nightmares??

[dizzy23]

so my 5yo dd has been dealing with nightmares for about 4 or 5 months now, and i'm wondering if this is common developmentally for this age. it seems like i remember reading about it somewhere a few years ago, but i haven't seen anything on it lately.
she used to be way into scary stories and such, but since the nightmares started, we have quit any scary stories or tv shows. i'm not overly worried or anything, i just feel so bad for her and often her moods reflect a lack of good sleep.
has anyone else dealt with this around this age? any ideas how long it may last or what we can do to help her? thanks.

[khrisday]

Nightmares are pretty normal, there was a great episode of Blues Clues where they talked about nightmares, there's also a Winnie the Pooh book about nightmares. Both of these talked about how your brain is still working at night, and how you are in charge of and can change your dreams. I bet if you did a search on Amazon you could find several good books. Maybe you start a dream journal for her. Every morning you can write down what she remembers from her dreams. You can ever do an experiment where before bed she decides to try and dream about something in particular and in the morning she can see if it worked. If she has recurrrent nightmares you can try and figure out what is causing them.