monkey- guards the cupboard door and a big dog sits outside his bedroom door to tell the jungle animals to turn back, and that seems to be working. guess its just finding whatever it is that makes them feel better about things.