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Help! 3 yr old sleeping nightmare (literally)

1 reply

hanabanana · 22/05/2011 21:32

Our 3yo has just started having nightmares. 2 so far. Tonight, refused point blank to go to bed, screamed massively, told us 'i don't want to go to sleep anywhere', offered her our room, her room, her sister's room, the spare room, anywhere....but to no avail unless one of us went to sleep with her, but if she knows we're only lying there until she falls asleep, she won't let herself sleep. The idea of controlled crying for a 3yo is impractical as she just gets out of bed, opens the door and runs downstairs. I don't want to shut her in physically when she seems pretty scared of the monsters/sharks in her dreams.

But what to do? ATM she's lying on the sofa under a blanket as I type, trying desperately not to let herself fall asleep, checking I'm still there every few seconds...

OP posts:
soggybottomflancase · 23/05/2011 13:19

I used to pretend to go to sleep with my ds then if he had a nightmare whilst he was still asleep I would talk to him, to get into his dream iykwim. "I'm here, can you see me, come to mummy, mummy will fight for you" sounds mad but it worked after a while. He didn't get as upset as your dd at the thought of going to sleep but it did stop the nightmares.

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