How to talk to your kids about dreams and help them ‘dream craft’ their way out of nightmares

Here’s something many parents will be glad to hear: a new study has revealed that one in three kids practice ‘dream crafting’ while sleeping.

However, a study also found that only around half (57%) of children aged 6-12 are aware of their abilities to ‘dream craft’.

Helping your child ‘dream craft’ can improve their sleep quality, reduce night terrors and even give them coping skills for common bedtime anxieties. And the best part? You can turn it into a fun activity for the whole family.

What is ‘dream crafting’?

The concept of dream crafting comes from the LEGO® DREAMZzz™ hit series: in the LEGO DREAMZzz show, a group of middle-school friends discover that dreams aren’t just random – they can guide them! They use their imagination to turn their dreams into creative adventures where they build epic things (from robot dinosaurs to giant rollerblading bunnies – seriously, you should watch it with your kids, it’s so fun) and defend their dream world from villains.

That kind of dream building and guiding is called dream crafting in the show, and although the term belongs to the series, the LEGO Group is on a mission to educate parents and guardians on how they can help their children develop and strengthen the real-world skills needed to be able to guide their dreams – or as coined in the series, ‘dream craft’.

Is dream crafting a skill that kids can train?

Many kids already know about dream crafting intuitively, which is amazing. A recent study by the LEGO Group shows that 57% of kids aged 6-12 are aware of their own ability to guide their dreams. Among these kids, 41% say they can consciously change their dream when it’s turning into something they fear, and 38% can guide their dream if they simply don’t like what they are dreaming of.

But that leaves a whole 43% of kids who don’t know about their built-in superpower against nightmares or unpleasant dreams. Can these kids train themselves to dream craft?

We asked that question to Dream Psychologist (and awesome-job-haver) Ian Wallace, who has analyzed over 400,000 dreams across 30 years of research. His answer? Yes, kids can guide their dreams – by using a whole range of real-world skills and tapping into their creativity and confidence.

Wallace has discovered that the ability to dream craft not only makes dreaming more fun and exciting, but also has many other real-life benefits for children. When they sleep, kids’ imaginations let them develop their problem-solving abilities, explore their inner thoughts and feelings (which is great for building self-identity and emotional resilience) and even improve their brain health by boosting their complex cognitive skills! That’s an awesome recommendation letter for dream crafting.

Three expert-recommended dream crafting methods

Ian Wallace went on to share three different playful methods you can use to help kids dream craft in their dreams: Dream Play, Imaginal Play and Active Play.

Dream Play: Encourage your child to reimagine their dream immediately or shortly after they wake up. This can help them realize that they can guide or change the scary parts of their dreams. For example, if they dreamt about a monster, what happens if they imagine the monster becoming a friendly character instead? Or a tiny monster pet? A monster truck, perhaps? As the child does this, they realize that they have power over the images that they are creating in their mind – and how they feel about them.

Imaginal Play: Ask your child to pick a scene from their dream, describe it in detail and play around with it: what did they see? Who was there? Even if they can’t recall the exact details, they can fill them out with their imagination. The more they do this, the more they exercise their ability to create detailed scenarios while they dream.

And finally, Active Play: Here’s where you and your kid get to recreate, reconstruct and reenact scenes from their dreams using their creativity: drawing, role-playing or even building them (LEGO bricks will come in handy here!). This hands-on method deepens emotional connections and shows kids how their creativity can guide their dreams into whatever they want. You’re tapping into your kid’s creativity and helping them feel empowered, especially if they’ve been dealing with nightmares or sleep anxiety.

What are kids actually dreaming about? (Yes, we also asked!)

Because the LEGO DREAMZzz universe is based on the awesome creative power of kids’ dreams, we made sure to ask kids the sort of things they dream about most often. And what do you know – if you’re a relative, you made the Top 2!

Here’s the Global Top 10 most common things kids around the world dream about:

1. Friends (67%)
2. Family members (61%)
3. School (61%)
4. Parents/guardians (58%)
5. Home (57%)
6. Pets (56%)
7. Toys (56%)
8. Playing a game (50%)
9. A park or playground (48%)
10. Monsters (46%)

A final note on dream crafting

Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, the information provided on dream crafting is for general information purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Good? Good. Happy dream crafting!