Night terror, fears, nightmares in a child aged 1-1.5-2-3 years. What does this mean, what to do

The nature of childhood nightmares

Over the past few decades, the psyche of children has been subjected to enormous psycho-emotional stress and stress.
A clear dependence of the frequency and degree of nightmares on the strength of the experienced stress, worries, and excess of emotions has been established. Computer, TV, psychological atmosphere in the family, kindergarten, school, in the yard - everything affects the quality of children’s sleep. Their surroundings (parents, educators, peers) often themselves need the help of psychologists. As a result, the number of children suffering from nightmares is steadily growing.

A nightmare arises unexpectedly in the REM phase of sleep, in the morning or in the second half of the night.

The nature of the dream is very intense and colorful with elements of hopelessness and hostility.

The plot is threatening: pursuit, danger, punishment, suffering, death. The baby experiences fear of such strength that he quickly wakes up from horror. He can easily remember the nightmare down to the smallest detail and tell it not only immediately after waking up, but also the next day.

After such a nightly “adventure”, falling asleep easily again is excluded.

Rare nightmares in children are more common and are not a serious problem. They go away by the age of 5–6 years. Parents can easily cope with this type of nightmare by normalizing their sleep-rest routine, the atmosphere in the family, and taking other necessary actions.

Frequent and severe nightmares can seriously interfere with the lives of both children and those around them. Emotional, highly imaginative, hypersensitive children aged 3 to 5 years are especially susceptible to intense nightmares. They can confuse dreams and reality, which complicates their communication with people around them and their proper development.

The memory of night terrors causes nervous disorders, daytime hysterics, negative or depressed behavior. The child may experience fear of falling asleep, bed, or loneliness.

How can you tell if your child is having nightmares?

The child is tormented by nightmares, he wakes up in the middle of the night screaming or crying. How do you understand that this is a nightmare and not fear? Quite simple differences:

• children remember perfectly well what they dreamed and can retell it;
• the baby recognizes his family after waking up;
• nightmares take on the form of reality, but the child accepts your explanations and admits that everything that happens in a dream has nothing in common with life situations;
• After a while, the child can be put back to bed.

In principle, nightmares occur to everyone and are not considered deviations from the norm. This fact indicates that the baby is growing and his nervous system is developing. There is no need to be afraid of this. The problem arises if the child has nightmares regularly. What to do in this case? Such regular anxiety is evidence that something is seriously bothering your child and his nerves are simply on edge.

Interesting fact! Statistically, boys are more likely to have nightmares than girls. This is due to differences in the structure and brain activity of the sexes.

Night terrors are significantly different from nightmares:

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1. After waking up, the child remembers absolutely nothing;
2. During an attack, it is impossible to wake up the baby;
3. But the main difference between fears and nightmares is that closer to adolescence, night terrors stop, and nightmares will visit a person at any age;
4. Also, fear manifests itself literally a few hours after going to bed, and the nightmare occurs mainly closer to the morning.

If a child has nightmares regularly, then there is a reason that provoked such a reaction in the brain. Thanks to the classification of nightmares, you can understand what worries your child so much. Nightmares are always colorful and plot-driven:

• there is an element of death in them;
• a child experiences pain and suffering in a dream;
• all actions in a nightmare are aimed at avoiding danger;
• in a dream, a child tries to escape from real and unreal beings.

Symptoms of nightmares in children

If a child has a bad dream at night that causes fear, this is not yet a reason to turn to a specialist for help. But when certain symptoms appear, parents need to think about it. What should you pay attention to first?

1. Nightmares begin to happen more often.
2. If in one night there are not one, but two terrible dreams.
3. When the nightmare lasts not 10-15, but 30-45 minutes.
4. Physical manifestations begin to appear: muscles twitch, foam appears at the mouth.
5. During sleep, the child begins to get out of bed and walk around the room.

A problem may also be that the son or daughter not only sees a terrible dream, but also remembers it well and can talk about it even the next day.

The difference between night terrors and nightmares

The behavior of children during episodes of night terrors and nightmares is very similar, but has a number of fundamental differences that caring parents need to know. The most important difference is awareness on the part of the child.

