You know that dream where everyone in the world hates you, but somehow you gain an invitation to compete on Iron Chef America where the secret ingredient is barley and one of the guest judges is Anderson “I love me some Crack Pie” Cooper, and you burn fish so badly that it looks like chicken until you pull back the skin and a sea of pin bones are revealed, and suddenly the entire kitchen goes up in flames…
What do you mean you don’t remember that one?
I get that one all the time, which probably explains why my 8-year-old is obsessed with dreams.
My daughter, the dreamweaver, is completely fixated on sharing every single detail of her night visions. You’ve never seen a child so engrossed with analyzing each and every element of her dreams, both the good and the bad. With the good dreams, she enjoys speaking about them ad nauseam in hopes that repeating the details will help the scenario come true. With nightmares, she shares the gory particulars so she can be reassured that they’ll never become reality.
According to experts, children’s nightmares often stem from being punished by parents. In addition, nightmares also commonly occur when a youngster is sick or if the child is living in a stressful environment.
A study conducted at the University of Virginia also found that children dream more about aggressive acts than adults. Researchers concluded that this may be due to the notion that kids are still trying to control their impulses in order to function in a civilized society.
If your child suffers from recurring nightmares, doctors say you should help her “rewrite” the bad dreams by giving them a happy ending. For example, you could encourage your child to imagine that the big hairy spider that’s about to devour her is actually a little ladybug dressed up in a tarantula costume. Another idea is to have your son or daughter keep a journal where he or she can track unpleasant dreams. Then, examine the bedtime routine followed by the child on the nights that were bad dream-free and do your best to recreate them.
Do your children like to discuss their dreams?