Can you help with son's continued nightmares?

Question

My son is 4, at our previous home we discovered his room was haunted by an evil spirit and moved. (I say this in case it is helpful) Since being at our new home for a year he has been fine until the last couple of weeks. He wakes up every night between 12-1am crying and having nightmares usually it is about being attacked by spiders. I tried looking up spiders in a dream guide but didn't find anything. I want to find out what is behind his nightmares so I can resolve it and get him back to peaceful nights.

Just an added note. I don't necessairly believe it is something supernatural causing them. I do believe it is related to something else. I just wanted to people to know he had a history of non-peaceful sleep previously.

Answer 1

I have had night-terrors about spiders all my life. My mother said it started at about 3 yrs of age. The terrors come and go. I have gone as long as a year between episodes, but when it does happen, it will happen several nights in a row:(
I assume you know the difference between nightmares and night-terrors????
Simply put...night-terrors can be a bit worse because you wake up, but your mind is still dreaming...so not only are you startled awake, but you look down and see the spider still on you...((cringe))...it can be traumatic for the entire family!
The good news is that most kids grow out of it by the time they are about 7 or 8 yrs old. (I am one of the VERY few adults who still suffer from them)
I like the advice you were given about providing a level of comfort in a night light or stuffed animal.
There isn't really much you can do, it is sort of a right-of-passage for young children. Just be careful what he takes into his brain. No scary or violent movies...be prepared that they might start up if he is feeling particularly stressed.
Good Luck:)

Answer 2

I can't answer your question until you answer one for me, please: is there any history in your family of communication with the spirit world? Don't look in the dream guide for this one, I don't think you will find what you are looking for. You need to really listen to him about what he is seeing. If it is every night at the same time, it may be a spirit trying to get a message through to someone else. He just doesn't have the vocabulary to do it yet. By the way, and even though you didn't ask, evil spirits are demons. Very, very few 'haunt' children's rooms dear. In fact, I can't think of a single example. I am curious as to how you diagnosed this.

Answer 3

The main problem seems to be that his parents apparently believe in 'evil spirits'. Kids pick up on this stuff. If you're supertitious and believe in that nonsense, THEY will start to also. It's no wonder he has bad dreams. The best way to deal with them is confront the things he's scared of. If it's spiders, capture a spider in a jar, be nice to it, let it move across your hand and show him that it's just another animal that looks funny. Show him that he doesn't have to be afraid.

If YOU believe that there's something supernatural behind every unexplained occurence, he's going to grow up to be the same way. Do you want your son to grow up wise, or ignorant and fearful?

Answer 4

The trick in falling asleep which contain your worst concern looming over you is that this is impossible. besides, this is the nightmares you seek for to therapy, and if Cecil falls asleep, he will as quickly as returned be a hapless, helpless sufferer to greater of the comparable. i've got self belief sleep deprivation is a thank you to flow. Take a sort in a terrifying clown dress, provide him an evil smile, with sharp tooth etc., and stand it over your son's mattress to verify he won't get a wink of sleep this evening, or the different evening. that would desire to do it.

Answer 5

you can take him to a shaman or reiki healer, or whatever to give him a protective charm (wink wink nudge nudge) and it will "protect" him so that he will find peace in sleep.

he probably has a phobia of spiders. It may help just to show him that only the poisonous spiders are the ones to be worried about, and that they don't live in your house, state, etc. The rest can be "dealt with".

Getting him to relax internally will get rid of his night terrors. He needs to make peace with the spiders.

Answer 6

You might want to try Emotion Free Therapy. Free manual at www.emofree.com
Here's an article about traumatic dreams after stressful experiences:
http://www.emofree.com/Trauma/curingptsd.htm
It's not about children's nightmares, but the situation is similar.
EFT (emotion free therapy) works by tapping on meridian points while the person is thinking about their problem. At a minimum, you would do three rounds, plus a set-up.
The set-up would be something like, "Even though I have scary dreams about spiders, I'm still a great kid!"
Then a round of "spiders scare me." "Their feet feel icky on my arms." "I'm afraid they'll bite me." and so on. Then a round of "Even though spiders scare me, I'm still a great kid!"
and a final round of, "I choose to know that dream spiders aren't real." "I'm a great kid!" "I choose to think the spiders are going for a walk." "I'm a great kid!" and so forth. Use statements that are true for your son. I'm just giving examples

Here are some articles about using EFT with children:
http://www.emofree.com/tutorial/tutorofifteen.htm

http://www.emofree.com/Children/EFT-with-children-guidelines.htm

http://www.emofree.com/children/forparents.htm

And here's a list of EFT articles about working with children:
http://www.emofree.com/articles.aspx?id=9

All best wishes.

Answer 7

Get him a dream catcher, or get a special night light to 'keep away the bad dreams'. Sometimes a special stuffed animal can provide comfort, or a special blanket might help.
One mother I read sprayed a bottle of water with a hint of perfume around her child's room as a type of 'monster-be-gone".

Answer 8

your son has seen something or been told something or been scared by someone about the spiders which scared him and he is remembering it in his dreams.

you need to show him that spiders are just another creature upon the earth. something to be respected and given their own space.
you need to teach him the information AND show him by example that they are NOT the horrible monsters that they are portrayed as. talk with him and in time he'll overcome the fears and the nightmares.

hope this helps

Answer 9

I had a lot of nightmares when I was little. My mother taught me lucid dreaming. She said when I see the monsters, to stand up and tell them to go away. It took a few tries but it worked for me.

I'm teaching my son a magic word to scare the monsters off if he has them.

Answer 10

you really think that a 4 year olds mind would have the capability to metaphor a spider?

the kid is afraid of spiders. or hes actin out

tell him to quit being a sissy and stop lying.