Understanding Your Child's Dreams

Little Emma woke up suddenly, startled by a dream she had just had. A green monster had been chasing her. He had red eyes and sharp teeth. He had almost grabbed her with his big sharp claws. Emma peered into the dark, afraid that the monster might be lurking in the black recesses of her room or even hiding under her bed ready to grab her if she got up. Emma felt helpless and alone.

“Mommy! Mommy!” she cried out. Footsteps through the darkness brought growing comfort to little Emma.

“What is it, Emma? Did you have a bad dream?” Emma’s mother held her and kissed her forehead. “You’re okay, Emma. It was just a bad dream. You’re safe and nothing’s going to hurt you.” She stroked Emma’s hair until Emma had fallen asleep again.

How many times around the world do children call out for comfort in the night because their dreams have disturbed them? And how many times each night do parents tell their children it was just a dream? Just a dream. What does that mean, just a dream? It means it is not real and has little to no meaning. Yet to the child the dreams are real. They are exhilarated when they are flying. They are scary or so happy the child might laugh or cry out loud in their sleep.

They are not real in the sense that if you dreamed you were in a car wreck you wouldn’t be hurt as if you were in a car wreck in your physical day-to-day experiences. Yet they are real happenings within the subconscious mind of each individual. They are real vibratory messages that relate the dreamer’s conscious state of awareness coming from the inner mind to the outer mind during the sleep state. They are real perceptions within the conscious mind and brain of the dreamer. To discount dreams means you discount that you are a soul and that there is a link between the outer consciousness and the inner consciousness.

Children still have an open channel to the subconscious mind, so they remember their dreams readily. It is important for parents and other adults to aid children by giving them a place to talk about their dreams as a real experience. Teaching children in this way insures that the connection to the subconscious mind will stay open during adolescence and into the adult years making the individual more grounded.

Because dreams relate the conscious state of awareness of the dreamer, parents can learn a lot about children by their dreams. What is going on inside the child’s head is clearly related in dreams, so parents have a direct link to the inner thoughts and experiences of children through their dreams. It is of the utmost importance for teachers, and parents to be able to interpret their own dreams so they can teach children how to understand what their dreams are telling them. Dreams are a key to understanding self and more deeply understanding others.