In
Maxabella’s most recent post, she writes about how much trouble her 8yo son is
having trying to get to sleep. He’s scared.
In
recent months Miss M has been having the same difficulties. She has been
telling me about her dreams/nightmares. She has been telling her teachers. She told her classmates for her news item. But
her nightmares continued.
I talked
with a GP about the problem but didn’t get much joy there. It was when I spoke
with Miss M’s teacher that I remembered something.
 |
| Worry People |
Fifteen years ago, a member of my family died suddenly. I was devastated and went straight to a wonderful friend of mine who is a school psychologist, and she threw me into the car and took me to the Oxfam shop where she bought me a gift; “Worry People”.
The
Worry People are teeny tiny dolls from South America in a teeny tiny bag. The idea is that you tell these tiny people
your worries, thereby giving the responsibility to them. You then put them back
into their little bag, put it under your pillow and that allows you to go to
sleep.
It
worked then. Maybe it will work with Miss M?
It
has, along with some other strategies;
soft gentle music* to sleep with, a new big cuddly toy to grip on to, and special
bedtime stories from Nightlights books, suggested by her teacher. We have been bad
dream free for two weeks now and Miss M is calmer, more settled and doesn’t mention
them, except for when we change her pillow slip – we have to make sure that the
Worry People are safe, after all!
And happily, we alre all sleeping soundly now. I hope you and yours are too!
Sam
xx
