Anxiety Dreams?

Someone here recently posted about having awful dreams about something terrible happening to their baby. I remember having these the first year or so after my boys were born -- usually about them being lost somewhere in our bed (even though they slept in a crib in another room). In the NY Times this morning, I saw this article and thought it might offer some comfort to know it's a common experience for new/pregnant moms:

link to article

Having a Baby: Anxious Dreams Common in Early Motherhood
By ERIC NAGOURNEY
Published: September 11, 2007

New mothers and women who are about to have babies often do not get a lot of sleep. And when they do, a new study suggests, their dreams may make them sorry that they did.

Writing in the current issue of Sleep, researchers say they have found that pregnant women and those who have recently given birth commonly have dreams in which their baby is in danger. The dreams can be so vivid that the women call out in their sleep and move around the bed.

The researchers, Tore Nielsen and Tyna Paquette of Sacred Heart Hospital in Montreal, said pregnancy and birth were known to influence dreams. In a high number of cases, the dreams are of infants in peril, provoking “anxiety in the mother that often spills over into wakefulness.”

The researchers posed questions to 273 women who were pregnant, had just given birth or were in a control group. One dream in particular recurred among different women, and involved a fear that the baby was lost somewhere in the bed.

 

Thanks for posting that! I actually did not have that many anxiety dreams when my babes were little, but I have been having them recently. I won't share the one I had last night -- but suffice to say that they usually involve one of the girls dying.

 

QUOTE(Ellen Barr @ Sep 11 2007, 03:03 PM) [snapback]402580[/snapback]
Someone here recently posted about having awful dreams about something terrible happening to their baby. I remember having these the first year or so after my boys were born -- usually about them being lost somewhere in our bed (even though they slept in a crib in another room). In the NY Times this morning, I saw this article and thought it might offer some comfort to know it's a common experience for new/pregnant moms:

link to article

Having a Baby: Anxious Dreams Common in Early Motherhood
By ERIC NAGOURNEY
Published: September 11, 2007

New mothers and women who are about to have babies often do not get a lot of sleep. And when they do, a new study suggests, their dreams may make them sorry that they did.

Writing in the current issue of Sleep, researchers say they have found that pregnant women and those who have recently given birth commonly have dreams in which their baby is in danger. The dreams can be so vivid that the women call out in their sleep and move around the bed.

The researchers, Tore Nielsen and Tyna Paquette of Sacred Heart Hospital in Montreal, said pregnancy and birth were known to influence dreams. In a high number of cases, the dreams are of infants in peril, provoking “anxiety in the mother that often spills over into wakefulness.”

The researchers posed questions to 273 women who were pregnant, had just given birth or were in a control group. One dream in particular recurred among different women, and involved a fear that the baby was lost somewhere in the bed.



I so did this! I'd actually wake DH up and get mad at him because 'there was a baby missing (lost in our bed)' and he'd tell me there wasn't, but I was convinced there was, until I woke up a little more. Even though our girls never slept in our be with us...Glad to know I'm not a complete lunatic!

 

I was never a worrier pre-motherhood. I've been having the same recurring dream (at least a couple times per week) ever since giving birth that one of the babies is in bed with us and about to fall out (they've never slept in our bed). DH thinks I'm nuts because I often wake him up trying to "save" him from rolling out of bed!

Since they're walking now, the dream has evolved to them walking around upstairs with me & DH sound asleep and the stair gate open. I wake up convinced that they're about to tumble down the stairs, even though there's no way they could get out of their cribs and open their bedroom door (and the fact that they know how to go down stairs safely). I've started closing the gate before going to bed in an effort to tell my mind that they really are safe. Some nights it works and some it doesn't.

Glad to know I'm not insane!!! I'm e-mailing this article to DH as proof.

 

Heck, my DH had the "missing baby in the bed" dream several times when they were newborns. I'll have to show him this article.

I have the reoccurring dream of being separated from them. The two worst were: 1) we were on separate elevators during an earthquake and I could not get to them, and 2) they were on a boat that drifted out to sea and I was stuck on the dock.

 

I also have dreams in which I can't find them (usually only one of them) or we are separated. And now that I think about it, DH did dream (when they were little) that one was lost in the bed!

 

Thanks for sharing that Ellen. I had dreams where I would forget one somewhere, and then couldn't find him/her when I went back to look.

 

Ellen, valuable link! Thank you! It is crazy what post partum can bring!

 

I've had the baby-is-lost-in-my-bed dream more times than I can count. Its so nice to know I'm not crazy!! Thank you!

Reyna