Get comfortable and listen to an instruction fairy tale about how dreams come to children.
When a baby arrives in a house, parents make a separate little bed for them. For the first few months, the baby sleeps so much that a special little sleep fairy comes to visit. She spends the whole night stroking their head and bringing sweet dreams.
From early childhood, she remembers where her little one sleeps. And then she flies back to that same place. Turning off the bright light in the room is a signal for the tiny fairy. She quickly flies to you and waits for you to close your eyes and relax. After that, she flies closer and starts smoothing out your hair and your thoughts.
If you wake up in the morning with messy hair, it means the fairy got very absorbed in your sleep. She sat and smoothed the same spot for hours on end, until your hair stood up like an antenna on a roof.
You'll see tomorrow on the street, for example, a boy whose hair sticks out on the side like a cow licked it. Go up and ask: "Say, friend, did you have an interesting dream today?". We can bet—you definitely did!
My attentive listener is already waiting for the most interesting part. Where, oh where is the instruction for good dreams?! Okay, okay, don't fuss. Now that you know how everything works here, let's get to the main thing.
Many things affect how pleasant your dreams are. And the more conditions you follow, the better your dreams will be.
Rule number one: clean air makes dreams fair. You need to air out your room before sleep. If it's stuffy, the sleep fairy will sit all night thinking: "How am I supposed to breathe in here?". And that really distracts her from bringing pleasant dreams. But you absolutely should not open or close the window yourself! Your parents must do it—that's the rule. So don't do it yourself, ask the adults.
Second rule: clean teeth, dreams are a treat! Would you like to sit next to someone whose breath smells like chewed-up dinner? The sleep fairy definitely doesn't like that. Don't upset this little one and brush your teeth. You'll do something good for your health and your sleep.
Rule three: make your bed in the morning, sleep well at night. When you leave a crumpled blanket, little chaos creatures move in. We call them troublemakers. If you leave a mess all day, by evening it will be hard to shake them all out of bed. Some troublemaker will definitely get stuck in the pillowcase or sheet. And then it will distract the fairy from her important work.
Fourth rule—one of the most important and it's called "fall asleep with a smile, and good dreams will come in a while". You can prepare for sleep perfectly. But if you're angry or crying, your head becomes such a jumbled mess that no fairy can untangle it! So calm down, make peace, wash your face with cool water—and then go to sleep. Listen to a story, remember something funny and kind. And your dreams will come happy and pleasant too.
You might have questions. Let me try to answer them.
You might ask: "What if I'm going to sleep at someone else's house? Won't the fairy come?". And I'll tell you: "Don't worry". In every house there are many other helpers living. For example, a house spirit who watches the entrance and knows whether you're home for the night. If the owners didn't come home for the night, he'll tell the fairy in advance. And other house spirits will tell her where to find you.
Or another question: "What if we followed all the rules and still had a bad dream?". That means that child has too many restless thoughts in their head. Probably didn't listen all day, fought with someone, or watched too many cartoons. The fairy tries to calm down and smooth out the memories, but they twitch and jump all over the place. So a peaceful sleep just doesn't work out.
That's all you need to know, girls and boys, about good dreams. The better you try to follow the conditions, the more pleasant your dreams will be. It's all simple!
Be cheerful and bright,
To fall asleep at night,
And open the path to dreams so right!
