Thursday, November 6, 2008

Bad Dreams

Taz used to have some nightmares when things were really bad. Now they only reoccur during regressions. He hassn'thad any in a long time. A reader sent me this information on dreams. If your child is troubled by them I think it is worth a try!

"A few times a week, at my convienence and time span, I give my son a piece of paper and pencil (to keep it simple) and tell him to make a dream he'd like to have. He also brings in his dream journal to his AT and she compliments them as well. I think it gives her insight on his week as well.

Later, when putting him to bed, the VERY LAST THING WE DO so his LAST THOUGHT is the dream he wants to have, is discussed. I ask him sensory questions like what do you think it smells like and silly questions, it's VERY VERY bonding.

On days when I don't let him draw his dream, we lay in bed and sometimes I'll pull an old dream out of the stack, or he'll want to make up a new dream. It's suppose to be a cartoon for your brain. I ask the same questions...Who's in it? What's your favorite part? Wow! I like that dream!

A few weeks later I slip in, so, what dream are WE gonna have tonight? Sometimes he'll say I don't know, what do you think I should have? I'll start and he finishes.

A few weeks later I slip in I can't wait to have that dream, too!"

She said it is has been very effective with her son! Thanks B!!! Have a healing day you all!

6 comments:

~Dinah said...

Great ideas. We've never done anything quite as specific as this. But when he's going through a period of bad dreams, I'll sit on the edge of his bed and describe something beautiful for him to dream about. Sometimes he adds details.

I have nightmares too and something I encourage my son to do (because it helps me) is to talk the bad dreams out-loud, no matter how scary or gross they are. Then I tell him that once he talks them out they can't get back in his head. It works for me and it seems to help my son.

Brenda said...

Dinah,

Thanks for sharing that. It is very good. It really helps my son to talk too. His dreams always involve a monster/dragon taking him away. Reassuring him that no one is taking him from us makes a big difference. It helps him to say it out loud too.

Torina said...

Neat.

I have dreamcatchers hanging above all my kids beds to filter out the bad dreams. They all can talk about what they are for.

With my one son who used to have nightmares every night, we would talk about what he wanted to dream about (dirt biking, car racing, etc.).

Both things seemed to have helped because I can't even remember the last time he had a bad dream.

Rick said...

Brenda, regarding your comment on my blog... You sound like some kind of preacher.

Sweet dreams!!

Perspective RAD said...

This is really helpful for me.. We struggled with severe night terrors for 2 years.. Now he generally doesn't dream as much, but wakes up scared. I am going to try this! Thank you :)

Emiley said...

This is really good. 2 of my kids had AWFUL Night terros for several years and one still has occassional nightmares. I wish I would have tried this years ago.