Children's Nightmares and Night Terrors

by Renee Dietz | More from this Blogger

No parent ever wants to see their child going through nightmares. The experience is frightening for both parent and child, while making the parent feel completely helpless. One of the things that make a child's nightmare so difficult is that if the child is young, he or she doesn't understand what's happening. Children generally experience one of two things - a nightmare or a night terror. The bottom line is that a nightmare is a bad dream. Unfortunately, nightmares can also be very realistic. In this situation, the child can be woken up and reassured he or she was just having a bad dream.

Now, another problem is known as "night terrors", which is similar to a nightmare but in this case, the parent is unable to awaken the child, or at least until he or she goes back into a deep sleep. The good side of night terrors opposed to nightmares is that children typically don't remember anything the following morning.

If your child begins to have recurrent nightmares or night terrors, chances are something is bothering him or her. For instance, your child may be going through peer pressure, stress from school, he or she might be the victim of a bully, perhaps a violent movie or television show has caused over stimulation, and so on. In other words, both nightmares and night terrors are seldom a random act. To help prevent both of these experiences, you can make a few changes.

For starters, if your child is screaming from a night terror, don't panic. Instead, you want to keep the situation calm, holding your child closely in your arms while allowing him or her to fall back into a deep sleep. On the other hand, if your child is experiencing a nightmare, again hold him or her, but this time, allowing the child to awaken. Once the child is somewhat awake, provide calm reassurance that everything is fine. The key is not creating a sense of fear. Therefore, you don't want to act as if you just saved your child from something horrible.

In addition, while you want to be loving and reassuring with nightmares, don't go overboard with the attention or sympathy, which could create a type of manipulation. All you need to do is gently hold your child, talking to him or her for a few minutes until the situation has calmed down. Although a number of things can perpetuate a nightmare, studies have shown that one of the reasons is the child needing to go to the bathroom. This fear of wetting the bed brings on anxiety, which then moves on into a nightmare. Therefore, an easy fix is to eliminate liquids after dinner and have your child potty right before going to bed.

Sometimes, you may need to talk to your child about the nightmare, which can provide you with insight as to what underlying issue is going on. If your child shows any signs of fear in the morning, don't assume those fears will simply vanish. Again, good communication is essential. In addition, cut out all movies or television shows that show violence, or even competitive games played on the computer. Finally, some foods are known to encourage nightmares to include spicy dishes so you might begin to take note of foods eaten to see if there is something in particular that could be the problem.

Learn more about Renee Dietz

I have been a successful, published writer for the past 26 years, offering a writing style that is informative, creative, and reader-friendly.

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