Children's Common Nightmares

Deb Kinnard said:

So I repurposed one of my mother's "room potpourri" sprays into Wolf Spray. We sprayed their rooms most nights. Just one tiny shot would do it, because of the distinctive fragrance. It was never used for a lesser purpose, and my kids swore it kept the slavering beasts out of their rooms.

Click to expand...

I went through a period where I was afraid of the dark, but I was also terrified to get out of bed and cross the room (which was necessary to turn on the light). My dad went to Radio Shack and bought a little contraption that you plug into the wall and then plug whatever appliance you want into it, to make that appliance turn on and off with a single-button remote control.

We hooked it up to my desk lamp, put the remote on a loop of shoestring, and I wore it to bed like a necklace. If I woke up in the middle of the night, I just fumbled for the remote and turned the lights on. I slept with that remote for years.

When I finally outgrew my fear of the dark, I moved the gadget to my stereo and had an awesome "remote control" stereo before there was such a thing.

I remember dreams where I was falling a lot. Sometimes they started as flying dreams. Or dreams with plummeting elevators. Still have those sometimes, in fact.

The worst ones were the ones where I thought I'd awakened, but then the dream monster or bad situation (sometimes even just a very bad, creepy feeling) or whatever would still be there, because I was really still asleep. I had those sometimes as a kid but never as a teen or adult. I wonder if there's something about being a kid that makes you more prone to those fake waking up nightmares.

They were horrible and are the nightmares that made me wake up (for real) screaming.

I've had many waking nightmares as an adult, where I think I've woken up, but am still dreaming. Those are always the worst! Occasionally, there's visual clues, something I identify as "wrong," that makes me realize I'm dreaming. Like, the bedroom walls might be the wrong color. Or I'll see my cat that died when I was a child. Or my legs will be covered in tattoos. Something that isn't normal.

I used to have sleep paralysis all the time, where you wake up, but your brain is still in REM. You're conscious, but your body is frozen (so you can't act out your dreams) and because you're still dreaming, but your eyes are open, you hallucinate. Quite often, I would hear footsteps approaching, or see a shadowy figure in the doorway, or next to the bed. It's absolutely terrifying! I would believe that someone had broken into the house and I needed to wake up, so I could defend myself. I'd struggle to snap out of it, but there's nothing you can do. Sometimes hearing your own screams is enough to wake your brain up, but not always.

I went through a period where I was literally screaming myself awake on a nightly basis. The content of the dreams varied, but invariably, something would terrify me and I'd start screaming in my sleep. It always scared my husband to death!