This is the 11th post in this series. Here we are trying to understand our dreams better. The topics covered are falling in dreams, what does it mean to see cats and dogs in dreams and many nightmares like failing in exam and going to jail.
I hope you are enjoying the series. From letter B, I have shared various meanings of seeing a baby in your dreams and how can you understand them better.
Today we will see how does the dream world work with kids. We all want our kids to dream high in waking life. They must aspire. We as a responsible parent, want to be the wing below their tiny wings when they want to soar high to fulfill what they perceive.
Have you every tried to explore their nigh dreams? Let’s do it today.
Do Babies Have Dreams?
The answer is YES, babies do get dreams. The deep sleep cycle or REM (Rapid Eye Movement) time of our sleep is when the body is completely relaxed, and the brain is active. Newborns and infants spend half of their night’s sleep into REM cycle.
By the time they are at age of 1, they have as many as 4 to 5 dreams every night. You might observe them moving or twitching bodies and even an eyeball movement.
In our entire life, we have more sad and bad dreams than happy ones. Same is with the kids. Although it doesn’t bother them toll the age of 2 years.
What do they exactly dream about, no researcher has been able to find it yet. However, if a brain scan is run on a sleeping baby it shows saw-tooth pattern which means the brain is active.
What About Toddlers and Teens Dreams?
Babies might wake up at night most probably due to dreams, but they have not developed the emotion of fear or cannot express happiness either. Their occasional smile can be attributed to muscle movement.
2-4 is the age when a child sees maximum dreams. This is the age when they get up and start crying or screaming inconsolably. At this age human’s get most nightmares.
If you can relax the child and comfort him, a child as young as 2 years can narrate a dream. Toddlers dreams are full of animals. Animals of various, shapes sizes and in different moods.
Why toddlers have animals in dreams?
If you observer carefully they are closer to animals than adults. They learn about animals in school, stories and rhymes are about animals, soft toys with whom they sleep are generally animals and even the cartoons they see are full of animals with different superpowers and capabilities.
Toddler is an age when kids are learning the most through personal experiences. They learn through trial and error basis. So, the entire stress and conflict during the day results in nightmares.
Many researchers and psychologists feel that, kids are physically weak and small to handle the challenges that life may throw at them. The dreams prepare them to face the difficulties in life.
Tweens and Teenagers
As far as teenagers are considered, Teenagers get lesser dreams as compared to younger kids.
They are so engrossed in their own world, handling and tacking the real struggles of growing up that most of their dreams are about testing times. Dreams like failing in exam, running naked in public and even about exploring their own sexuality. How many dreams they would share with you depends on your rapport with them. However, they do not give much weightage to dreams just like they don’t do anything in their life at this age.
As a Parent, what should you do?
So, it’s better to maintain a good relationship with growing up kids. I understand they make it very difficult for parents to keep sanity as tantrums of teenagers and toddlers are equally painful. But then no one has said parenting is easy work at all.
We make sure we talk to kids about what they want to be when they grow up? How is their plan for life? And all however we never ask them about their night dreams. Try this activity in the morning, try to speak to your child and see if he remembered last night’s dream. See if you can help him decode it, you never know the child might be disturbed by a recurring dream but chose not to speak about it thinking no one really cares about his night dreams.
Stay tuned for tomorrow we speak about another nightmare, Loosing a teeth or Loosing a thing.
Hmm 🤔 this is nice. I will save and send this article to people I know that needs it
Thanks for stopping by. hope the interpretations help them.
You are welcome 🙏😃
Glad to meet you
Recently my son told me about his dream, but I can’t remember now 🙁
As for me, I recently dreamed of my sweet Grandma who passed away last year. It was the first time that I “met” her again, it was bittersweet to wake up to it.
My K is for Kuhfladen, which translates as cow pie 😉
https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-z-2020-switzerland-kufladen-cow-pie.html
Of course they see in dreams what they they see the most… interesting read
So true. My son is 3.5 years old and after every few days he narrates something that he dreamt. Most of the time it’s about the places he wants to go or some stories which he has read a mind test he dreams about animals too! Thank you for a very informative post
Interesting post. My daughter often narrates a dream. sometimes we feel she is cooking up stories but we never say and listen with all attention. And you are right, most of the times it is about animals
My 4 yr son dream more about food in his dream or sister fighting with him.
My son enjoys telling us about his dreams. He’s even started telling us about his daydreams- I encourage this adorable habit!
It was really nice to read and know about toddler’s dreams and the logic behind it. Looking forward to the next blog👍
This is so interesting. Most often I’ve seen my daughter describing events but I wasn’t sure about them . Now I understand that those are her dreams
I hear about their night dreams almost every morning. If they get a nightmare, I tell them it is better not to watch those monster cartoons hahaha.
I Raaju wanted to you how to interpret it for tweens buddy. So liked your unique series ujjwal
Interesting to know about the dreams of kids. They actually do love animals more.
This is very unique and interesting article on toddlers dreams. And I am totally agree with that they are very close to animals and they love them too.
This was such a fresh and unique blog. I was unaware that dreams had such a dimension. I enjoyed reading the blog
I had never thought of kids dreaming ; specially babies; your blogs are opening so many thoughts in my mind. Enjoying this like a dream sequence
I can totally relate with this article. I am experiencing this with my 2 year old daughter I think she is a big time dreamer. Wonderful post.
Wow! This was something really new for me! This post is really informative, it will definitely help parents!
Thanks for the wonderful post to help me analyze my kids dream in a better way.
I ain’t a parent but can totally understand your feelings and it is an interesting topic as well.
This series of yours on dream interpretations is really intriguing to me. I just saw a weird dream last night, waiting for something similar in your interpretations to understand better what was the meaning of my dream. I get a lot of weird dreams at nights. Some I have understood, thanks to your interpretations and waiting for more answers.
Glad to hear from you Prakhar. Almost everyone now a days having nightmares, due to the uncertain and scary environment we are living in current time. Thanks to COVID19.
This is a very well researched post. As a toddler i used to get nightmares and now my toddler sees nightmares too 🙁
Hope the interpretations help you 🙂
I always had thsi dobut that do kids see dreams…??? Coz offlate my daughter (6yrs now) tells me vaguely wht see saw in her dreams. N also has yelled once or twice in her dreams.
Hey Hansa, thanks for stopping by. Hope the interpretations helped you, please speak to your daughter and try to understand why is she scared. there might be nothing to worry but that will make her feel good.
Wow. Such an elaborate post about dreams. I encourage my kids to dream but I also tell them to remain grounded about reality.
Wow this so descriptive band informative. I didn’t know this much stuff on dreams.
glad its of some help 🙂