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| health > story page |         |
Nightmares and night terrors: Helping your child rest easyJune 4, 1999
By Daphne Miller
(WebMD) -- Just when parents have gotten through the sleep problems of infancy and toddlerhood and are actually getting a pretty good night's sleep, the nightmare stage begins. Bad dreams, though scary for children, are normal and rarely indicate that a child has experienced something traumatic. Nightmares -- scary dreams that are followed by complete awakening -- can result from a seemingly harmless event in a child's day, one that you may not have noticed and certainly would not have considered frightening. For example, my 4-year-old daughter had a terrifying dream about giant ants invading her room. When I sat down and talked to her about the nightmare, I discovered that earlier that day she had spotted two tiny ants in her sandbox. Not a danger from a parent's perspective, but certainly something that had a lasting effect on my child. Children can have nightmares in times of transition, like moving to a new home or taking a trip. They can also have bad dreams as a result of an event that disrupts their routine, such as starting preschool, the birth of a sibling or even changing sleep patterns when daylight-saving time kicks in. Certain stressful stages of childhood, like toilet training or losing a tooth, can also set off nightmares. Try to be as understanding as possible about the changes your child is going through, and tune in to signs of daily stress that may be playing out at night. If your child has nightmares often, there are several things you can do to help lessen the severity and frequency:
Night terrors: less common, but more intense While nightmares happen in REM sleep, when dreaming is most intense, night terrors occur earlier in the night, when there is a switch from deep sleep to light sleep. During a night terror, a child often screams wildly, shakes and is difficult to wake up. This is usually more frightening for parents than it is for kids, but most of the time it's nothing to become alarmed about. Night terrors usually stop around the time a child reaches grade school. If they continue, however, or if they start to become a nightly event, this could be a sign that something more disturbing is going on, and you should contact your pediatrician.
Finally, if your child has nightmares or night terrors, give lots of hugs and reassurance, and let her cry about it. Knowing you'll always be there to provide comfort is perhaps the best sleep medicine of all.
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