Sweet Dreams

[Nadine216]

When do babies start dreaming?
I have just read RachelM's post (hope you don't mind me taking you as an example) about her bub waking at night and mine did (are still sometimes) doing it.
After she has gone to sleep, she will sometimes start crying and when I go check on her she is asleep, but with this very cute little frown. Can she be having nightmares? or any kind of dreams?
Ok, it could just be wind or stomach cramp, but I like to think that she can dream. She can see and understand and interact with stuff, so why not dream?

[Starfish]

I'm pretty sure that babies can dream. I've watched my bub sleep and I can see her eyes flickering under her eyelids. From this I presume that she is in REM sleep, which is when you dream. She's been doing this from the day she was born, so I presume that babies are able to dream right from the start, maybe even in the womb... Recently I've noticed that sometimes she makes little movements with her mouth as if she's sucking, and sometimes she smiles in her sleep.

[visitor1]

Chelsea went thru a pahse of abotu a week where she would wake at 12-1230am screaming and just couldnt calm her down....i reckon she was having nightmares. It would take a good 4 mins to get her to stop crying and shaking... then once she was ok, would go back to bed, but very edgey for the rest of her sleep.

[Nadine216]

Starfish,
That is so sweet. I really think they can dream, but what would you recon do they dream about when they are in the womb? Me and my dad (he is a biology teacher) has been contemplating about that since I became pg. About how wonderfull it would be to know what your newborn are thinking and dreaming. What do they think when you talk to them and how do they see stuff. When I am in heaven one day, I am definatly having my sit-down with God and asking him this!!
Kim,
Wow, that could not have been nice. Last night dd woke up screaming (ok, she had fever and tummy ache) but it scared the living daylights out of me. Do you think her nightmares could have been something that she saw on TV?

Last night I winded dd on my knie infront of the TV and there were a show on about some spaceship or aliens or something. And she was watching intensly at the screen. About a minute into the show (there was a battle) I relised that she is actually watching!! So I changed the channel to Cartoons Thats was was started me thinking about nightmares and dreams.

[visitor1]

Im not sure what they could ahve been from. MIL asks what could a 9 month old possibly have nightmares about...but then i think well:

1. Needles she's had (even tho they reckon babies dont remember that)
2. Her birth
3. Falls, accidents she has had
4. Getting in trouble
5. Raising my voice
6. Cats may have scared her

Heaps of things....noises and actions. Not to sure though. But its not fun when it happens!

[Nadine216]

I can see how falling off a bed (mine wriggled out of her snug-and-safe) can give anyone nightmares, espesially when you are so small and the bed are so high
But yes, thinking about it, they do have a lot of new experiances that can be very scary. Just because we don't remember our "baby" memories, does not mean that babies can't remember things that has happened just days before

[Starfish]

Yes, I'm sure that babies do remember things that happened the day before. After all, they learn to recognise faces, etc after only a few weeks. So they are likley to dream about their experiences, just like us older people do.

My one dreams about feeding from the breast, I'm sure.

[kungfubecca]

I think the definetly dream.

Just like Starfish, I have seen Xaviers little eyes going crazy in rem sleep, and now that he smiles when he's awake he also smiles in his sleep.
and while I have no idea what they could possibly be dreaming about in utero, I'm sure my boy dreams about boobies and his aero plane mobile (they are his two favorite things of all time at the moment).