Nightmares!?

Question

My 2 year old son has nightmares about once a month. I'm not sure what causes them. This morning ( 2:30) he woke up screaming and pointing to his mattress saying" get it!" He only watches children's shows ( only on PBS). He slept very light the remainder of the morning. What can I do to help him?

Answer 1

Nightmares and dreams are part of the subconscious & part of it is from what happened recently and some that foods, the mind can play with. Children at that age are computing everything they encounter. I find food or drinks with a lot of sugar or stimulants will trigger people to dream irratically. Monitor what your child has been eating and the amount of extra activity... and journal it. It will help you or a medical official to determine what is causing it. Good luck to you and many happy dreams for your little guy.

Answer 2

Chances are he doesnt really remember them in the morning. They run strong in some families. Its the same thing as sleep walking. The child's mind is asleep, but the body is awake, so instead of simply having a dream, theyre animated and able to voice whats happening in the dream.

Generally it can be avoided my making sure he's getting enough sleep. The more tired he is at night, the more likely he is to wake up with one. He should be sleepy and sleeping through the night, but if he's exhausted and repleatedly having them, consider having him take a longer nap during the day.

Theyre kinda like night terrors. My dads side of the family got them really bad in early child hood, and then again in early adult hood. Iam 23 and still get them from time to time. Mine usually involve me leaping from the bed and thrashing around trying to swat spiders off the mattress or myself, or my husband.

My husband found that the best thing to do during one is to tell me I got them, its just a dream, and encourage me to lay back down, that he'll take care of it. I dont even remember it in the morning :) and some how i dont wake up all the way.

He really will out grow it at some point. But honestly the more tired he is, the worse and more frequent they are.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

My brother had nightmares after he had a surgery of tonsils. he always was tuoching his throat and crying.....everyone in my family talked to him while saying to him that it will not be repeated anymore and he should forget about that.
I think that something happened to your baby, maybe he got hurt a little bit and you don't know it, or something inside the mattres hurts him when he lies down.
Talk to him when he is awake and try to find out because for sure something happened which you don't know, just ask him carefully why he is afraid from mattres or whats wrong with mattress. Also maybe he saw a movie, or if you have babysitter talk to her as well.
I hope he will not have nightmares anymore.

Answer 4

A calming bedtime routine is key, as is keeping track of what food he eats and how much he's done during the day. I know that if I eat weird combinations of food or wear myself out during the day I have very strange dreams -- surely that's true for young children too!

Fear and insecurity also contribute to bad dreams, in my experience -- does he have a stressful day, a mixed-up schedule, a new visitor, etc. on the days he has nightmares?

Have you tried praying with him before bed?

Answer 5

Sometimes we as adults play a certain way with kids that we think are funny (like hiding from the child and jumping from behind a door or making faces) when really the child is frightened by this and it turns into nightmares when they're sleeping.