A nightmare is a terrible dream that occurs during the rapid stage of sleep. The child wakes up from it and can be calmed down. In the morning, the baby remembers the content and details of the dream.

Pavor nocturnus occurs in the deepest sleep phase. Screams, throwing, open eyes - everything happens while the child is fast asleep and left alone with his fear, screams at you, but does not feel your presence, cannot ask for help. The next day, your child will not remember the night's events.

How to behave during night terror

Night terror in a child is an integral part of the maturation of the psyche, disappearing independently with age as the nervous system develops and strengthens. In most cases, night terrors do not require seeing a doctor. The parent can also help the child relieve nightmares.

Actions to take when a night terror appears

Despite the fact that any adult can not only be woken up, but also greatly frightened by the shrill cry of a baby and his movements hitting the bed, night hysteria in most cases is completely harmless and goes away on its own by the age of 12-15.

Since night terror is associated with overexcitation of the baby’s nervous system and severe fatigue:

• Mom or dad needs to remain calm and stay with the baby until he stops crying and falls asleep again.
• You should not remember the night incident, so as not to upset the child, reminding him of the loss of control over himself.
• You can try to wake up a child suffering from night terror 30 minutes after he falls asleep for the first time, thereby preventing the development of an attack.
• One of the main causes of nighttime tantrums is the baby’s increased fatigue, so parents need to make sure that the little person remembers to have a good rest while exploring the world. In addition to night sleep, a child under 5 years of age must rest for at least 3 hours during the day (after lunch).

• Following a daily routine will also help prevent nightmares, with a mandatory evening bedtime no later than 9-10 pm.
• The main condition for preventing night tantrums is a close connection between parents and child, consisting of support, mutual understanding and love.

It will not be possible to wake up a child who is in the stage of night terror, since one part of the baby’s brain still remains in the deep sleep phase, and the other is already ready to move on to less sound sleep.

Actions for a nightmare

Nightmares are accompanied by bright, rich pictures, and if children at a young age most often dream that they are left alone, then children from 2 to 5 years old most often see various monsters and monsters chasing them. Unlike night terror, during a nightmare, the baby will immediately rush to seek help from the parents, screaming and crying, who should calm and caress the child.

To parents:

• Under no circumstances should you scold a baby crying in horror. You should also not send your child back to bed alone. You can let him lie down with his parents or go with him, turning on the light (or night light) in the room and make sure that the scary monsters have disappeared.
• You should tell the child that he just had a bad dream. You can also make your baby laugh.
• You need to take care of protection from nightmares, the function of which can be taken on by any soft toy placed with the baby.
• You should not discuss the nightmare in detail; it is recommended to distract the child, but not focus on the disturbing event.

Mom or dad needs to stay with the baby until he falls asleep, but you shouldn’t break the rules and allow the child to constantly sleep in the parents’ bed.

Children's nightmares at different ages

For the first time, a little person encounters fears at about 3 years old . Psychologists consider this process a natural and logical stage in the development of a person, the maturation of his nervous system.

Children of all ages experience manifestations of nightmares. Their largest number is recorded from 3 to 5 years. At this age, boys are more likely to have scary dreams.

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The next wave of fears begins at 6 and 7 years of age : children experience increasing stress at school and family. Particularly impressionable people who learn that living beings are mortal (a crushed bug dies forever) experience fear of reality.

Parents need to create an atmosphere of absolute security in the house. The issue of death and life can be discussed without unnecessary details, but seriously and honestly, try to give only the information that the child requests.

The child's psyche at this age is very vulnerable; parents should carefully filter the information to which the child has access: exclude scenes of cruelty, violence from TV screens, computer games.

During the period from birth to 7–8 years, a child sees more nightmares than in his entire life. The number of scary dreams decreases with age. Scientists explain it this way: children’s nightmares are a natural and necessary stage of brain development, during which the child learns to overcome fears and cope with various problems.

By the age of 12, most children are completely free of night terrors.

In adolescence, nightmares are not excluded; their causes and content are closer to the nightmares of an adult.

