Entry: What to do... Tuesday, February 14, 2006




Woman Canon Rebel

So this post has nothing to do with this picture...I just liked it. 

My oldest (5 years old) is having nightmares....and I don't know what to do about it. 
She has a beautiful room, filled with toys and books...and she can't seem to sleep in it.  She's taken to getting up and either a) waking us up in the middle of the night to help her move to the spare bedroom or; b) getting up and moving herself without a word to us.  Of course we like option b) better but I'd prefer option c)...stay in her own room.

We've allowed her to keep moving into the spare bedroom mostly because we don't know what to do about the nightmares.  They're pretty scary stuff too...like once she said that she dreamt her palm was sliced by a knife over and over and that it was dripping blood....yeah I know...I don't know where she's getting it.  We don't let her watch scary movies and she doesn't read overly scary books.

So I ask you o' intelligent internet...what do I do about this.  I can't seem to be able to help her and it bothers me that she doesn't seem to fill safe in her own room.  Poor thing.
   3 comments

Annie
February 16, 2006   11:06 PM PST
 
Maybe you should start her night in the spare room and see if she has nightmares there. If she does have nightmares then you transfer her to her room and maybe she wil see it as a peaceful place. My one daughter was terrified of the pretty little lions on her wallpaper. We could not understand her when she would scream "Waaa" and point to the wall. We realized later she was saying "Roar"
Name
February 15, 2006   02:46 PM PST
 
I saw the attached article yesterday and although not the same problem exactly there are similarities and you may find it useful.

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17909-2038536,00.html

Name
February 15, 2006   07:04 AM PST
 
Nightmares are a source of missed sleep. My children seem to have them every time they have some sort of sugary thing within 1-2 hours before bed. My children will "wake up" screaming and unconsolable, and we have to wait. We don't let them have sugar at night and this seems to work.

With my youngest, she gets scared sometimes. She has angels in her room to "protect her". She has one over the door ( a ceramic cherub) and she has a flying angle on her wall and of course a dream catcher. When she is scared, I remind her of where we are and who else is in her room keeping her safe. It seems to work.

Another thing you can do is watch the time that this is happening. Usually nightmares happen within 2-3 hours of sleeping...so, the experts say to go and wake the child within 1-11/2 hours after they have fallen asleep and that will break the pattern. don't completely wake her, but jostle her so that she looks at you, feels secure and then goes back to sleep.

All of these things have worked for us for the most part.

good luck.

CLBM

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