My folks got some dream eaters for us when we were sprogs- some kind of dragony statue that are big enough to be parked in the door holding it open letting some light in.
They told us they would eat any bad dreams that came around.
Nothing scary about a dragon that can reach inside your brain and eat your thoughts.
Story from a friend- their first had terrible nightmares, so they got their son a dream catcher from a craft stall, got the nice lady to lay on the full native american woo thing- totally convinced. All was well for a few weeks, then suddenly he became terrified of the dreamcatcher as it must be getting full of bad dreams- what if they leak? What if it overflows and they all burst out at once? They ended up having to burn it in the garden.
The moral of the story is that kids brains are just as good at creating problems as adults.