The past two nights have been nightmare-free. And it has been glorious. I seriously do not understand how I possibly managed to keep myself together when he was so tiny and waking up multiple times a night and then I had to go to work. The past two nights have once again reminded me how much I truly love sleep. The other nice thing is that Alex is slowly getting over his new found fear of going to sleep. Since the nightmares started last week, he has been fighting nap and bed time more and more each day. Like freaking out, yelling No! No! Nooooooo! any time he thinks it might be time to sleep. Not good.
Anywho, when the nightmares started, I did what every responsible parent does. I Googled it. Along with a lot of people writing about their experiences, there were some advice articles...some even written by real scientists! One of the things I read is that doctors think watching tv within a short time before going to bed can contribute to nightmares. Apparently being all overstimulated by cartoon characters flying and zooming and zapping can be a bit much for little brains to sort out while they sleep, so then the nightmares happen. Weird right?
We don't have the tv on constantly, but we also haven't been leaving it exclusively off. If the armoire doors are open and Alex turns the tv on, we haven't been rushing to turn it off, but we also haven't been encouraging him to sit down and stare into the black hole that is Nickelodeon. But given what Google had to say, I figured it was worth a shot to make sure the tv didn't come on at all at night.
The last two nights, the tv has stayed dormant from the time we get home 'til the beast is asleep. And the last two nights, he has slept like a rock. I am not saying I am sold on the tv being the cause of the nightmares, but if you think I am not going to ride this one into the dirt, you are sorely mistaken.
No comments:
Post a Comment