The nature of fears

A child will never develop night terrors just like that. It is due to a number of factors and reasons, including:

• difficult pregnancy;
• heredity;
• pathology of childbirth;
• suffered severe pathologies;
• operations, especially if they were performed under general anesthesia;
• lack of close emotional relationships with mother;
• mental trauma;
• excess of impressions;
• neuropsychic overload;
• unfavorable family atmosphere;
• nervous state of parents, frequent conflicts between them, as well as aggressive behavior with children.

The main sources of fears in children are certain events in their lives, such as:

• moving to another place of residence;
• conflict on the street, at school and in kindergarten;
• transition to a new children's educational institution;
• the birth of a second child in the family;
• parental divorce;
• death of loved ones.

Modern television with its crime chronicles, programs about violence, incidents and disasters also serves as a colossal source of negative information.

Where do nightmares come from?

Psychologists and child psychiatrists have long established a close relationship between daytime stress and the quality of nighttime dreams. If a child experiences psycho-emotional inconvenience and discomfort during the day, then the likelihood that in a dream his fears and experiences will take on a nightmarish image increases. The child goes to bed, his body is physiologically tired, he needs rest, and the brain continues to actively digest the abundance of information flow.

Parents have always encountered nightmares in children, but in recent decades the number of requests from mothers and fathers regarding their children’s nightmares has increased tenfold. Experts tend to see this as the fault of technological progress: children from a very early age spend a lot of time watching TV, in front of computers, and with gadgets. In addition, the overall level of stress has increased significantly.

A nightmare, from the point of view of somnology, always appears in a certain phase of sleep - REM (usually this happens either in the morning or in the second half of the night). A scary dream is always very intense, colorful and vivid, and contains strong emotional experiences.

What do children usually see in their nightmares? Chases and danger, death, pain, suffering, punishment and monsters. The fear is usually so strong that the child quickly wakes up, abruptly leaves the REM sleep phase and cannot calm down for a long time, simply because at the exit from the REM sleep phase the images are still before his eyes and seem real to him, existing in this world.

Subsequently falling asleep easily after this seems to be an almost impossible task, and this is well known to all parents whose babies wake up screaming in the middle of the night and fight in hysterics for some time.

