Baby Dreams
What do babies dream about?
From your baby’s perspective, birth and the experience of life outside the womb is probably like waking from a long and unbroken dream into an entirely new world.
The science of modern dream and sleep research really leapt forward when Eugene Aserinsky, working as a researcher in a sleep laboratory, noticed that his eight year old son’s eyes moved while he slept. Later it was found this was due to the eyes following activities taking place in a dream, and that these rapid eye movements (REM) were a sign of dreaming.
From this it was seen that even newborn babies dream. In fact, although adults only spend about a third of their sleep period dreaming, babies spend 50 to 80 percent of sleep in dreams. Some researchers, carrying their investigation into the womb, state that at 24-30 weeks gestational age the unborn baby dreams a 100 percent.
Because most researchers investigate dreaming from a physiological or neurological standpoint, they are not very good at telling us why babies, or we adults, spend so much time dreaming. This is because dreams are more connected with the passionate drive to survive, to relate, to learn and grow. When we see a child go into a frenzy when they are lost, we can understand just how passionate the emotional level of dreams are. It is this level of feeling that dreams deal with. But an interesting study done by Nathaniel Kleitman showed that he observed a regular breathing cycle in infants which lasted 50 minutes. He felt that this was probably to wake the baby at these intervals to see if it was in need of feeding. It would signal this by waking up and crying. The child would therefore get adequate nutrition.
Likening a dream to one of the monitors we see at the side of a patient in a hospital is perhaps the easiest way to understand what a dream is. Just as the monitor presents a visual image of the patients heartbeat, their blood pressure and temperature, a dream puts into drama and images the processes, feelings and fears that lie behind our personal awareness. In a baby, an unimaginable amount of learning, adjustment, development of responses and body skills is taking place. We usually take this for granted. But like a television show or film, it is only when we see the credits at the end of such a film that we realise just how much behind the scenes work has taken place to produce the film. And this is precisely what dreams show – the behind the scenes activities and dramas.
Understanding this, and realising that a baby and young child lives in a completely different world than we do as an adult, helps us support them toward a healthy and happy adulthood. For instance a baby and child who have not learned to speak cannot think. We think with words. So during pre-speech there are only feeling responses or instinctive urges and fears to guide the child. The development of thinking only phases in gradually, and prior to that we learn from events and relationships, not ideas. See Animal Children to understand the part speech plays in a child’s life.
For instance, a woman I met, Tina, as a child was told she was being taken to a party, but in fact she was being taken to an orphanage. She was given a bar of chocolate. She never ate it. Since then she has never been able to eat sweets, and she still has an eating problem while with other people. When she got to the orphanage she immediately went to the toilets and hid there, feeling she couldn’t speak. She still has difficulty speaking to groups of people. Tina had experienced massive feeling responses to what had been done to her. Those feelings are still active ‘behind the scenes’ of her life.
Dreams depict all the aspects of what is taking place within the child. Sometimes, just for the child to tell or draw a dream helps them integrate the underlying feelings and processes. Another thing they can do is to model their dream. In this way the awful dream event or creature can be put outside them and they can manipulate the frightening things – for instance they can put the creature in a cage where it cannot hurt them.
If you yourself can understand that whenever we dream its images are not like real life, because a dream is nothing like outer life where things could hurt you, but is an image like on a cinema screen, so that even if a gun is pointed at you and fired it can do no damage – except if you run in fear; so, all the things that scare you are simply your own fears projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind. And if you can therefore understand that dream fears are all about fears, hurts and threats that threaten the person or child’s confidence in their on coping strategies and aid them towards confidence and coping, you will do wonders.
Remember that a child’s greatest fears are to be abandoned or threatened by what they see or hear – television and films for a child are almost the same as the real world.
While small, my youngest son told me he dreamt his pet baby mice had opened their eyes. When I asked him what it means for a baby mouse to open its eyes, he told me that it showed they were ready to become independent. I then asked him what it might be like to be a pet, and he said a pet couldn’t do anything for itself, not even get its own water or food. He went on to say that because he was small, he sometimes felt like a pet. So we talked this over and he decided he could start getting his own glass of water by putting a chair near the sink. He was moving toward independence.
