Kathryn, do you remember those sweets REFRESHERS,My edest grandchild Christopher, use to love them when he was a toddler and occasionally, he would go fast asleep at bedtime and wake up screaming  and it was very difficult to settle him again. Helen started asking around for help and up came the subject of "E" numbers,refreshers were fizzy so had lots of 'e' numbers and so we were all told not to give him any. Almost as soon as we stopped-----------no more nightmares. A funny story came out of this when we told his great gran, my mum,he couldn't have 'e' numbers. She went to give him some sweets one day and Helen was checking them and she quickly said to Helen, It's alright there are no 'e's in them and she then spelt out the letters in FRUIT GUMS

Thought you might enjoy this story

Love Pauline

This may or may not be your situation, but my son went through the same thing a couple of months ago for a period of 2 months as well. He goes to bed at 8:30 and hubby and I go to bed at about 11:30 and between those 3 hours, sometimes Matthew screams in horror for up to 4x. It drove us nuts because that heavenly 3 hours of no kids is just about the only time in the day we can enjoy peace and quiet. We couldn't figure out what was going on. Until we decided to limit what he watches on TV. He has only watched preschool aged appropriate programs, but since we've lived with the in-laws, cousins drop by and inappropriate cartoons end up on TV.  We've monitored his reactions and thought he was fine with it, or so we thought. About 2 weeks after banning inappropriate programs, his night terrors decreased dramatically. Now we're back to maybe dealing with it once a night.

One night he woke up at told us he had a dream of everyone turning into mushrooms. After a little interrogation, we figured out what he meant. He has seen some cartoons with explosions (mushroom clouds), so in his mind when he says "everyone turned into mushrooms", he really meant everyone exploded. It's terrifying to think he has this image, yet he doesn't fully understand what they mean. Hmmmm.

Anyway, as far as dealing with nightmares, here's what we've done ever since he started sleeping in his own room at close to 3 years old. He has a special flashlight, bedtime friends (consisting off stuffed animals he's had since he was a baby, animals he won at carnivals {which I would really prefer to be out the window as they are not really kid/allergy friendly}) and some pep talks. Like you, we tell him that his bedtime friends like to eat monsters, especially Sharky. I've also told him that when he dreams, he has to have his bedtime friends with him and they can fight off the scary monsters. Daddy has told him that his bed is a safe spot and no monsters dare to go near it.   I've also been known to shout into the dark corners and use my Mommy terrors and say I will have to spank the monsters if they dare scare him. lol.  Once I've even reduced the scariness and told Matthew to yell out and say, "OK monsters. Play time is over, you have to go home or your mommies and daddies will worry about you."  

Good luck!

Oh and a nice night time song when they first go to sleep!!! Away in a manger,slient night,Marys boy child ect

When my girls have a bad dream I cuddle them let them tell me what happened if they want to and take then back to bed reasurring them and encouring sleep time every think is ok shhhhhhh mummy is here and kisses on the head then back to bed no longer than five mintues in their room and encourage then to go to the toilet before putting then back to bed my girls wake up sometimes with full bladders in the night.