4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[iar fach goch]

My 3 year old has been having serious nightmares/terrors for the past three weeks. We have only had one night without for 3 weeks, and it happens once or twice every night. He goes to bed with no problems and sleeps soundly for about 3 hours and then I hear him cry or shout or scream. When I go in he is fast asleep and doesn't realise that I am there; sometimes he is shouting for me or his brothers, other times he is shouting "no, no, no" whilst other times he's been shouting that he doesn't want to. He's often drenched in sweat, sometimes his eyes are shut tight whilst other times I can see them moving rapidly. It's really difficult to wake him up, I put the light on and lift him out of bed and talk to him and cuddle him until he eventually wakes up, upon which point he dries his eyes, has no idea why he's crying and goes back to bed until it happens again about an hour or two later. He has no recollection the following morning. It's really distressing and becoming really exhausting too, and I don't know what I can do to make things better. Any advice gratefully received.

[Alis girls]

I found waking them a few mins before it happened esp as mine was 10pmish sometimes helped. If too late put on light make sure hes safe but dont touch or cuddle as I was told it made it worse. talk sootheingly and when he wakes up tuck him back in and light off etc. they do not remember it

[AnnieP]

I have no actual proof of this, but I have heard that being too hot is a cause of dreaming more than usual, which would fit with the timescale of your poor little boy's bad dreams and our current weather.

Might be worth trying a fan in his room for really hot nights

I DO hope you can help him out, its so horrid to see them upset.

[Scary Mary]

My three all went through a stage of having nightmares.

 

 

The boys responded well to a drop of Lavender and a drop of Eucalyptus essential oils on a tissue tucked under the edge of thier pillow. I did this if I found them restless in the night and it was amazing how quickly thier breathing returned to normal.

 

My daughter was harder to deal with and on the advice of friends I told her all about dream catchers. She chose one that she liked and we hung it over her bed. It actually seemed to work, so one day I asked her if it worked she said some bad dreams got through but the were never as bad as before because they couldn't be

 

http://www.siiren.co.uk/native-american-indian--dreamcatchers-88-c.asp

 

Hope you resolve the problem soon

 

Mary

[Chucky Mama]

One of my children who is very intellegent used to suffer really badly from nightmares. He used to have very nasty dreams about me being killed or dying horribly . They were always worse when his brain had not had sufficient stimulation during the day we found. With these recurring dreams we eventually broke the cycle by talking about them and then making up a different outcome, usually funny. e.g when he walked in on the person trying to kill me he hit them on the head with a frying pan (cartoon style) and we laughed about it. The next time he had the dream he said that it actually happened that way in the dream. I wonder if we successfully reprogrammed his brain. We also used dreamcatcher for my daughter and worry dolls that she kept under her pillow but her nightmares were not as horrific as my sons.

[katieadams]

Try reading here:

 

http://www.childrenfirst.nhs.uk/families/az_child_health/n/nightmares_night-terrors.html

 

It's been a few years since I worked in psychology but the advice was always not to touch or wake up the child, just to talk reasurringly and soothingly until it passes and then be there to comfort if they wake up. If there's a pattern to when it happens you can wake them just before it's due too which avoids it happening (they need to be in a certain level of sleep for it to occur which takes time to get to) - just wake gently and then let them go back to sleep before you leave. Sometimes it is possible to gently talk to a sleeping child to lift them just out of the very deep sleep without waking them altogether (saying their name and things like mummy's here, and any pet names you have for them) but this is a fine line to tread! Good luck!

[iar fach goch]

Thanks very much for all the advice, have already changed his bedding to try and keep him cooler and will be putting some of these ideas into practice this week. Am not looking forward to this week as OH goes away tonight for a week so I will have no-one to comfort me after I comfort YS! Wish me luck!

[Ness3103]

my twins have night terrors too, they often go running round shouting and screaming which is distressing kyle had them as a newborn, the midwife said he was re-living his birth because he was twin number two he went through the contractions etc twice. they're nearly 6 and they don't have them as often now because at one point it was every night. now it's 1 every couple of weeks. it is very distressing for us but they don't remember any of it. i just calmly talk to telling them i'm there and calling their names, sometimes they have a conversation with me other times it's like they're speaking another language, they also seem to be tuned in to each other and dreaming the same thing at the same time which is un-nerving. i think they'll grow out of it eventually.

[Couperwife]

I dont know

 

I dont have children

 

but I hope something works out soon to give you all a better nights sleep

 

cathy

x

[Valkyrie]

I used to stay a while with them, but first to ease their minds I would grab hold of that naughty dream and throw it away (swiping the air around their heads) towards the window. This always did the trick but, if it was a really nasty one, I would have to make a couple of swipes at it before finally winning. I would also tell it to go away and don't come back or else! Then I would check to see with them if they were happy that I'd banished it. We did have a book about a little boy that had nightmares and eventually he wasn't frightened any more and said "boo" - in the end it turned out more scared of him, so he told it off and all was well. That helped too. Unfortunately I can't remember what it was called.

[hilda-and-evadne]

the midwife said he was re-living his birth

 

For what it's worth, as a child up to the age of about 13 I had a terrifying and recurring nightmare from which I always woke up sweating and crying. Until one day when a teacher said, after I described it, that it sounded like a nightmare about being born. Marvellous to tell, I never had that dream again.

[Ness3103]

wow that's interesting i'm hoping they grow out of it because it's exhausting as they both do it at the same time. it's not too bad if oh is here but when he's working i have to deal with them alone which is difficult when they both go running off screaming. i'm terrified they'll hurt themselves. i got a dream pillow from the mind,body,spirit show and that worked for a while as did the dream catcher and it's not happening as much now. someone has mentioned it could be that they are reliving a past life memory. which is interesting as kyle occasionally talks about his 'other mummy and daddy'. when i ask him what he means he just says the ones he lived with before me and then looks at me as if i'm being stupid