Dream Analysis, Understanding your Daughter's Nightmare
I'm a total dream buff because I've had nightmares since I was born and they haven't gone away, and in college I had night terrors from which I'd awaken with a bloody lip from biting my lips in my sleep!
I've learned ways to calm myself from these dreams and one of the ways is learning to understand the dreams.
When you dream about a bug like a spider it means that something is "bugging you" and when something is eating you in a dream that means that something is "eating away at you" in your waking life. If it's a re-occurring dream it means that there is something in your 3-year-old's life that's eating away at her in her waking hours. If you can find out what that is and solve that problem, the nightmares about it will go away.
But if you can't, which is entirely possible since she's 3 and 3-year-olds have difficult thought processes to crack, you can try the following strategies.
1. Before going to bed, have your child recount all the best things she did that day.
2. Pray; there is something about the monotony of prayers and bible verses etc. that is therapeudic.
3. Stay with her until she is in REM sleep.
4. Check on her frequently while she sleeps and gently stroke her hair and touch her in any way you can think of that's calming.
In the morning, always ask her what she dreampt about, good or bad. If you are a journal-keeper, write down her experiences each day and her dreams, and you may find a connection and learn to understand what's going on in her head. Hope this helps!