I need help with this one. Brenda or anyone else?

kit_kats_mom wrote: Katherine has been up since 2 am. Her pupils are giant (a signal that she's overtired) and she's a jittery mess. She refuses to sleep because of bad dreams. She's even scolded teddy because he's supposed to only give her good dreams. The bad thing is that she also did not nap yesterday becuase of the dreams and I don't know what to do. I've been keeping an eye on what she watches and reads, I've been sympathetic, I've been angry...what do I do guys? She's so stubborn I swear she will stay awake forever to avoid bad dreams.

I'm all up for suggestions.

HELP ME

CantWait replied: Sorry Cary. Maybe try a bottle of "nightmare potion". AKA Water and food colouring, spray it in her room. It's worked for some.

kit_kats_mom replied: Thanks Marie. I've considered that but from what I've read, that just makes the monsters seem real. I believe we have her convinced that they are just dreams and yes, they are scarey but they aren't reall. She just doesn't want to dream.

amynicole21 replied: I've had moderate success explaining dreams to Sophia. I tell her that she is in control of what happens in her dreams, and what she dreams about. We practice setting ourselves up for good dreams by thinking of things that are nice and make us comfy as we are falling asleep. I think that making her aware that she can do anything in her dreams - like fly or beat up the bad guys - might empower her and make things seem less scary.

jcc64 replied: It's so nice to have each other to bounce these things off of- Corey's been struggling with dreams lately as well, I guess it's developmentally appropriate if all of our 4 yo's are dealing with the same thing. Corey's also been having a really hard time separating from me in situations that previously were no problem. I suppose there's a new blossoming of the subconscious at this point in their development.
I don't have any creative solutions. Corey often wakes up and says she doesn't want to go back to sleep b/c she doesn't want to continue a bad dream. At that point, I usually just have her come in my bed and the closeness seems to be enough to get her back down. Not the best solution, but as long as we all get the sleep we need, that's all I really care about.

Kaitlin'smom replied: wow this must be an age thing. Kait is dealing with some bad dreams as well. I have her explain them to me and we talk about them and what she can do to change them and think of nice things while falling asleep. I also told her we woudl place a dream catcher on one post of her bed, to get rid of the bad and bring the good ones. Kait also tells me she does not like to sleep alone, so I let her sleep with me one night on the weekend as a reward for sleeping in her room during the week. We also plan on rearranging her room this weekend (well me) she says she does not like where her bed is and she fears falling out of it. She will also say this or that bothers her at night so I usually ask her is there anythign bothering you and if I can I take it out of her room.

lisar replied:
This is what my Mom done for me when I was little. And it worked. I know you dont wanna try it but its always worth a shot if nothing else will work. KUP

Boo&BugsMom replied: Tanner has had nightmares and he use to have night terrors when he was littler. I don't have any creative suggestions either. The last nightmare Tanner had was really bad. He screamed bloody murder and to him it was very real. We ended up letting him sleep in our room on the little fold out couch he has for a couple nights. After that he was ok, but it did take him awhile to get over it. He understands better now about them not being real, but sometimes even as adults we have dreams that 'feel' real to us. This one maybe was just a doozy for her and it may take a couple days or so for her to feel better about it.

ETA: another thing we did was make sure he had his Spiderman blanket. It makes him feel protected when he's covered in it. We didn't do a potion type thing, only because I don't trust him with liquid in his room. Who knows what he'd do with it, but giving him other things to help "protect" him helped a bit. We also talked to him about talking to God about it when he's scared.

DansMom replied: Is she lucid dreaming? Does she sleepwalk or sit up with eyes open? I ask because my sister was like this, and had terrible nightmares, for years. Some people are more prone to lucid dreaming, and they really do experience "terror" as opposed to just residual fear. I would try the cosleeping thing myself for a while (unless that's already what you're doing?). Also, like Amy suggested, talk about how she can control her dreams as soon as she realizes she's dreaming. She can use a magic wand in her dream to banish monsters. She should yell at them and tell them they are stupid and silly. When my sister was much older, I'd say maybe 11 or 12, she was able to conquer an evil force in a recurring dream that involved a maze---and then the nightmares stopped.

Good luck, Cary! Daniel's having bad dreams too, but he will go back to sleep if he's with us in our bed.

kit_kats_mom replied:
You know, she may be. I didn't even think of that. She does have episodes at least once a week where she will scream and when we go in there, she's sitting up and shaking with her eyes open but she's not awake. Hmmmmm. I'd love to bring her into bed with us but there are already 3 of us there and K is a kicker. I'm afraid she will wake up Lauren who is just starting to sleep through the night. I have invited her into our room to sleep on the toddler bed that we keep here but she "forgets" and instead cries out and DH usually ends up sleeping in her room with her.

Yes, we are a "musical beds" kind of family, you never know where you are going to wake up. LOL

amynicole21 replied:
Aren't you a sleepwalker, Cary? Maybe it's a genetic thing.

redchief replied:
Oh lord I hope the kids can't catch this. I'm a sleepwalker and have feared for some time that Erin could potentially be one too.

kit_kats_mom replied:
Yes I am I'll look into that too. Ed, I hope it's not hereditary. Lord knows I don't want her to do some of the things I've done while sleeping.

Boo&BugsMom replied: Cary, just an FYI, night terrors, sleep walking, and other sleep disorders can be genetically handed down. It's good to look into it. If she doesn't seem awake when she is crying, she could be having night terrors. Does she remember the episodes the next morning?

jdkjd replied:
At least there are no pictures. Right?

With Bailey and Kiera, whenever both of them have had a bad night I make sure that we run them around extra hard the next day so that they sleep harder. It seems if I cna break the cycle, they can get "in the habit" of not having the dreams...

Good luck tonight!

redchief replied:
Nope, no pictures, but ask Lisa about the time I ground Captain Crunch in the coffee grinder.

Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack this very serious thread. I hope you can find some relief from the dreams for poor Katherine.

Jamison'smama replied: Anything at all traumatic happen recently? Even a something minor that has set her off balance? They can serve a purpose if she is trying to work out something emotional.

One thing suggested is that she draw her nightmares with a happy ending or at least talk them out with a different ending.

MyBabeMaddie replied: I remember having bad dreams when I was little and my parents weren't too sympathetic - I use to take ALL of my stuffed animals and make a fence around my bed and told myself that they weren't going to let the bad dreams get by... Silly I know but it worked for me.