The existence of REM sleep from birth, plus occasional reports from very young children that seem unquestionably related to dreaming, suggest to us that dreaming may begin long before the child has the verbal ability to describe the dream, or even the intellectual ability to understand the difference between dreaming and waking.

A case of dreaming in a very young child was illustrated to me by my own daughter when she was less than two years old. I went into her room one morning before she awoke and saw her eyes moving. Suddenly she said, "Pick me! Pick me!"

I woke her and she immediately said, "Oh, Daddy, I was a flower."

(Incidentally, such talking does not often occur during REM periods.)

SOURCE AND DATE: Some Must Watch while Some Must Sleep by William Dement (1972, p.53) He states she is now 14.

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