Sleepy Dreams

I have very vivid dreams. Lately, my dreams have all involved something happening to my children. I had one dream a few weeks ago where one of my children wandered away from me in a mall (when do I ever go to the mall?) and I couldn't find him. While I was looking for him, two more of them wandered away. My other dreams are all similar--at a park or a restaurant.

I have concluded that this is a subconscious manifestation that I am worried about my ability to manage my children while out in public. There are four of them. They are ages 6, 5, 3, and 2. Whenever we go anywhere, be it a friend's house, a fast food place, a playground, the library, I have a very difficult time getting them to come when it's time to go. I think that my dreams relate to that. I have such a hard time with it, in fact, that recently, I've stopped taking them anywhere if I can avoid it. Even friend's houses, where they are contained to a small area and I have another adult to help me round them up. I just cannot get them to obey and come when called.

My dreams stress me out to the point that I don't sleep very well either. I wake up with a jolt, realize that my children are safe and sleeping peacefully in their beds, but then images of all the bad things that could happen to them in their disobedience keep popping in and out of my head and I can't get back to sleep. Then when I finally do, it's surface sleep, like I'm half aware that they are in their rooms snoozing and keeping half-awake to make sure that is where they really are.

How do I overcome this? I feel certain that if I could get my children to be more obedient, especially in public, that some of these sleepless dreams would go away and I would sleep more peacefully. But I am at a loss. I have tried talking to them, giving them consequences that matter, punishing, bribing, and now, not going anywhere. Nothing seems to work. What do I do?