Almost all children experience bad dreams at some point during their childhood. For those who have bad dreams consistently or experience a particularly scary dream, sleep can become challenging. You may notice your child starting to resist going to bed due to fears of having a bad dream and this can create stress for the whole family. We created a “No More Bad Dreams Brain Talk” to help children learn how their brain works and how they can empower themselves to have less bad dreams.
Lay with your child on their bed. Remind your child that their brain is in their head and helps them with so many different functions (breathing, talking, eating, moving, thinking, and even dreaming). Let them know that our brains really like to please us, but just like people, brains sometimes make mistakes and give us bad dreams even when we don’t like them. This talk helps to prep your brain with positive images and thoughts before bed to help encourage more positive dreams. Say each line and have your child repeat each line after you.
Hey Brain!
How are you doing?
I want to remind you that I do not like bad dreams.
I do like good dreams.
And I do like no dreams.
But I do NOT like bad dreams.
Here are some things that I do like
List off things that your child likes one at a time and have them repeat (ex: the park, friends, playing, family, strawberries, trains, the color purple, etc)
So Brain, let’s have good dreams or no dreams tonight.