Peaceful sleep where art thou?

My son, my Elliot ... I love this boy more than my heart can handle sometimes. He is my child that is most like me. We have similar hearts and similar personalities. He has never been my sleeper, naps were never his thing, falling asleep has always been difficult. Although as a baby and toddler once he was asleep he would sleep through the night no problems. Lately though we are in a strange cycle and I am at a loss.

Lately it seems we go a few weeks just fine and then we have 3 or 4 day stretch of nightmares...I would actually classify them as night terrors because when i get to him he is still sleeping yet able to talk to me a bit once I get him calmed down. The dreams are horrible and are often about him dieing, being left alone or him being hurt...I can't say the boy hasn't had a bit of a traumatic summer in the injury dept. so I am not sure if that is related. The nightmares seem to be consistently waking him up every couple of hours and I would be lying if I didn't say it wasn't beginning to shake me a bit.

Things we have tried, flipping his pillow to the good dream side, talking about good dreams or things we could dream about before sleep, praying specifically for dreams before bed and talking about Gods ultimate care and comfort for us.....I feel as if we have tried it all and I am starting to think maybe there is a bigger issue. I also pray over him out loud each time he wakes up hoping that God will make it stop and that Elliot will feel comfort...I know He is there.

So this is my plea for help, tips, advice whatever....I am at a loss of what else to do:(

Just not sure how much screaming of death I can take in the middle of the night and I so badly want to help him.