Nightmares and night terrors in children

Nightmares are those unpleasant experiences of sudden awakening from sleep with vivid, vivid dreams, lived with intense emotions or fear. Children are more likely to report such experiences than adults. Most of the time, they remember the content of dreams in great detail. Most times, nightmares can be attributed to some sensory anxiogenic sensations or experiences during the day, that is, they see or hear something that causes them a state of restlessness, fear or. There is no need to be real those things / experiences. They can also be imagined or induced by other people (parents who use \.

The nightmare's content is usually related to the stage of the child's development (separation from parents, fear of darkness, experiences with emotional load - school, quarrels with friends), but with the development of the child, the themes of nightmares contain real, non-imaginary hazards. Nightmares are common in the 3-6 year age group, with 5-30% of children often experiencing this type of experience. They represent the start of neurological and cognitive maturation of children. are also called \. During a nocturnal terror, the child can stand in bed with wide open eyes, but do not notice the presence of the parents in the room.

They can not be calm or wake up in those moments and usually do not remember anything in the episode when they wake up. Occasionally, children can remember uproar and vague information from their dreams, but they are more often represented by feelings of threat or need of defense, without distinguishing the source. The duration of an episode of nocturnal terror is usually between 10-30 minutes. Most of the time, after such an episode, the baby stretches back into bed and falls asleep without the need for parenting. Night terrors affects approximately 3% of children between the ages of 4 and 12, the peak of the prevalence being the 5-7 year period.

This condition is also hereditary, and its prevalence is higher in families where at least one person has frequent episodes of night terrors. Night terrors Nightmares Remember the dream in the smallest detail Remembering the dream in the smallest detail Inability to remember the dream's content No confusion; . Confusion; . Appears in Non-REM sleep during short-wave sleep (before REM sleep) To calm your baby during a nightmare, it's a good idea to get to him quickly and calm him. Make sure he has no fear.

Once calmed, make sure he came back to bed and fell asleep again. A good idea would be to leave the door open to the bedroom so that it has easier access to you in the case of a nightmare. In this way, the child can have a more restful sleep due to the feeling of safety that the lack of a physical barrier between him and his parent. Try to find the child's worry or fears. Take care of pictures, movies, or TV shows that contain age scenes that are inappropriate for age.

Develop a routine before bedtime to help make it easier and easier to rest. Give her a towel or a toy to \. Do not hesitate to consult a pediatrician or a psychiatrist of children if nightmares are frequent or have recurrent themes. Therapy may be needed in cases of abuse or psychotrauma. The best thing to do in such situations is to wait for the episode to pass.

Make sure the child's environment is safe and can not be hit or hurt during the episode of night terror. Place your child and potentially damaging objects. Before bedtime, gather things and toys (or teach the child to put them in their place) and close all access points (windows, doors or staircase safety gates). After the episode has passed, it is not advisable to wake up the child. If it's awake, try to take a little bit off your immediate return to sleep as there is a risk of experiencing the same night experience.

Establish a relaxing routine before bedtime. If night terrors are common and occur at the same time each night, it is advisable to wake the baby a few minutes before the likely episode. Doing this for a week will break the pace of terror without significantly reducing them. It is very rare for night terrors or nightmares to have long-term psychological effects on children. However, if they have high frequency or a recurring theme, a specialist consultation is required.