Banish Nightmares With Just Some Simple Psychology and a Calendar

For several months last year, my 2 1/2-year-old was waking up crying inconsolably in the middle of the night. Based on her behavior, we guessed she was having nightmares, but she wouldn't tell us about them.

Finally, during one of our 2 a.m. episodes of "20 Questions," I stumbled upon a clue. I asked her if she had dreamed about falling. She replied, "Yes." I recalled reading that falling was often a subconscious manifestation of feeling out of control. I remembered that my daughter asked me nearly every day, "What are we doing today? Where are we going?" Each day I had different activities planned. I realized that she was asking these questions because she wanted to know what to expect. She must have been feeling uneasy because she didn't know from one day to the next what she would be doing or where she would be going.

After some thought, we decided to give her her own calendar. We hung a big, blotter pad-sized wall calendar on the door of her room. We got stickers that represented her various activities: stars for school, toe shoes for ballet, balloons for birthday parties, praying hands for church, and so on. At the beginning of the month, we put stickers on all the events we already had planned, such as school days, church, and ballet. Then each day before bed, we looked at the calendar, crossed the day off that had just been completed, and checked out the next day to see what would be going on.

I'm happy to say that since we've started the calendar routine with our daughter, nightmares have almost become extinct in our house. For the infrequent bad dream, we hung a dreamcatcher in her window and told her that it's supposed to trap the nightmare, and hold it until it evaporates in the sunlight. When she wakes up with a scary dream, she "throws" it at the dreamcatcher. Between the calendar and the dreamcatcher, we've all been able to sleep much better!

First published May 18, 2006 on ClubMom.com. ClubMom.com is ceasing operations on December 31, 2008, so I am republishing my work here.