Nightmares

4/10/2008

Everyone knows what a nightmare is—the bad dream when something awful is chasing you, you’re trapped in a strange place, or you’ve arrived in the classroom totally unprepared for the big test. Any possible catastrophe you’ve refused to think about during the day can find a place to play in your dreaming brain at night. Nightmares are where we work out our anxieties and fears or try to deal with experiences we cannot understand.

Nightmares usually occur very late in the sleep cycle, during REM or light sleep. They often occur early in the morning, as opposed to night terrors, which most often occur just a few hours into a night’s sleep.

While everyone gets nightmares, preschool children are the most often affected by them. They wake up frightened from the dream, and need reassurance before they can fall back to sleep. If the dream was especially memorable or frightening (or recurrent) they may be reluctant to go to sleep in the future.

The situations in nightmares can reflect stresses at home or at school, recent trauma, scary events in the news, or violent or perplexing images from TV, movies, or computer screens. A child describes a nightmare in terms appropriate to his age, so it may take some de-coding to understand the worry at the heart of it.

If your child wakes frightened by a bad dream:

• Reassure him immediately that he’s just had a nightmare and that it was not real. If necessary, walk him through the room or the house to show that all is safe.
• Gradually help him regain his calm so he can return to sleep. Cuddle him in your lap or lie down and wrap your arms around him so he feels protected.
• Talk openly the next day about the bad dream, and the fact that it was not real. Probe gently about stresses by asking questions like, why do you think you had that dream now? Is anything worrying you?

Parents can take 5 simple steps to curb nightmares:

• 1. Develop regular and relaxing bedtime rituals.
• 2. Gradually wind energy levels down before bedtime.
• 3. Cut out stimulants such as foods and drinks containing caffeine at least two hours before bedtime.
• 4. Avoid violent or scary entertainment as a rule, not just before bedtime.
• 5. Take a moment each day to talk with your child about things happening in his life. You may be able to talk small worries out before they become nightmares.