Children And Dreams
In a research conducted at the University of Virginia, it was found that animals are featured more prominently in children's dreams compared to adults' dreams. This may be due to the notion that children are just interested in animals. Furthermore, frightening animals, like lions, snakes, crocodiles, and wolves occur more often then non-frightening animals, like sheep, butterflies or birds. Children use animals to symbolize their wishes and fears.
Children also seem to dream more about aggression than adults. Surprisingly children dream about aggressive acts twice as often as adults. This may be due to the notion that children are still trying to control their impulses in order to live and function in a civilized society. They are trying to keep their impulses in check.
Interestingly, the research showed that the dreams of girls were longer than those of boys. Girls' dreams contained more people and clothing. Boys' dreams were more about tools and objects.
Children's nightmares often stem from being punished by parents, when a child is sick or if there is turmoil in the child's home life.