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The following is a visitor-submitted question or story. For more, you can submit your own sleep story here, or browse the collection of experiences and questions other visitors have shared here.
My Son Has Horrible Dreams and Doesn't Know Why He Gets Them
by Debra Ingleson
(Essex , England)
My son has recently told me he has terrible nightmares about fire and explosions. I don't let him watch any adult television but he does watch Ben 10 which I think doesn't help. In fact he has asked me to delete all of the Ben 10s he has recorded.
His grandad was a fireman and he knows how dangerous being a fireman is and is very proud of his grandad and I wonder if fire and an emotional attachment gives him these terrors.
I was cuddling him before bed tonight and he said mummy why do I have such horrible dreams? They are very scary and I don't like them. I don't want to go to sleep.
I was so sad for my son. I didn't know whether to ask him more about the dreams in case it made him dream the bad dream he has or just to leave it. I say to him think happy thoughts and think of holidays and being with mummy, daddy and your sister but he says it won't work nothing works.
I just don't know what to do next. How do I help him with these dreams? Do I ask him to explain every aspect to see if there's some deep root cause?
He doesn't seem to wake up with them but he wakes up early around 5am and says he can't go back to sleep otherwise the dreams will come. He never comes out of his room into ours.
He is such a gentle, sensitive boy who doesn't deserve these dreams. How can I help him? He is 6.
Kevin: Hi Debra, Thanks for writing in. While he is young, perhaps it is a good time to start educating him about dreams, and exposing him to the idea of lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is an acquired skill that can be used for nightmare control--essentially becoming conscious of the fact that your nightmare is just a dream created by your mind, and that you have the power to change the subject matter, to turn that big scary monster into a little bunny rabbit! Or, to make it rain when there is a fire.
There have been several visitors here who have written in with experiences about nightmare control. Here are a couple:
- Overcoming A Nightmare Was The Start Of Lucid Dreaming - Sarah in the UK
- Taking Control Of My Nightmares - Patrick in GA, USA
Kevin
(Please keep in mind that I am a student of sleep science and not a medical doctor. Please take any thoughts I give with my background in mind.)
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Ever woken up paralyzed? A surprising number of us have, believe it or not. But few know the actual causes of this phenomenon, and fewer still how to exert control over it. Dream researcher and sleep paralysis expert Ryan Hurd shares breakthrough insights into how to do just that.
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