Sleep Monsters and Superheroes: Empowering Children through Creative Dreamplay

World-renowned contributors across several disciplines reveal how dreams can aid and empower children in daily life.

Children can feel powerless in waking life, a fact that is often reflected in their dreams. This book shows how to take an active role in guiding children’s dreams to help grow their confidence and improve their coping skills for real-life difficulties. Contributors from across various fields provide simple techniques to help children utilize dreamwork as a conduit for creative discovery and empowerment.

Each chapter includes case studies and methods for working in practical ways with children, explaining what may trigger nightmares for children and how monster dreams can be guided to become superhero dreams. Essays encompass a spectrum of children’s dreams with experts discussing dreams of trauma, dreams as a reflection of emotional and physical development, dreaming in the community, spiritual or religious dreams, lucid dreams, dreams during wartime, and dreams of death, among others. Throughout the work, the narrative discusses the use of dreams as teaching aids for use in art therapy, storytelling, and self-empowerment.

Addresses how video games and today’s news media can affect children’s sleep/dreams and how trauma can trigger PTSD-like nightmares

Details how children’s dreams reflect their emotional and physical development

Includes vignettes/case studies of children’s nightmares from countries around the world, including a heavily war-torn country

Explains what may trigger nightmares for children and how monster dreams can be guided to become superhero dreams

Describes how children can interact with dreams by becoming lucid and by engaging in creative dreamplay