It depends how desperate you are. I stayed in bed because I was more afraid of my father than the images in my head. He was fine with the odd incident and sympathetic to nightmares but he wouldn't have tolerated fusses at bed time. When my grandmother babysat and there was no-one taking in the lounge I called out occasionally and asked if she could cough from time to time.
Ds5 has trouble falling asleep but his room is off the lounge so I let him have the door part open an go in and give him a cuddle occasionally.
I would stick with the purge. As an adult I simply don't read ir watch things that will cause nightime fears if I am in a sensitive period. And SSRIs do seem to prevent dreaming although it may be they just prevent the stress dreams that wake you up in a panic. I forgot to take mine for 5 days lately and started having dreams where my kids died.
