He says he’s going to dream the same thing again. I try to calm him down, but he’s still scared. I know that rest is important, but I don’t want to force him. I try to explain to him that dreams can’t hurt him. I leave a dim light on and tell him a calming story so he can relax. I also offer him a stuffed animal so he feels accompanied. I want to help him feel safe without ignoring his fear. It’s normal for it to happen, but how can I make it so he can go back to sleep without anxiety?
Wow, I went through the same thing with my daughter when she was about 4, and it was brutal. She had a nightmare about a “shadow monster” and refused to sleep in her bed for weeks. I tried everything: monster spray, extra nightlights, even letting her choose which way her bed faced because, apparently, the monster was coming from the closet. Nothing worked at first.
The only thing that helped over time was making it into a game. During the day, we’d act out her dream, but change the ending to something silly (like, instead of the monster being scary, it was scary because of the smelly socks, haha). It took a while, but eventually she stopped waking up terrified. It’s exhausting, but you’re doing everything right. Cheer up, Mom. It’ll pass
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This is so hard. I wish I had a magic solution, but my son went through the same thing, and it seemed to last forever. Did something in particular trigger the nightmare? A movie? A book? Sometimes talking about it during the day can help, but I get it: logic doesn’t always work when they’re scared. Have you noticed if they get more scared when they’re overtired? That always made things worse for us
Totally normal at this age! Nightmares are common because their imaginations are running high, but they don’t fully understand what’s real and what’s fake. What helped my son was giving him a sense of control
Some ideas:
Dream Shift Technique: Tell him he has a dream remote in his head and can flip through dreams like a TV channel My son loved this idea and would choose a new dream before bed.
Magical Protection: Some children respond well to something physical like a magical stuffed animal, that drives away nightmares
Daytime Processing: Talking about the dream in a safe and fun way during the day can help. We even drew pictures of his scary dream and then scribbled over them to erase them
It’s hard now, but it will get better You’re doing an amazing job just being there and helping him feel safe. 
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