Helping Children Deal with Night Terrors: A Checklist

• Always ask for advice on raising toddlers who are fussy when left alone at night. As noted above, they do not have the ability to figure it out on their own. (France and Blampied 1999; Owens et al 1999).
• Talk to your children about the difference between fantasy and reality, prove to them that there is no monster in the closet. As noted above, some have difficulty distinguishing between fantasy and reality and may be at higher risk for night terrors (Zisenwine et al 2012).
• Consider sources of daily stress. Children who are distressed—at school, due to separation from parents, or other problems—are likely to be afraid of the dark and sleep alone (Gregory and Eley 2005). You can reduce your child's nighttime fears by helping him cope with daytime stress.
• Check your sleep conditions and schedule. Sometimes parents incorrectly determine how much sleep their children need. The result is sending them to bed long before they can fall asleep. Those left in the dark have more time to become overwhelmed by night terrors (Ferber 1995).
• Avoid scary TV shows, stories and images - especially before bed. This includes passive exposure that occurs when your child is present while watching potentially disturbing material on television. A recent study found that 5- to 6-year-olds exposed to adult TV programs, including the evening news, slept less and experienced more sleep disturbances (Paavonen et al 2006).
• Fight with the power of touch. Physical contact (stroking, hugging) disables separation anxiety (Panskepp 2006).
• Offer your child a stuffed animal or doll for comfort. There is experimental evidence that this old method really works. The effect was observed when the toy was presented as a protector or as a creature in need of protection (Kushnir and Sade 2012).
• Try to be patient. If your child's night terrors are keeping you awake, it's natural to feel resentful. But it's important not to direct your anger or frustration at your child. If your baby feels rejected, this will only increase his separation anxiety and make things worse.
• Respond quickly to nightmares. Convince your little one that the fear was not real, and explain that everyone has horrors sometimes. The sooner you remove the impact of a bad dream, the sooner he can fall asleep again.
• Provide your child with a night light. Find a floor lamp that produces soft, warm, rather than blue-tinged light. The latter inhibits the formation of melatonin in the brain and thus may prevent your baby from feeling sleepy (Glaze 2004).
• Be a model of calm, confident behavior. When your baby comes to you in a frightened state, be warm, sensitive and responsive. Tell him that you understand him and that sometimes everyone gets scared. But don't let empathy turn into overprotection. Many animals, from birds to monkeys, are sensitive to social cues about fear (Zentall and Galef 1988). If your baby notices that you are worried, he may become more fearful.
• Show your child how to relax. For example, when calming a crying child, demonstrate your breathing exercises (Jay et al 1987). This appears to reduce anxiety in 40% of toddlers.
• Counter fearful thoughts with images of happiness, security, and courage. When he is afraid, help your child think of situations that make him feel happy and confident. For example, you can encourage him to imagine that he is playing with his favorite pet. You may also have an excuse to convince your child that he is brave. This method was used in the study mentioned above (Jay et al., 1987).
• Teach coping skills through role-playing. Many children overcome their fear of medical examinations by playing doctor. You can apply this approach to night terrors as well. During the daytime, talk about your child's fears and discuss how he can confront them. Support practicing the tactics mentioned above by thinking about happy moments, telling yourself that the person is brave; rehearse relaxation techniques and turn scary imaginary creatures into something silly and non-threatening. Then try playing a small role (Jay et al 1987). If you have another adult or older child to help, you can both role-play the role of the scared toddler and the brave parent. The father or mother shows how to confront his night fears, and the child tries these methods. After the demonstration, ask him to play the role of a comforting adult.
• During the daytime, create stories with your child in which the main character (a favorite fictional character) learns to overcome his night fears. This technique, called story desensitization, is designed to make babies less fearful. (King et al 2001). Start by telling a story that doesn't have scary elements. Then introduce something that's a little scary. For example, if your child is afraid of spiders, you could add a very small, non-threatening insect (that keeps its distance from the character) into the story. The daredevil responds by successfully practicing the fear management techniques mentioned above. If this story doesn't upset your child, you can increase the scary element in the next story - perhaps by making the spider closer. In this way, you can gradually get rid of your baby's fear.
• If your child suffers from severe night terrors, consult a doctor or licensed therapist. Recent research shows that children with nighttime problems often suffer from a variety of issues during the day, including anxiety, impulsivity, and abnormal attention (Kushnir et al., 2014). The specialist can recommend a support program tailored to your child's individual needs.

Norm and pathology

If scary dreams occur rarely, then up to 5-7 years of age this is considered the norm - the psyche also undergoes age-related changes. But if nightmares occur several times a week, they are strong and frequent, the child needs help.

Children aged 3 to 5 years are more susceptible to nightmare visions. Such children usually remember images from dreams well, and this increases anxiety and can cause nervous disorders, hysterics in the daytime, horror of the process of going to bed, fear of going to bed alone, without light, etc.

When it happens

Children under three years of age usually sleep so deeply that even if they dream, they do not remember them after waking up.
Therefore, before reaching this age, the child does not have nightmares. If the baby is too overwhelmed with impressions, it may simply be difficult for him to fall asleep. Or, during sleep, the most vivid impressions of the day may emerge, and since the baby’s brain does not distinguish sleep from reality, he wakes up and cries. Children's first night terrors are most often associated with darkness and scary fairy-tale characters. As it develops, a child's wild imagination fills in the missing parts, for example, to the shadow falling from the chair standing near the crib. And now a huge, scary monster crawls out from under him, ready to grab the baby with its furry paw. Well, how can you sleep here!

At the age of 5-7 years, children's fears are more often associated with the process of socialization. At this time, children begin to seek and defend their place in society and the recognition of others is extremely important for them. They may be worried about the thought of performing at a matinee tomorrow, about a quarrel with their first friends, etc. During this period, the conflict with the mother is especially difficult, which must be resolved before going to bed, otherwise the baby thinks that the mother no longer loves him and will never love him again.

At 7-9 years old, many anxious thoughts can be associated with school. In the evening, the child rethinks his day and does not always cope with his emotions, especially if he is very overloaded. Therefore, it is very important not to overlook the moment when the first signs of overwork appear and to plan academic and extracurricular activities taking into account the age and individual characteristics of the child.

