Hello, new here!
I’ve suffered with just bizarre intense dreams, that i suppose should be traumatising, and I think they were when I was a child, for nearly all my life. I still suffer with them, waking up multiple times a night, not really wanting to go to sleep because i find they’re more draining that if I just didn’t sleep. As a child, I remember a few recurring dreams quite vividly still to this day, more than 20 years later. While I don’t find most of the dreams all that disturbing (mostly I just wake up thinking “What the hell was that about??”) My concern is that my 2-year-old is now showing signs of having similar dreams. Not every night but at least once a week. For myself, I never thought much about seeking help but if my son is starting having just as strange or worse dreams I would like to be able to support him through them if I can. In my experience, I find I can go back to sleep and re-enter the dream and somewhat control it.
I have been diagnosed with anxiety, depression, adhd and a panic disorder but I’m not sure my dreams reflect that, for example, one dream I remember having repeatedly as a kid was that a volcano would erupt behind our flat (we live nowhere near any volcanoes, active or dormant) and I would have to jump over furniture Mario style to get up the stairs to save my baby brother who was still in his cot, then jump out of the window onto a trampoline before the lava melted (nothing ever caught fire). I must have been about 5 or 6 having that dream repeatedly. As I got older dinosaurs and fairies featured a lot, and then later zombies, and aliens. Lately, I’ve been playing dead by daylight so that features a lot. For me, I don’t find a lot of them traumatising but they are weird enough to often shock me out of sleep. And it’s pretty much every night. I have had insomnia since I was a teenager. In my early 20s I did do some recreational drugs and they stopped dreams altogether and I was able to sleep soundly but when I stopped doing that the dreams were back again within a few weeks.
I mostly want some advice on how to help my son if he is going to start suffering because I do find them very draining, and hes got to get through school with these. Obviously the last thing i want to do is chuck medication down his throat, he’s too young for that but calming techniques and regulation advice is so very welcome. And im not sure whether to classify this as vivid dreams or lucid dream either.
I am considering going to my doctor but i find her rather dismissive of my physical health problems so I’m not confident she’ll take me seriously.
Wow, are you me? I just woke up from another vivid dream and decided to finally look up some “help” and found your post. Almost identical with vivid reoccurring and also new dreams from a young age, my whole life. I also have ADHD, anxiety and depression. I am left handed and kinda thought maybe that had something to do with it. I can now re-enter my “good” dreams and control what happens if I want more. I just learned this morning they are called lucid dreams. I always remember my dreams and can recite them in extremely fine detail. My family and friends in awe and call me a super dreamer. However, for years in my 20’s and 30’s the bad dreams kept me from wanting to sleep and the only way I could sleep was alcohol or rec. drugs to “black out” and sleep heavy. Those nightmares (sometimes 3 a night) also made me think for a while maybe they were things to come, premonitions or things that happened somewhere and I needed to help the people or kids out of the situation. They were always grossly disturbing, traumatic, and I would be drenched in sweat, heart racing with anxiety when I woke. I’d be rocked to my core and would take a while to shake it off or snap out of it, next morning into the afternoon. Thankfully I haven’t had one of those for a while and on to these new ones where I’m kind of awake but fall back asleep and can control if I want more. These have been happening for about a year which is super interesting.
I also have a son. When he was 2-4 he would sit up in his bed talking some weird gibberish with his eyes wide open but was dead asleep. It was real scary and freaked me out. After talking to his doctor he said he was dreaming and try not wake him but lay him back down. I was always afraid he’d start walking but never did. His doctor was right he out grew it around 5yrs old, he’s now 16 and says he never has any dreams, good or bad.
You should talk to your sons pediatrician next visit and see what they say, I’m sure they will say the same, or give you some tips to handle the situation.
If it were my child, I’d take him to a child psychotherapist who works with dreams (psychodynamic therapy - as opposed to CBT). I’m a retired therapist. The therapist can help your son feel safer, understand what’s going on and help him deal with his dreams in positive ways.
I thank you for your responses, i wasnt really sure anyone could relate, all my friends think I’m just really weird and my mum called me “overdramatic” when i tried to speak to her about it. Unfortunately for any help with the kids i have to go through my GP first. My mental health therapist has had to refer me on to get further help as shes not qualified or knowledgable enough to help me and she has suggested i ask my new therapist about this topic when i start seeing her. I might talk to my paternsl grandmother as well as i believe she has mentioned something about dreams when I was younger and i seem to take after her a lot.
I may also put a thread up on Reddit and see if there’s more of a community than we think.
Thank you 