Bad dreams

[Adele]

My son,Michael,has just turned 8 years old. When he was about 4 or so he would wake up in the night in a dream. Sometimes he would babble incoherently but always he would be crying. Most times there would be no tears just a strange crying. Sometimes he would seem kind of frantic.  We couldn't wake him up out of them.  Eventually, after about 5 minutes or so, sometimes longer,he would settle back down and go to sleep.  Occasionally it would happen more than once a night.  He never would remember them the next day.  
Gradually they stopped happening and it's been more than 3 years since he has had them until about 2 weeks ago and now they're occurring again. If I go right in his room I can usually settle him down pretty quick by talking real soothing to him and rubbing his back as I make him lie back down. Several times he's walked across the house into my room and just stands there crying.  There is almost no way to wake him up out of them at this point.  All I can do is try to get him to lay down and go back to sleep.
Can you please help me understand what's happening here?  Is this something to be real concerned about?  Is there anything I can do to help him or somehow stop them from happening?  Thank you so much for reading this and having this service.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Dear Adele,

Your son is not experiencing bad dreams. He is experiencing a form of sudden partial awakenings which occur when he is moving from one stage of sleep to another. The child will often cry out in apparent panic, but not really be fully awake. The best thing to do is to gently guide the child back to sleep, not attempt to wake him up. He will have no memory of these events the next day, as he is not fully aware and conscious.

To read more about these events, utilize the SEARCH function in this Forum and type 'sudden partial awakenings' or 'night terrors' or 'sleep terrors'.

Also, please refer to Richard Ferber's book Solving Your Child's Sleep Problems for a thorough and interesting discussion of the sorts of events your son is displaying.

[Tammy]

Hi Adele, My son at the age of 4 had these types of dreams too.  I was at my wits end until we made dream catchers one day at a Guide meeting.  I brought mine home, and gave it to my young son. We hung it over his bed that day and I explained the meaning of dream catchers and that he wouldn't have anymore bad dreams. Guess what?  It worked...his bad dreams disappeared. I am sure it was just a mind over matter thing.  But it sure helped him.


Tammy

[daze]

iam 15 i dream i am geting killed it has been i month. what does it mean

[bettybookends]

A related discussion, 17 year old son having bad dreams every night? was started.