Around this same period, the child begins to realize that life on earth is not eternal and the fear of death awakens. He may be afraid of not waking up in the morning or the sudden death of his parents and that he will be left all alone. Recognizing this fear is often difficult because children are reluctant to talk about it.

In fact, it is normal that some children’s fears are replaced by others as they grow older - this is how the main stages of development of the baby’s psyche proceed. But many parents are interested in the question of how soon the child’s period of fear will end. Everything is very individual and it is difficult to give a definite answer.

If you respond correctly to them, then for most children, night terrors end by the age of 9-10, and then the child can sleep peacefully in a separate room all night.

But sometimes this period drags on, and night fears accompany the child up to 12 years or more, and some of them develop into real phobias. Therefore, there is no need to panic about this problem, but you also cannot completely ignore it.

Age characteristics

It is believed that newborns do not have nightmares. They do not have sufficient psycho-emotional experience to see frightening images. Fears come into our lives after 1 year and reach their peak by 3 years. There is nothing wrong with this - this is just another and absolutely necessary stage in the development of personality, the formation of the psyche and nervous system. Therefore, it is not surprising that from the age of three, children most often experience nightmares, and boys are more susceptible to them than girls.

The next wave of nightmares threatens a child at 6-7 years old, when the understanding of death and mortality begins. If you step on a butterfly, it dies forever, sometimes people die forever, and understanding this gives the child a feeling of hopelessness, a dead end.

From preschool age, a child can be greatly impressed by a scene of violence or cruelty seen in a game or film. Therefore, you should very carefully evaluate the content that your baby receives.

By the age of 11-12, nightmares usually disappear for natural reasons: the brain and psyche have adapted, and those same terrible childhood dreams played a significant role in this.

In adolescents, nightmares are usually no longer of physiological and natural origin; their causes are almost the same as in adults: neurosis, anxiety disorders, chronic stress, negative experience.

What to do?

Nightmares can affect any child. Parents must react to this correctly so as not to scare them even more. You should talk to the baby, convince him that dreams are just pictures that will not do anything bad to him. The baby should read confidence and calm on the parent’s face.

Parents should review the above list of possible causes. By eliminating them, you can help your child get rid of nightmares.

• Establish a relationship with the baby;
• Protect him from domestic quarrels, excessively tiring computer games, and frequent viewing of horror films on TV;
• It is necessary to create a daily routine so that the child goes to bed on time day and night;
• Mental and active games should be given a certain amount of time;
• It is necessary to check the health of the baby;
• Before going to bed, you can read a fairy tale to your baby, sing a lullaby so that he feels calm while falling asleep;
• If the baby is ready to tell you what he dreamed, then you can ask him for all the details. Together with him, you can depict dream characters on paper and come up with a funny story, and then tear the piece of paper or cut it with scissors. The child will laugh and be less afraid of bad dreams;
• Before going to bed, you can give your baby tinctures of soothing herbs to drink;
• You can take your baby for a walk before bed or prepare him a bath with soothing herbs;
• It is necessary to exercise in the morning, fill the day with useful impressions;
• Many children are afraid of an imaginary monster that lives under the bed or in the closet. This is an occasion to test your acting skills. Drive it away with the means at hand, and then check whether the mythical monster has left the darkness.

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Typically, nightmares stop occurring on their own once the causes are identified and eliminated. But there are times when you need to see a doctor.

What affects the quality of children's sleep?

It turns out that the child’s psyche can suffer not only from unfavorable relationships in the family, but also television and the computer . If nightmares are a rare occurrence, then by the age of 5-6 years they usually pass, and then the child sleeps peacefully. This is easy to deal with; you don’t need to show your son or daughter to doctors. You just need to normalize your sleep and rest patterns, and then everything will be fine.

It is important to know : emotional children with pronounced imagination are most often susceptible to nightmares. This usually applies to children aged 3-5 years. It often happens that they even confuse reality with a dream.

Nightmares are a problem not only of sleep, that is, at night, they are also reflected in the daytime. Such children may throw a tantrum , which is the cause of the development of nervous disorders. The child may be in a depressed mood and afraid to fall asleep. He may even be afraid of his bed. As a result, he begins to be afraid to be alone.