Although you cannot have a conversation with your baby in the same way I did with my young son, if you see your baby is having disturbing dreams you can still talk to her or him, even while they are asleep. Your baby is incredibly sensitive to the sound of your voice, and your own state of calm or agitation lying behind the way your voice sounds. Therefore you can sit with your baby and imagine a situation in which you feel calm and loving. When you feel calm and strong, gently talk to your baby telling it you are holding it close in your love, and you are with it while it meets whatever is disturbing it. Tell it your love is the strength it can use, and imagine wrapping your baby in your calm and love.
Most nightmares are an expression of a healing process. They are attempts to meet and discharge the feelings in difficult events we have faced. Because your child is so dependent upon you and is vulnerable, it is more prone to nightmares than adults are. A common nightmare for children is that a lion or some other scary creature is chasing it. There is good evidence to show that the lion might represent the child’s anger, which it has been told is wrong or bad, so the child is scared of it and tries to run away from its own feelings
Whether this theory is right or not, an easy way to help your child deal with its nightmare is to encourage him or her to draw or model the dream. In this way the child gets the frightening thing out in front of it where the scary thing can be seen and controlled. Once it has done this, ask it what it wants to do with the scary creature or thing. For instance it might wish to put it in a cage, or to make friends with it. In either case the child begins to feel more in control. Allowing your child to talk about such disturbing dreams also is very healing. It allows the child to voice its fears, and to know you will listen without criticism or judgement. But nightmares are exceptions. Most dreams are about your child’s personal growth, what it is learning, what it is feeling about the world around it, and the ways it is expressing or denying its own creative centre. So drawing, modelling and talking about these everyday dreams is tremendously creative and growth promoting for your child.
Here is an example of what a child faces and learns. True it is from an adults dream, but we carry the child in us.
I worked on the dream with my wife. The whole centre of the dream seemed to be the little girl. As I came in to land, because I had been gliding high above, she saw me and ran away very frightened. I was gliding in the same direction she was running and called out to her not be frightened. She stopped and I landed. In amazement she looked at me and said, “How did you get to be up there?”
As the young girl I had walked from the back door of my house, along the garden path, across a footpath behind the houses, into the field. As I looked through her eyes and feelings, I realised what a long journey it was for me to get into the field. Not a long journey physically in distance, but an enormous journey within myself. To be able to go from the door to the field, I had gone through the long process of learning to walk; I had learned the confidence to be alone; through language and understanding what my parents had passed to me, I had found out how to avoid stinging nettles, and how not to be overcome by my fears of them and of the huge creatures that I knew as cows. This had all taken ages, and so walking into the field was an enormous achievement, especially as I was doing it by myself. Learning to walk itself had taken an tremendous practice and perseverance. Learning to be independent of my mother was also something I had had to learn. I had made the inner journey of acquiring an immense stock of information and conditioning regarding the external environment I was facing too. I had slowly learned survival responses to nettles, walking alone, nests, birds, the sun, trees, spiders, stones, the wind, children, adults, worms, leaves on the trees, cars, etc, etc, etc, etc, and so on. See: Pregnancy; individuation.
Although it is difficult to theorise about the subject of babies dreams without their ability to report their experiences, evidence gained from the study of animal dreams probably applies to infants too. Michel Jouvet, while observing dreaming in cats, devised a way to avoid the usual paralysis of voluntary muscles during dreaming. This allowed the cat to actually make full movements while dreaming instead of the usual jerks or subdued movements. The cat would then live out its dream through the movements it made. Jouvet then noted the cats dreams were largely centred around crouching and stalking prey or play fighting. Adrian Morrison of the University of Pennsylvania noted the same behaviour in cats while investigating narcolepsy in animals. Because the area of the brain which usually stopped the dream movements from being expressed fully was injured, the cats Morrison was observing lived out their dreams in the same way Jouvet observed.
Jouvet, and later Nicholas Humphries, reasoned from this evidence that at the beginning of a mammal’s life, an enormous amount of time is spent in practising necessary survival skills in dreams. With cats the survival skill is defence and hunting. With a human infant it has more to do with socialisation, easily expressing its feeling and anger. Estimates have been made of what period of time the baby dreams in the womb, and the figures are that it dreams at 24-30 gestational age weeks a100%.
