(Female, 30’s)
This wasn’t my dream, but my 5 year old son’s nightmare, some years back. I remember it quite clearly.
He woke in the night, as he often did at that age, whimpering fitfully and not quite awake. I made my way through the dark apartment, not turning on any lights because– good god, who wants to encourage a kid to wake up all the way in the middle of the night? So I stumbled through the darkness to comfort him and to coax him back to sleep.
I sat on the edge of his bed, rubbing his back and talking in a soft voice, asking him what was wrong.
“Mom,” he told me, “I had a bad dream.”
“I know. That’s awful, but don’t worry. I’m here. Want to tell me about it?”
“Mom, there was a cat, but he was turned inside out, with his skin on the inside…” He dozed off to sleep.
I remember feeling not so safe and curling up in bed next to him, sleeping there until the morning.