5 year old having bad dreams every night

[kitsilano]

I'm desperate for help as my 5 yr old DD has been having nightmares every night now for several months. She comes up to our bedroom every night saying she's had a bad dream and DH or I take her down an resettle her. Sometimes it's only once a night, other times 2 or 3.

I suffer from insomnia so if I take her back to bed at 3 or 4am I rarely am able to go back to sleep myself.

Last night she also woke her older sister (on holiday so sharing a bedroom) who then didn't get back to sleep for 3 hours and was hysterical so the rest of the family have basically been up since 4am.

We have tried a dream catcher, night light, getting cross with her, providing extra reassurance in the day, cutting out ipad games with chasing in them, we have hardly watched any TV all summer as we are abroad.

My DH (who does most of the resettling) gets pretty annoyed and tries many tactics to get her to stay in bed. I hate the thought of her lying in bed scared and alone but equally it is affecting us all and we are getting more and more tired and frustrated.

Any advice gratefully received.

Bump in the hope of help

Hello. No useful advice I'm afraid but you're not alone! My 5 year old DS has been exactly the same for the last few months and it's getting worse. Initially it was only one or two wakings a night but now it's often 6+ times a night! We too have a night light, dreamcatcher, worry dolls, white noise etc, etc. We have a 6 month old DS2 (? the cause of DS1's anxieties/insecurities) he sleeps through but is occasionally woken by the commotion. We have just been referred to paeds and are waiting for our first appt as DS' s behaviour has been massively affected by the poor sleep too (tantrums/anger/poor concentration) and I'm worried about how that will impact on his schooling as he's about to start Year 1. Have you thought about speaking to your GP about your DD? The other reason that we went to GP is that we are all struggling with the poor sleep - I'm similar to you in that once I've been up out of bed I really struggle to fall asleep again! We've just been on holiday and to avoid disruption to the in laws we slept in with DS on 3 nights that were particularly bad - he was still dreaming and restless but we all definitely got more sleep so maybe that's something to consider? I was adamant I wouldn't ever do that but I'm desperate for more sleep so it's something that DH and I are considering. It's our first night back home tonight so we're hoping for a miracle now he's back in his own bed
Out of interest does your DD have a decent sleep before the wakings start? DS usually sleeps for 4-5 hours before the shenanigans begin!

And we've done getting cross, lots of daytime/nighttime reassurance, reward charts, bribery, the list is never ending!

I'd be interested in a solution too, tbh. Sorry-not much help to you!

5 year old ds2 is having bad dreams a lot too. Dh does a Tree Fu Tom 'magic incantation' every night which helps a bit . Although on holiday it 'didn't work'- so I went in with a small dish of water into which I squirted a tiny bit of scent and flicked around the room, telling ds2 that he couldn't tell me that didn't work as it always worked.

I guess reassurance is all that works. If it's any comfort, I do remember ds1 (now 17) going through the same stage and it does pass.

Some comfort that we aren't alone! Last night we put some happy family photos as a slideshow and said she should look at those if she woke up from a bad dream. (My DHs idea) It worked in that she didn't wake us up - though she said she still had a bad dream and looked at the photos to make herself not frightened. It was a relief to have had a full nights sleep - but I feel awful at the thought of her having to do that when frightened. She's only 5.

greenolives I know this is a very old post but I’m in this exact situation you were. Did things get better what did the paediatrician say? I’m so desperate for help