Taking this further, Christopher Evans, in his book Landscapes of The Night, says that this need to dream about social interactions and adapting to the social rules of their culture and thereby practice them, explains why children who have just started school need a lot of sleep.
The work of Stanislav Grof, which dealt a great deal with the remembrance of the birth experience in adults, and the recovery of memories and fantasies connected with it, also suggests that the dreaming baby is not only practising social skills and preparing for action in the external world, but also trying to balance and perhaps heal the internal memories it already carries from its uterine life, trauma of birth, and post-natal relationships. This type of dreaming may account for the nightmares suffered by some babies and young children. The function of such dreams or the process behind them appears to be that of attempted integration of experience, or means of finding an adaptation to its containment. See: children’s dreams; individuation.
Comments
This is a very interesting article! I appreciate the time taken to write it. I googled information n babies dreaming because my youngest daughter is 7 months and I wondered about about her dreams. I have very vivid dreams, just about every night and multiple dreams a night and I wondered if any of my kids had the same (I have 2). Also do you happen to have information about adults’ dreams? I learned at an early age how to remember your dreams. Please let me know if you do via my email. Thank you!
Brandy – There is so much about adult dreams on this site http://dreamhawk.com so please explore it.
I suggest looking at http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/what-we-need-to-remember-about-dreaming/ and also http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/
Having looked again at Baby Dreams I realised there is an excellent example so included it. Here it is.
I worked on the dream with my wife. The whole centre of the dream seemed to be the little girl. When I imagine myself as her, a new view of the world opened to me.
As the young girl I had walked from the back door of my house, along the garden path, across a footpath behind the houses, into the field. As I looked through her eyes and feelings, I realised what a long journey it was for me to get into the field. Not a long journey physically in distance, but an enormous journey within myself. To be able to go from the door to the field, I had gone through the long process of learning to walk; I had learned the confidence to be alone; through language and understanding what my parents had passed to me, I had found out how to avoid stinging nettles, and how not to be overcome by my fears of them and of the huge creatures that I knew as cows. This had all taken ages, and so walking into the field was an enormous achievement, especially as I was doing it by myself. Learning to walk itself had taken an tremendous practice and perseverance. Learning to be independent of my mother was also something I had had to learn. I had made the inner journey of acquiring an immense stock of information and conditioning regarding the external environment I was facing too. I had slowly learned survival responses to nettles, walking alone, nests, birds, the sun, trees, spiders, stones, the wind, children, adults, worms, leaves on the trees, cars, etc, etc, etc, etc, and so on.
I had never realised before what an amazing education a child has, before ever it goes to school. It led me to see that I was trying to enter another environment – one that I had no ready-made survival responses to – the dream world. Actually I had instinctive responses while I remained asleep. Waking up in sleep, or directing my inner functions, is still a New World. Literally I am like a baby, and need to gradually learn as a girl is doing. The dream seems to me a breakthrough into a new level of understanding.
Tony
I have a question (I’ll try to explain myself, since I don’t speak English that well). My husband have certain “abilities”, since the day we got married I noticed them, he started talking in his sleep as if he was different people from different lifes, we were together in several of them, one of those “personalities” seemed strongest than the other ones and has explained me a lot of things about my husband’s life.
He has also entered in my dreams, and when I wake up, he knew what I was dreaming because he “saw” my dream. He has also entered his mom’s dreams (it all happens without looking for it, it’s an “accident”).
We have a 20 month old baby girl who sleeps in a different room from us. The other night I was having a very violent dream, I was yelling at my dad for some thing he did a while ago, I was being very violent and my dad was yelling at me too.
I was in the middle of it when suddenly my daughter woke up crying (she rarely wakes up at night), I went to see her and she was saying “I’m scared, I’m scared!!”, I asked her “who scared you baby??” and she told me “grandpa did!!”
It kinda freaked me out, my dad doesn’t see my baby that often (and hasn’t seen her in about a month or so), I consider the idea that she entered my dream just as her dad do sometimes. My baby talks quite a bit, but not that much as to ask her for details.
Is that even possible??
Roberta – Yes, everything you describe is possible, and it seems that your young daughter has maybe inherited the ability that your husband has. But that is not certain because babies often have such connection and can fade as they get older.
