Comments on: The dream life of children

By: Jax Venter

Jax Venter — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 06:42:37 +0000

My child also has these terrible nightmares where his whole body shakes, he screams and crys. He has had them from 6 months old and seems to be getting worse. He is 3 now dose anybody have any ideas as what to do?

By: Tanya Dunbar

Tanya Dunbar — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 05:23:26 +0000

My 3 year old has been dreaming since the day she was born via emergency C section which begs the question was she sleeping when pulled from the womb? As a baby she would wake terrified & crying but as time & verbal skills mature she screams for mummy & daddy then “leave my teddy” “i never got a cake” “don’t do that” etc etc whilst crying her wee heart out & none have reference to events of the days preceeding. Never quite night terrors but frighteningly close.

By: Lukman

Lukman — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 06:41:59 +0000

Eerie, i think u still need to think about that over nd over again coz it’ll have a very useful meaning.

By: Night Terrors Children

Night Terrors Children — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:55:27 +0000

Worst dreams are night terrors, although children don’t tend to remember them, researches have shown that they dream of someone trying to kill them or so.

By: sister madly

sister madly — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 04:57:05 +0000

“Children who have night terrors, in which they awaken early during the night from SWS [slow-wave sleep] and display intense fear and agitation, are PROBABLY terrorized by disorientation owing to incomplete awakening rather than by a dream.” (caps mine)
…sorry i don’t buy it…my brother had night terrors AND reported that he was being chased by monsters…which also refutes the idea that young children are not participants in their dreams…
i also remember having frightening dreams about being sucked up by the street sweeper…i was under five at the time…i continued to have that dream though grade school…

By: Krista

Krista — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:43:23 +0000

Very interesting study, although I felt compelled to share from my own experience.
I have distinct memories which dispute these findings and suggest to me that children may indeed be having complex dream experiences, but lack the facility to articulate them. Unless, of course, I’m a freak.
One dream in particular I can remember occurred when I was 5. I can say my age with relative confidence, as I can remember where I was on waking; we moved house almost every year in my youth, so remembering the house confirms the year.
This dream involved complex emotions, had a strong narrative and series of events, involved myself as a character in both third-person and first-person perspective and had a strong, complex environmental setting. More importantly, on waking I recall that this wasn’t the first intense nightmare I’d ever had.
The dream itself involved an alien invasion. Humans didn’t fight back effectively, and we were being enslaved. The strongest memory of the dream begins as I was standing in a queue outside a pavillion with hundreds of other people. It was a very hot day, and I was exhausted. I felt curious and apprehensive.
As we stepped into the pavillion, I saw the room was a vibrant pink colour. The aliens were classic ‘greys’, tall and thin. Humans were being pushed into a cattle-style run. An alien would stand behind the victim and thrust a long needle into their spine, which pushed clean through their abdomen. There was almost no mess or waste, as the needle was very thin, but the spine was clearly punctured as the victim would lose control of their legs.
As I watched this happen to people, I became very agitated. I tried to run, but was shoved back into the queue by guarding aliens. Up until the moment I was pushed into the run, I had been observing everything from a third-person perspective. Now, I was suddenly back in first-person, crying and screaming.
The needle was pushed into my spine. I remember a moment of sharp pain, and then a sickening, cold numbness spreading down the lower half of my body.
I awoke moments later, with a dull ache still in my spine.
For several years after this dream, I had a strong aversion to the colour pink.
I know this is all anecdotal, and I’m aware that studies are just studies and not hard facts, but I thought you might find this interesting in any case.
Keep up the good work, and thanks for all the fascinating reading!

By: hat_eater

hat_eater — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:02:38 +0000

I suppose that such strongly worded expressions as “dreams (…) do not include the dreamer as an active character” or “preschoolers do not report fear in dreams” might be appropriate in a press release, but as a part of a scientific article they are entirely invalidated even by a single example that proves them wrong. As it happens, all of the recurring nightmares from my early childhood involved me as a central and active character. Here’s the earliest I remember: I’m in my bed, a huge dark shape with a single orange eye slowly approaches me until I decide to put an end to it by moving away until my head reaches the end of the bed to be instantly snatched by the monsters hiding under it. I am sure of my age at that time (under 3 years) because this dream stopped coming back when we moved to another place in 1972.
As you probably might guess, I’m quite happy that these nightmares ended when I reached the adult age.