How to Help Your Child Deal With Nightmares

All children have nightmares at some point.  These can be traumatic, frightening experiences for your little one, even if they rarely occur.  However, what do you do when your child suffers from recurring nightmares?  How do you defeat the boogieman on his own ground?

 

The first thing that you need to do for your child is to give them reassurance that nightmares are not real, and gently encourage him or her to share details.  Do not be surprised if your child is reluctant to share those details.  Nightmares can be frightening even in the retelling, but you don’t need to take your child to child counseling to overcome bad dreams

 

Next, you need to help your child begin rescripting his or her nightmares.  Help your child to imagine how things might have been different and less frightening in the dream.  Perhaps you can help him or her create a funny ending.  For instance, if your child dreamed about being chased by a 10-foot-tall spider, ask him what clothing would look the most ridiculous on the spider.  He will undoubtedly have fun ‘dressing up’ the giant spider in pink stockings, a bowler hat and ballet slippers.  By the time he’s done, the spider may no longer be scary to him.  Engage your child and let him or her help with this process.

 

Rescripting nightmares can also help.  It might seem like a frightening thing to go over the events of the dream, but with a rescripted dream, it can help alleviate the fear and frustration of the dream.  Help your child reenact the dream but with the changes that you have made – perhaps he or she has powerful spells to defeat the nightmares, and they become the hero, chasing down that inappropriately-attired giant spider with a laser gun!

 

Another great thing you can do with your child is to watch ‘Monsters, Inc’ together.  This very clever animated Pixar movie centers around a group of monsters who power their ‘Monster City’ by scaring children.  But when an actual human child finds their way to the Monster City, the child learns that the monsters are actually more scared of the children than the other way around.  This is a funny, touching movie rental and your child will undoubtedly love it.

 

Finally, you need to find resolution for the nightmares.  This means uncovering the underlying cause of the bad dreams in the first place.  Usually, this will be stress or fear in the child’s life that is being expressed through dreams.  Encourage them to write the dream down, and then work together to make a list of things that they think may have caused it.

 

Helping your child overcome nightmares can be simple when you follow these steps.

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