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nightmares

krenee86's picture

Submitted by krenee86 on Wed, 09/15/2010 - 7:52am

Recently my SS3 has been waking up around the same time every morning like between 2 and 4am. Screaming and crying for daddy. So daddy wakes up and takes him to the livingroom to cuddle and watch cartoons until SS calms down, while I make him a sippycup of milk. after a cartoon or two we put him back to sleep and usually he just falls back asleep for 3 or so more hours. But I was just wondering if there was anything else we could do to keep him from waking up screaming? We think hes having nightmares because when he wakes up crying he says hes scared. He thinks theres a monster in his bedroom. We have countless times explained that monsters are not real that it was only a bad dream. We turn the lights on look under the bed.. closet etc.. He still wakes up every night scared.

We don't know what else to do. We keep the room pitch dark (blankets over the windows) because he wakes up as soon as a little light comes in through the windows. I thought about a nightlight but I figured if a little window light would wake him up then how is a night light supposed to keep him asleep?

I'd just like to hear how you all handled nightmares and monsters with your child or stepchild?

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caregiver1127's picture

Submitted by caregiver1127 on Wed, 09/15/2010 - 8:38am

My DD had night terrors at age 3 - she would wake up and be afraid of everyone but me. I mean it was bad she would scream for 45 minutes. At first we did not realize that she had not woken up - she was in a trance. Did not even recognize DH would just scream and kick and fight some imaginary monster. I then realize that when I took her to the bathroom that seemed to break the trance. Also I took her to her peds doctor and he told me that she needed to be in bed by 7:30 not 8 or 8:30 that she was not getting enough sleep. I started putting her in bed at 7:30 and they stopped.

Now flashforward to today and because she watched a few episodes of Scooby Doo she has been having nightmares about monsters for the past 5 weeks. We have not allowed her to watch Scooby for about 3 weeks but she keeps having them. It is killing DH and I because she will wake up start screaming one of us (usually me - he works outside the home) goes in there and falls asleep with her. She is usually asleep in about 5 minutes. We also do not let her sleep in our bed so she has been trying to get in our bed at night to sleep - sometimes I am so tired after doing this for 2 weeks in a row that she climbs in my bed and I don't even realize till I wake up with her next to me. Last night she crawled in bed but because she squirms so much I made her go back to her own bed and I laid with her for a while and then she went to sleep.

I would try putting him in bed earlier or taking him to the bathroom as soon as he starts screaming. I would try a nightlight and see if that helps him because he will be able to see the room and see he is alone - when he wakes up it is pitch black and while we adults like that I think children like a little light in their bedrooms at night. Good luck!