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MY DAUGHTER IS FOUR YEARS OLD ( NOT REALLY A TODDLER) BUT SHE HAS BEEN HAVING NIGHTMARES FOR A WHILE NOW...I DONT LET HER WATCH SCARY MOVIES OR SHOWS AND I CANT UNDERSTAND WHY SHE HAS THEM.......SOMETIMES SHE JUST SAYS SHE HAS A NIGHTMARE BECAUSE SHE KNOWS SHE CAN COME IN A SLEEP WITH ME......ANY IDEAS????
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I pulled this from an article on this site, I hope it helps!
One of the most common concerns of parents is sleep disturbances, including nightmares and night terrors. Let's discuss nightmares first. Nightmares occur quite commonly in young children. Typically, a child with a nightmare wakes up completely, is very anxious, and usually remembers the content of the dream vividly. Usually, childhood nightmares require no specific treatment, except for reassuring the frightened child.
Occasionally, when nightmares become more frequent or occur on a regular basis, it may be a sign of stress in the child's life or environment. Also, the content of the bad dream or nightmare may be a clue to what is stressing the child. Therefore, extreme situations of persistent nightmares may warrant evaluation of the child's family/social environment and psychological state.
Night terrors occur less commonly and are different from nightmares. Typically, children with terrors are out of control, but still awake. They may be sitting up in bed, appear frightened, staring with eyes wide open. They may also be sweating, breathing heavily and complaining of seeing peculiar things or objects that are not really there. This period of "terror" may last for up to several minutes and then the child will usually go back to sleep.
What distinguishes night terrors (which occur in less than 5% of children) from nightmares is that the child does not recall the dream or event leading to the night terror, and in many cases, does not recall that anything at all happened during the night.
Although the exact cause of night terrors, nightmares and other sleep disturbances, is not understood, they are thought to be a result of waking up during a certain stage of the normal sleep cycle. Night terrors occur during the Stage 4 or non-REM sleep period.
Nightmares, on the other hand, occur during another stage or during REM sleep. Night terrors are generally infrequent and usually stop on their own without specific treatment. In rare cases where night terrors are frequent and/or associated with sleep walking, specific medications may be required: Again, this occurs very rarely.
To summarize, most children outgrow both nightmares and night terrors. Knowing this fact is a relief to many parents.
I would agree with the info in Amanda's post. My son is 8, and he had frequent nightmares when he was 4 and 5. We are very careful about what he watches on tv, but he just seemed to outgrow the problem. When he had nightmares, I would lay down with him in his bed and he would go right back to sleep with no problem.
Good luck!
Last edited by rainequilts : 05-29-2002 at 07:54 PM.
My 4 yr. old is the same way. Right after she quit waking up in the middle of the night for the bottle, she started waking up crying hysterically. Now that she can talk, I know it is nightmares. It has been so frustrating. I haven't had a good night sleep since she was born & neither has she. I sure hope she outgrows them soon. I feel relieved that somebody else has this problem, not that I'm glad your kids are going through this horrible situation I wish I had advice to offer, but I need some also. So far when she wakes up, I just tell her to go back to sleep and she is ok. She is used them now. On the nights she doesn't have bad ones, she wakes up and tells me she didn't have bad dreams last night & is so happy. I feel so bad for her. Ok, enough babbling, good luck to everybody with this problem
I was lucky and didn't have this problem with any of my kids (Dominic is only 3 so there's still time, but the other 3 we didn't have this problem).
However, I know that this particular thing works for my kids as it worked for me when I was a child. Now don't laugh, this is going to sound very silly, but the simplicity of it is quite amazing. Again, I don't know if it will work, but it's worth a shot!
Most dreams comes from the subconcious, or so I've been told. This of course is what is in the back of your mind. When I was little, if I watched a scary movie, or thought of something scary, before I would lay my head on the pillow I was say to myself, out loud, "I'm not going to have any bad dreams tonight, only good ones".
I'm not sure why it always worked, but it did. And it works for my kids too. Now again, mine haven't experienced night terrors (nightly nightmares) so I don't know if this would work for you, but I think that me being in control of my dreams when I was a child helped me to conquer my fear of them. By telling myself I wasn't going to dream anything bad, I became in control of the situation.
My daughter taught her children a little prayer to prevent bad dreams. It is tucked into the middle of their traditional bedtime prayers. The children are now 11 and 9 years old and they believe this little prayer works.
My 4 1/2 year old grandaughter had them teach it to her when she was 3 so she would quit having bad dreams. She also believes that it works, and is teaching it to her 2 year old sister.
"Now I lay me down to sleep..."
then
"Dear Lord Jesus come into this room.
Only give me good thoughts no bad thoughts.
Only give me good dreams no bad dreams."
then
"God bless mom and dad ....God bless everyone in the whole wide world"
"In Jesus name we pray. Amen"
I don't understand why, but it does seem to put an end to bad dreams
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May God give you for every storm, a rainbow, for every tear, a smile, for every care, a promise, and blessing in each trial, for every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share, for every sigh, a sweet song, and an answer for each prayer.
~An Irish Blessing
I bought my daughter a dream catcher thinking that might help. The first time she slept with it over her head she had a bad dream & woke up crying that the dream catcher didn't catch her dream. It broke my heart. When she doesn't have bad dreams though she tells me it caught her dream. I'll have to try having her actually say it out loud during our bed time ritual. Thanks for the tip. It definately isn't silly at all!!!
Wow liinda, I'm glad to see it works for your family too! Yours is in prayer, mine is just words, but both are out loud and at bedtime. I think it makes a big difference in being in control and in tricking your mind into bringing anything bad out of the subconcious
I'm glad you didn't think it was silly ginb2 It was funny because my son even mentioned it to me tonight before he went to bed.
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I wish I had advice to offer, but I need some also. So far when she wakes up, I just tell her to go back to sleep and she is ok. She is used them now. On the nights she doesn't have bad ones, she wakes up and tells me she didn't have bad dreams last night & is so happy. I feel so bad for her. Ok, enough babbling, good luck to everybody with this problem 
It's time for another smiley story contest!
