With our four children, night waking because of scary dreams are pretty prevalent. Thankfully, I’m a super heavy sleeper and don’t wake up most of the time…however, my husband doesn’t find that fact so amusing when it’s his precious sleep lost. Besides regular nightmares, we’ve also dealt with our fair share of night terrors. Whatever the situation, it’s always helpful to have a few tips on hand to deal with these unwanted dreams. Here’s some ways our family deals:
–We pray with our children. If and when they come to our room in the middle of the night woken from a scary dream, we say a prayer with them that they’ll be able to have good dreams and to be able to go back to sleep easily. This usually helps with the worry and crying.
–We also try our very best to manage what images and stories our children are exposed to that could seem like “real life” to a child, and consequently may materialize in their dreams. We had delayed letting our older two girls (ages 6 and 8) watch “The Wizard of Oz” until the other night….and unfortunately, our daughter had a bad dream about the witch. Insert: Mom Guilt
–If it’s a really bad nightmare that can’t be consoled, we let our kids sleep with us for a little while. This is the sure fire way to help them get back to sleep, while also making sure they feel safe and secure. I’m pretty sure most parents use this tactic, right?
–With night terrors, which are in a league of their own, we’ve found that taking our kids straight to the potty usually gets them out of that half-sleep in which night terrors occur. I know this might not work with every kid, but it does well with ours.
–And lastly, we are strict about sleep in our house. I mean, sleep nazis we are. When our children get their naps and to bed on time, we’ve found that they suffer less nighttime disturbances.
***How do you deal with your children’s nightmares? Does one of your children have them more often than the others?
