Scary Dreams vs. Night Terrors

All kids wake up in the middle of night and all parents are awoken to little footsteps walking down the hall to their bedroom. The first question, “why are you up?” “I had a bad/scary dream”. I think 80% of the time, kids are just wanting to get into bed with their parents, they don’t like being alone. How did I come up with that percentage, 8 out 10 times Paley cannot remember what happened in the supposed bad dream. Seriously, I kept a tally. I caught on quick, she would say, “I can’t remember” but when she does have a real scary dream, she explains it in detail, right away. 

Paley has learned to come to my side of the bed because I am the lighter sleeper. But I am little more stern about putting her back to bed if she just wants to sleep in our bed. (Unless I am so tired from the twins, I just fall back to sleep as she’s crawling in our bed.) She will keep getting up several nights in the row till she’s finally put back in her bed. Then the cycle would repeat in a week or two. I think most parents have this problem. This merry-go-round has been going on for at least 3 years now. I also like to talk to Paley about her dreams to understand and help her understand what they are about. 

I am sensitive to dreams because as a child and even to today, have vivid dreams or night terrors. I’ve been able to remember my dreams ever since I was a little kid. I remember them all, the good, the sexual, the sagas, the crazy, the stressful, the bad, the ugly, the twisted. Night terrors usually appear once or twice a week. During stressful times of my life, they were almost every night and sometime more than once a night. My night terrors have been around for most of my life. I can thank my brother for one specific night terror that I still have today. Although I am not as fearful as when I was a child.

I started logging my dreams in my teens. I think Clem is the only person who I’ve ever shown some of my logs. I read back on them now & then and they really could make for great short stories. Saga dreams and my night terrors are the only repeats I have. Some of these stories originate back to when I was a child. Some just replay in my head or the story just continues. I am still waking up in the middle of the night logging them. Dare I actually post them? oh hell no. Some day, maybe I will write a book. 

My night terrors can at times be very stressful. Some nights I even woken up with increased anxiety. I try to write down these dreams because getting it out prevents it from picking up where it left off. Yes, that happens a lot. I even have some tricks to keep a dream going. The down side of being a light sleeper is you wake up to quickly and often times it’s from a really good or juicy one. Then their are the oldies, dreams and night terrors that have been reoccurring since I as a little kid. 

Seeing Paley go though her dreams and how her fears really come out in them, showers a flood of emotion on me. Since Paley is from Clem’s cycle, I think she will spared from my night terrors. Now the twins are another story. The twins are from shared cycle so there is a chance that one is mine. Margot already wakes up periodically screaming, she exhibits no symptoms of illness the next morning and the next night she’s completely fine. Plus many people say she does look like me. Right now I am trying to teach Paley how to remember her dreams. Some mornings she’s already forgotten them. Is that wise, who knows. It does help build her imagination and creativity. I hope!