A way of understanding this is described as follows: It said that any family connections means that it creates a situation like fingers on a hand. The fingers feel they are all single and capable of their own independent movement, but they are all connected to the hand. And within us when we have such a connection we can share dreams and are very much more a single being.
So that is true for all of us, but only some people remember it or can express it. I wonder if you have ever asked your husband questions while he was talking while asleep; because he could give you amazing information. So please read http://dreamhawk.com/interesting-people/edgar-cayce-and-the-cosmic-mind-superminds/ and if you are interested read There is a River – the Life of Edgar Cayce.
Tony
I had a dream of carrying a newborn. He was very delicate, and I was in a rush to arrive somewhere. Because I was running, his head wobbled and I slowed down. I was worried about his delicate nature. I noticed on of his arms was broken, the arm was very long and weak, I somehow knew it was broken. I then put him on the ground, in a grassy area. My arm was tried and I was trying to figure out if I should put him in my car without a carseat. When I picked him up, he had a rash/bumps all over his face from the grass and he was no longer an infant, he had the head of a grown child. He said he was okay and the rash diminished…almost disappeared. I was worried and started to head for rite aid to buy allergy medicine. My sister suddenly appears and points out a short cut. I wake up.
i had a dream that i was pregnant and than i had given birth to a baby boy. I have no children though i want one. but in the dream my sister was there and she was so happy for me than i looked over and he was gone. in reality i want a baby girl but as long as he or she is heathy thats all that really matters. after the dream when i woke up i jumped up looking for him as if i really had a baby. can you please tell me what this is. I am 28 years old. I have never been prego. why am i having this type of dream?
my mom had a dream that she had one teeth and then she put it out and made a hole in it
she thinks someone is going to get Pregnancy
is that true or not
I keep have the same dream over and over again. That I am pregnant and that I have a huge belly but at the end of it all theres no baby in my stomach. What does this mean? fyi: Im not having a baby myself.
I had a dream that there was a baby girl in my house
Jocleyn – First of all you are in a house, and a house usually refers to yourself, depicting your body and attributes of personality. So in a way your dream I saying that the baby girl is in you.
In other words this is a part of you, or your childhood experiences that needs to be taken care of and parented. This is important because few of us have managed to grow up completely. There are usually part of us that have never been encouraged, helped to grow or were hurt in baby or childhood. So it is necessary to nurture these parts of us as they show in our dreams.
See http://dreamhawk.com/pregnancy-childbirth/the-baby-in-your-dream/
Tony
Bull Quentin Crisp.
My baby is 8 1/2 months old. He wakes up (although it seems like he isn’t fully awake) crying like he may have had a bad dream. As soon as we pick him up, he’s back asleep again. We’ve also seen him crying out in his sleep like he’s in pain or something is bothering him. At first I chalked it up to separation anxiety, but now I’m thinking he maybe having bad dreams.
Abbie – This is so difficult to tell because he cannot answer any questions about what is wrong with him. It can be caused by all manner of different things, everything from wind to past difficulties in birth. It might be worth trying to ask your dreams what is wrong. Sometimes this is so accurate it can be of real help.
If it worries you get it checked out with a nurse of doctor.
Tony
my 1 yr old daughter cries in her sleep all the time. sometimes screaming. when i go up to her shes asleep. im clairvoyant and im worried that she might have inherited my gifts and is having bad dreams because of a ‘being’ that is in the house. are there any other possibilities as the only other thing that was bad is her dad left when she was 7/8 months old. could this be the reason?
Stephanie – Gosh, there can be so many reasons. Did she have a difficult birth, or where you separated form her at any time. I ask the latter because she stops crying when you are near.
I think that the father leaving would not cause such distress unless he had strong bond with her.
Things you might try is to sit with her and speak to her assuring her of your love. See of you can feel it wrapping her up. Also walk around where she sleeps in a circle, and continue with the feeling of creating a protective wall around her, and keep at it till you can feel it is done.
But can you tune into your daughter and ask her what is troubling her and use your gift to see if you can
understand.
Tony
Um, complete quackery. If you cannot speak, you cannot think? People who are mute can think. I’m guessing that at least one animal besides a human can think. Even as I’m typing this, you have no idea about my ability to speak, but I’m obviously thinking.
I’m thinking that no one has any idea whether an infant is dreaming and if they were, no one knows what they were dreaming about. Should have left it at that.