When and where should you seek help?

Night terrors go away on their own with age (by 12-13 years), when the nervous system matures, and rarely have a negative impact on the psyche of children.

However, if nightmares occur several times a night and occur most nights, talk to your healthcare provider about whether a referral to a sleep specialist or others is needed.

The pediatrician will check to see if there is an underlying medical condition and whether the cause of the terror episodes is treatable. For example, large tonsils may cause breathing problems at night and while your child is awake.

A polysomnographic study will reveal a specific pathology, if any.

Complex treatment of parasomnia is carried out by a psychologist, neurologist, and psychiatrist. Nootropic therapy allows you to accelerate the process of maturation of the sleep regulation mechanism.

How should parents behave?

Parents, as a rule, feel helpless, not being able to calm their frightened child.

The best way to cope with an attack is to wait it out patiently. Children usually calm down on their own and go back to sleep.

Don't try to wake him up.

When your child wakes up, he will not recognize you, will be disoriented, confused and even more frightened, and will take much longer to calm down and fall asleep again.

Your task is to protect the child so that he does not get injured.

Only after the episode is over, wake the child.

A rapid return to deep sleep may trigger another episode of fear. Offer, if necessary, to go to the toilet before the baby goes back to sleep.

Make sure he is fully awake to break the vicious chain.

Try not to discuss the events of the night with your child or in front of him; this may increase the baby’s anxiety.

Night terrors often accompany attacks of somnambulism.

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What to do if your child has night terrors

You should tell your pediatrician about sleep problems, who can schedule an appointment with a neurologist and additional tests, for example, an EEG during sleep.

Deficiencies of DHA and magnesium acids can contribute to the occurrence of sleep disorders. Problems are much more likely to occur in children with breathing problems such as asthma, reflux disease, tonsil hypertrophy and sensitive children - strong emotions or fears can intensify attacks of night terrors .

A child needs, first of all, his parents’ patience and time. Night terrors should subside over time. During attacks, parents should ensure that the baby does not hurt himself, for example, does not fall out of bed. You can also try waking your child up and then putting him back to sleep.

Treatment

You should seek medical help in the following cases:

• Night terror attacks occur more than once a week;
• After preventative awakening, the attack continues;
• The duration of the attack is observed to be more than 45 minutes;
• During attacks, the baby experiences profuse salivation, the body twitches and tenses;
• Walks in his sleep;
• The attacks begin in the second phase of sleep;
• The child is haunted by fears throughout the day and remembers the nightmares he had.

Treatment of parasomnia should be carried out under the watchful supervision of a doctor. The doctor will immediately explain to the parents that it is impossible to wake the child during an attack - it is useless. You can talk to your baby in a clear, calm tone to bring him back into the deep sleep phase. You should monitor every movement of the baby so that he does not cause harm to himself and others.

In the severe stage of parasomnia, the doctor prescribes pharmacological drugs to the child in the form of a benzodiazepine tranquilizer: diazepam, its analogues. They suppress the fourth stage of sleep and help get rid of fears. You can use these drugs for a short time.

If a child has seizures, parents need to keep a diary. In it you need to note how many times a week the baby experienced attacks of fear, the duration and time of their occurrence.

After a few days, using diary entries, you can predict the exact time when the child’s nightmares will begin. Before their onset, you can wake up the baby for 5 minutes to offer him a drink or go to the toilet. After which you can put the child back on the bed. This method will save the tiny man from terrible attacks.

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Battle with childhood nightmares

If your child sleeps restlessly, screams and cries in his sleep, and even more so if he complains of nightmares, you need to help him cope with his fears. What can you do besides the tips above?

• First, explain that the dream cannot harm you in any way and cannot in any way come true in real life. The child does not yet clearly understand the line between reality and his own fantasy, which is often underestimated by mothers and fathers.
• Secondly, “play out” the nightmare: draw a monster, build a labyrinth out of cubes. This exercise in itself is very useful, because a realized nightmare often turns out to be much less scary than a vague image suggested by the subconscious.
• Thirdly, “defeat” the nightmare: come up with a fairy tale about a monster, add funny details to it, make it kind. Find a way out of the maze or destroy its walls. By the way, if your neighbor’s dog only looks menacing, but in reality is the sweetest creature who adores children, introduce the child to it, avoiding close contact. Let the owner demonstrate, for example, how smart and quick-witted the dog is in following his commands.

