Oh No!

I was really hoping my son wouldn’t get my sleeping issues. I have sleep parasomnia. I have self-diagnosed myself with REM Sleep Behavior Disorder.

I like to call what I have action dreams, in that I play out the scenes running through my brain as I sleep.

I have been known to clear off dressers in search of missing items, walk throughout the house searching, in late, for my son who has disappeared and hold conversations with whoever likes to listen.

The worst is the terror. I have these realistic dreams, which cause me to shoot out of bed and when I eventually wake, my heart is racing. I figure one of these days, my poor heart is going to stop.

So I had hoped, even though I know these issues are hereditary, that my son would not experience the fear.

It’s awful.

But Monday night, I heard my two-year-old call out to me through the monitor. I came into his room and he was pointing to his stuffed animal in his crib saying ‘No Cosmo. No Cosmo in bed.’ I reassured him Cosmo, the kitten, was not in his bed as Cosmo was sleeping with me.

But the damage was down. It took me three hours to settle my guy back down and convince him he needed to sleep again.

I gave him the advice that, sometimes, works for me – think happy thoughts and tell yourself no bad dreams tonight.

Tuesday night, he was again up for several hours and a hour last night, but I think it was association rather than bad dreams.

For me, these terrors are worse when I am tired (a known trigger). My guy had a shorter nap Monday so I will be doing what I can to ensure he gets enough sleep so his dreams are peaceful.