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Nov 8, 2023 · How to Help Children Cope with Nightmares For children who experience occasional nightmares, reassurance is often the most effective tactic. Parents should discuss fears and anger triggers with their children in a relaxed setting. This can help promote feelings of relaxation before bedtime, which in turn may improve their sleep quality and ...
- 9 min
- Be understanding.
- Set The Stage For Sleep.
- Practice relaxing.
- Don't Avoid What's Scary.
- Retrain Your Child's brain.
- Consider Outside Help.
If your child has a bad dream, it's natural to tell them, "It's not real—go back to bed," says psychiatrist Robin Berman, M.D., a Parents advisor and author of Permission to Parent. "But to her, it seems very real." Soothe your child and validate how they feel. You might say, "I can imagine that would be really scary, but there's no bad guy in you...
Children who go to bed too late are more likely to have nightmares. School-age kids need ten to 11 hours of sleep. Electronics—which inhibit production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin—should be turned off a half hour before bedtime, when it's best to do a calm activity such as playing a board game, taking a bath, or going outside to look at...
A calm body and mind have an easier time falling and staying asleep. Jane learned how to do "circle breathing," a technique in Dr. Huebner's book. You imagine your breath is traveling in through your right nostril and out of the left nostril. The next breath goes in through the left nostril and out the right. Go back and forth, as if you're breathi...
When Jane was terrified of her American Girl doll, she asked me to turn its face around—and I did. But that was a mistake; turns out, I was just confirming for her that the doll was indeed frightening. Instead of shielding your child, help them gradually learn to tolerate whatever they're afraid of. The point is, the more they think about or see th...
Bad dreams can simply become their mind's habit. After a nightmare or at bedtime, they should think about something happy and fun. "He can imagine that he's changing the channel away from his scary thoughts," says Dr. Huebner. You can also help them learn to distinguish between fantasy and reality and approach the issue in a more logical way. If yo...
If none of these strategies work after a few weeks—or your child's nightmares are making them scared during the day and interfering with their normal life—they could benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy. "In a few sessions, a child can learn techniques that turn things around dramatically, and she'll feel strong," says Dr. Huebner. "The anxiet...
- Diane Debrovner
- 1 min
Dec 14, 2022 · And while your child’s brain is busy working its night shift, they dream a little dream. But on some nights, those dreams can turn dark, and the result is the stuff of nightmares. Nightmares can ...
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Aug 14, 2023 · Dr. Waters says nightmares are all about working out fears and anxieties, so she recommends parents talk through daily stressors with their child. “It’s important to provide emotional support ...
1. Nightmares in children. Nightmares are frightening dreams associated with REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Kids switch back and forth between REM and non-REM sleep during the night, but spend ever-longer stretches of time in REM during the last few sleep cycles. For this reason, nightmares are more likely to occur during the early morning hours.
Nightmares — like most dreams — happen during the stage of sleep when the brain is very active. This part of sleep is known as the rapid eye movement or REM stage because the eyes are rapidly moving beneath closed eyelids. Nightmares tend to happen during the second half of a night's sleep, when REM periods are longer.
Children and youth can learn ways to manage stress and calm themselves. This can help them relax and fall asleep, and to fall back to sleep after a nightmare. Relaxation and mindfulness exercises can be very helpful. More intensive counselling may be needed if the nightmares are caused by a traumatic event.