Prevention and treatment

Drug therapy for childhood nightmares is not usually prescribed. If terrible dreams are the cause of physical or mental illness, they must be treated. If night attacks occur, neurosis and anxiety appear - a psychologist, neurologist, or psychiatrist will help.

For severe sleep changes, a drug may be prescribed to shorten REM sleep or prevent night awakenings. In the case of various mental, emotional problems, fear of the dark in children, hypnosis can help.

1. Fairytale therapy. This method involves jointly composing a fairy tale in which you need to analyze a frightening situation or describe the phantom of a nightmare. During the discussion, you should talk through all your fears, listen to the child, and allow him to talk about his fantasies. Then ask to imagine that terrible dream again, but this time overcoming the fear. The monster can shrink and become a friend.
2. Home theater. A scene played out at home in which the parent is a small child and the child is a terrible monster will help cure a phobia. Then exchange roles and play so that the monster is defeated.
3. Art therapy. The child must draw a horror movie on paper that he dreams of together with a parent or psychologist, and then tear up the drawing. You need to have a conversation about fear, find out who is scaring you, what the monster did in your dream. You can add absurd elements to the monster, which will reduce its threat in the eyes of a child. It is worth inventing situations in which the villain loses.
4. Family therapy. Most doctors are sure that many of the horror stories of children lie in mutual relationships in the family. Maybe phobias are a kind of screen behind which the child’s real feelings are hidden.

Sometimes the factor is jealousy towards a younger or older brother, which children do not admit. Subconsciously, the child understands that during attacks he is given more attention and is able to unconsciously cause a state of anxiety.

Rest room

The nursery should be cozy, calm, and evoke positive emotions.

Adviсe.

1. Make the bed with fresh linens, subdued colors. Possibly with images of heroes from fairy tales.
2. The shade of wallpaper in the recreation area should be selected so as not to have a stimulating effect on the psyche.
3. Turn on a night light that scares away fears.
4. Put your favorite toy in bed.
5. There should be no noise or odors in the room.
6. Recommended temperature is 16-20 degrees, with air humidity up to 70%.
7. Place a radio nanny by the bed, which will notify you of an attack at night.

Bedtime ritual

When a child has nightmares at night, psychologists advise developing a bedtime routine that will allow him to relax, calm down, and have a positive attitude. Even a busy parent needs to talk to their children about how the day went, find out the good and bad points of the day. You need to let him talk. Let him talk about his worries.

It is important to pay close attention to what you eat before going on vacation.

1. Do not give drinks that contain large amounts of sugar.
2. Avoid chocolate and sweets.
3. Don't eat heavy food at night.

Put your child to bed at the same time. Before a night's rest, you can read books together, sing a lullaby, or play a calm melody.

A healthy atmosphere in the family plays an important role both in the prevention of horrors and in the natural mental and emotional development of children. We need to protect children from negative emotions and build trusting relationships.

What to do when a child wakes up from a nightmare?

According to statistics, about 85% of all children have experienced a nightmare at least once between the ages of 3-7 years. Approximately 50% of children experience nightmares more or less regularly. Moreover, these days this figure is steadily growing.

Psychologists partly explain this phenomenon by the fact that in the modern world, both adults and children have too much “communication” with inanimate sources of information (TVs, tablets, smartphones, etc.). Due to the impossibility of adequate participation in observed situations, the child accumulates special stressful experiences during the day, which makes itself felt, turning into childhood fears and nightmares.

Unlike childhood fears, nightmares are extremely rare in young children. As a rule, the “target audience” of nightmares among children is children 5-7-11 years old.

When to see a doctor

In some cases, parents are independently able to help their children overcome night fears and nightmares. But some signs should alert you and indicate a mandatory visit to the doctor.