I think you have not read what was said carefully. Obviously those who are dumb can think in words – but only if they are taught language. See all the cases of people reared by animals, they are unable to think in the way we do. For instance they do not have a sense of self in the focussed way we do. Language is like a computer program, when it is learned it changes what you can do and how you see the world. Having recently experienced a stroke and lost my ability to speak, I regressed to a pre-verbal level. I could think, but not in words. Perhaps read the biography of Helen Keller who did not learn language until she was 11.
Also it is obvious that babies and animals dream because every time one dreams they experience rapid eye moments. To quote from the research of Eugene Kleitman “This led to the decision to record eyelid movement using the electrooculogram (EOG). This is an important link in the chain leading to the discovery of REM, as children often exhibit REM immediately they fall asleep, especially during daytime naps, whereas adults take longer for the REM’s to appear. Aserinsky therefore quickly noticed that his subjects showed REM when they slept. Kleitman thought there was probably a connection between the REM’s and dreaming. Kleitman and Aserinsky therefore tested the theory using adult subjects. They connected sleeping adults to an electroencephalograph – EEC – and EOG. They were thus able to observe the periodic alternation of REM and non-REM sleep during each night of sleep.”
Tony
I agree with Polly. You are full of it and this “article” is laughable. It is clear you have no idea what you are talking about.
If I am ‘full of it’ perhaps you can write a better feature.
Also, perhaps you can explain better the fact of remembering being born, and life in the womb. It is all there if you read the findings – perhaps read the literature.
In this theatre of violence, babies learn many lessons. Edward Harrison, who entered the NICU at 29 weeks g.a., learned to fear the sound and sight of adhesive tape and bandages. At age 15, he was still carrying in his unconscious mind the experience of having large patches of skin accidently ripped from his abdomen and chest when monitor pads and tape were removed. He was also phobic about doctors, medical procedures, and hospitals. He would become sick at the sight of the hospital, and could not go for necessary medical care without sedation. Edward was shunted for hydrocephalus, while paralyzed with curare. Although he could not move, cry, or react in any way, he could see, hear, and feel as large incisions were cut in his scalp, neck, and abdomen, as a hole was drilled in his skull, as a tube was inserted into the center of his brain, then pushed down under the skin of his neck, chest, and abdomen and implanted deep in his abdominal cavity. At fifteen, he still will not allow anyone to touch his head, his neck, or his abdomen.
Tony
how can you people say Tony is full of it if you yourself do not know what a baby is dreaming about?
Thanks Josie.
I admit I am not super man. Just an ordinary guy trying to give of my best. So I can get bruised.
Tony
My one year-old daughter generly sleeps 10-12 hours at nite, has since about 3-4 months old. She very occasionally wakes in the middle of the night terrified. Me or mom will go to her room and pick her up. She won’t let us go untill she falls back asleep on our shoulder after 15-30 minutes. This article has helped me tremenously. InitiallyI I chalked it up to seperation anxiety, but now I’m reconsidering. Thank you.
Seth – Thanks you so much for telling me about your young daughter. I believe that every child is very special, and each one faces different trials. So the love you are giving your child is a wonderful strength and support.
Tony
poop
Perhaps there is something other than poop on your mind?
From this it was seen that even newborn babies dream. In fact, although adults only spend about a third of their sleep period dreaming, babies spend 50 to 80 percent of sleep in dreams. Some researchers, carrying their investigation into the womb, state that at 24-30 weeks gestational age the unborn baby dreams a 100 percent.
MY BABIES DAD KIDNAPPED HIM AT 1 MONTH OLD AND RAN THROUGH THE WOODS WITH HIM FOR 4 HOURS WITH NO BOTTLE PACIFIER OR ANYTHING MY BABY IS 4 MONTHS OLD NOW BUT WAKES UP SOMETIMES SCREAMING LOUDLY FOR NO REASON AND OUT OF BREATHE IS HE HAVING BAD DREAMS FROM THIS EXPIERIENCE?
Dana – Of course I could result in nightmares – remember that babies dream even in the womb, so he is probably dreaming.
But there could be many other reasons for him waking up screaming. So it could be good to have a doctor checking him.
It might be worth wrapping him – swaddling – him when he is ready to sleep. It gives babies a secure feeling.
Tony