Tag Archives: nightmares

Do Babies Remember?

My oldest memory is of the time I was playing in my garage and found an old ketchup packet. I tried to tear it open with my teeth, but the ketchup ended up squirting in my mouth. Not only did I get sick, but I also did not eat ketchup for the next sixteen years. I was four years old at the time. I am 34 now; a 30-year-old memory is pretty good in my opinion. But this post isn’t about me. It’s about my daughter, Lily. She is sixteen months old, and what I want to know is: Can … Continue reading →

When Nightmares Attack

I’ve always had rather vivid dreams — or at least been very good at remembering my dreams. Sometimes, this is a good thing. A dream inspired my first published piece of fiction. Sometimes, this is a bad thing… like when I have a nightmare that makes me turn on all the lights, afraid to go back to sleep. According to the National Library of Medicine, nightmares are more common in childhood than in adulthood. (So are night terrors!) However, as much as fifty percent of adults (mainly women) still experience occasional nightmares. Tips to help prevent nightmares: Make a bedtime … Continue reading →

Night Terrors vs. Nightmares

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I’ve always had vivid dreams: happy ones, sad ones, nightmares, weird ones, dreams that eventually got turned into stories. But every once in a while, a dream leaves me in an absolute panic. I wake up in a sweat, heart pounding, afraid to move and even more afraid to go back to sleep for fear of being back in the dream again. I had one of those last night. While I used to think nightmares and sleep terrors were basically the same thing, they’re not. What’s the difference? Night terrors tend to happen within the first few hours of falling … Continue reading →

Scents and Dreams (and Nightmares)

German researchers have found that different smells can influence your dreams. When study participants were exposed to bad smells (researchers used rotten eggs), they generally had bad dreams. When study participants were exposed to good smells (researchers used roses), the dreams were generally good ones. It does make sense — smell stimulates a whole lot of behaviors in the body. Different scents can influence emotion, bring back memories, increase or decrease appetite, and even stimulate sexual arousal. Dangerous smells can even trigger a fight-or-flight response. The scent of burning (even if it’s just my neighbors using their grill on the … Continue reading →

Preschoolers and Monsters

Sometime between the age of three-and-a-half and four-and-a-half, the monsters under the bed (and in the closet, behind the curtain, in the hamper, etc) start to appear. Your preschooler may suddenly be afraid to sleep alone in her own bed and may describe bad dreams or associate noises in the home with monsters. Why is this happening? Well, there are a number of reasons. The preschooler is now at an age where she is growing in a few developmental ways. Her imagination is really taking off. You may witness a lot of imaginative play that involves complete story lines with … Continue reading →

A Marital Nightmare

As you might have surmised by now, I’m keen on dreams. (For examples, see “The Dream: How I Knew Wayne Was the One” and “Do You Ever Dream About Your Spouse’s Family?”.) Here I go again… The Recurring Nightmare It’s never the same dream twice, but the theme is always the same: Wayne leaves me. I hate these dreams. (Nightmares.) It’s not like he just up and leaves and says, “Thanks, it’s been fun, but I’m done with us.” Oh no. In my dreams he’s usually mean about it. There’s usually another woman and right in front of my face … Continue reading →

Beast – Margaret Wild

Jaime is superstitious and he’s also got obsessive compulsive disorder. He doesn’t know what he has; he only knows that if he doesn’t do certain repetitive things, he’ll have bad luck. Every night, he dreams that a beast comes and looks in his window. He’s terrified that someday, the beast will break through and get him, and he adds more repetitive things to his to-do list each day, but that list is taking longer to get through and his compulsion is starting to upset his daily schedule. Despite the fact that he has a loving, supportive family, he doesn’t feel … Continue reading →

Do dreams really mean anything?

We all have weird dreams from time to time. Some dreams make no sense at all, others seem to follow recurring themes and visit us at night on a regular basis. Often we are being threatened in a dream and we cannot scream. Another common theme is falling, or tripping over. Sometimes present-day activities will take place in our childhood home of long ago. We dream of people and places that are both strange and very familiar. But do any of these nocturnal adventures really mean anything? Given the number of books on dream analysis that are available and the … Continue reading →

Help Your Child Triumph Over Irrational Fears

Our family was visiting a botanical garden, and Kyle was very unhappy. As we walked through the trails between the trees and blossoming bushes, he covered his ears and squinted his eyes, sometimes humming to himself. “He’s afraid of bees,” his older brother informed me. I was somewhat surprised. I’d had an inkling he didn’t like bees, but now I was seeing the real depth of his fear. A couple times on our walk, for no apparent reason, Kyle would shriek and duck in horror, as if aliens were attacking. Sometimes I saw the culprit “bee” (several times it was … Continue reading →

Night Terrors: How to Help Your Child

I’ll never forget my brother’s phone call a few years ago. He was out of breath, and his voice trembled as he spoke to me. He explained that his young son had just gotten out of bed about an hour after being put down. The boy appeared awake, and his eyes were wide with terror. He also screamed in fear of something, and spoke with language that didn’t make sense. “His eyes looked right through me as if I weren’t there,” my brother said. The behavior chilled my brother to the bone. It was as though his son were possessed, … Continue reading →