1. Children's fears continue for more than half an hour.
2. The phenomena occur at 2 half of the night.
3. The behavior is abnormal, accompanied by twitching and incoherent speech.
4. Actions during an attack pose a health hazard.
5. Development of fears during the day.
6. The cause of the attack is a stressful situation, conflict, divorce, domestic violence.
7. Children's nightmares do not go away, but are constantly becoming more frequent.
8. Horror stories from dreams have an impact on daytime activities.
9. Fears and nightmares lead to nighttime bowel movements in bed.

You will also need help if you are about to have seizures. The child may stutter, roll his eyes, stick out his tongue, move his head sharply, shrug his shoulders, urinate repeatedly, and choke.

When a child has nightmares, he screams, gets excited, makes sudden movements, and loses consciousness.

Such symptoms are a reason to consult a doctor. He will conduct a diagnosis and prescribe special treatment using medications. Sessions with a psychotherapist will help in this matter.

Prevention of childhood fears and nightmares

In the case of children's fears and nightmares (all kinds, and especially nighttime ones), there is no better way to avoid them than to give maximum parental attention to communication with the child.

Everything that is more or less significant happened to the baby during the day needs to be talked over and discussed with them. Perhaps, together we can draw the brightest and most memorable moments of the day.

It is very useful to read a book to your child, and at the end of the story, be sure to talk a little with your child about it. Moreover, any “incidents” (both real and fictitious) should be discussed, and not just those that are positive and wonderful from your point of view. If in the fairy tale you just read to your 5-year-old son, the cannibal devoured half a dozen peasants, this is also worth talking about: for example, invite the child to come up with a way to distract the cannibal and help the peasants escape, etc.

In general, according to child psychologists, conversations and conversations within the framework of the scenario “Let’s figure out what we can do so that...” are extremely useful for children in all respects. Firstly, such “games” develop logic and creative thinking, secondly, they teach the child empathy and compassion, and finally, they do not allow stress to accumulate. Which together helps to solve the problem of children’s nighttime fears and nightmares, sometimes more effectively than the most “abstruse” psychological “showdowns” in specialists’ offices...

Adequate live communication of a child with the outside world (and above all with his closest environment - with mom, dad and other household members) has a very beneficial effect on the disappearance of any childhood fears and nightmares.

And especially communication of this kind, in which you can discuss any life (and fictional!) situations with your child in a playful way.

Even if you are very busy or passionate about something, never refuse to communicate with your child just before bedtime - chat with him a little, sing a lullaby, read a good short story or tell your own, hug and kiss your baby good night... All these “maneuvers” are for you may seem like insignificant nonsense, but in reality they create a certain emotional background - a kind of shield - which will help the child’s psyche to successfully prevent the occurrence of childhood fears or nightmares.

In addition, for the successful correction of children's fears, certain physiological conditions are necessary:

• The child should receive a certain physical activity every day (in other words, he should get tired not only emotionally during the day, watching cartoons on his mother’s tablet for hours, but also muscularly - the child should move actively!);
• The child should spend enough time outdoors;
• In the room where the child sleeps, you need to create a normal healthy microclimate - avoid excessive heat and stuffiness, ensure sufficient air humidity, eliminate all pungent odors, etc.;

conclusions

A good way to combat children's nightmares are walks with the whole family and trips into nature. Why don't parents think about attending performances in a children's theater, circus, or zoo on weekends? There are other opportunities to give the child an even greater sense of the presence of his father and mother in his life. It is important for him to understand that they love him and care about him. A properly selected regime of games, nutrition, and sleep also plays an important role.

Sources

• https://sna-kantata.ru/pochemu-rebenku-snyatsya-koshmaryi/
• https://uroki4mam.ru/rebenku-snyatsya-koshmary
• https://vse-pro-detstvo.ru/sovetyi_dlya_mam/nochnyie-strahi-i-koshmaryi-u-detey-kak-preodolet
• https://sna-kantata.ru/nochnye-strahi-u-detej-kak-proyavlyayutsya-prichiny-kak-preodolet/
• https://o-krohe.ru/razvitie-rebenka/son/snyatsya-koshmary/
• https://LechenieDetej.ru/psixologiya/koshmary.html
• https://sibmama.ru/nochnye-koshmary.htm
• https://www.woman.ru/kids/healthy/article/216970/

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