Bad Dreams

Payton had a bad dream last night. She woke up screaming about spiders in her bed. It was so real to her that I couldn't get her to go back to bed. She ended up on the couch with a blanket. As soon as she went to sleep, she woke up with the same dream. I finally convinced her that her bed did not have spiders. She agreed to go back to bed (in her own bed) if I put the fly swatter on the floor next to her bed. It must have worked, because she didn't complain about spider dreams after that. However, she was so wide awake that she didn't go back to sleep almost 3 hours. She finally went to sleep at 5am. As frustrating as it was to be up most of the night, I feel so bad for little Payt. I wish I could take my children's bad dreams away. It makes me feel helpless when they get so scared and worked up about something that isn't even real.