Nightmares, How Do I Help My Child Overcome Them?

Nightmares accompany us throughout life, and in childhood they can become very problematic. As a parent you can do a lot to help your children with this, and here’s how!

Did your child wake up suddenly in the middle of the night crying completely in anguish? If the answer to this question is yes, then we welcome you to the stage of nightmares and nighttime fears.

These episodes are very common in children, who remember with some anxiety and anxiety that they have had a bad dream. But, how can we help our children to overcome the much talked about childhood nightmares?

Of childhood dreams and nightmares

Although dreams are useful for children to channel both daily experiences and the emotions that they produce, this stage is dominated by monsters and terrifying characters that take over their thoughts, so that every night they come to life in their dreams.

It may happen that some of these fears during nightmares are motivated by specific distressing situations in real life, which involve a change in the child’s life, such as removals, divorces and school changes, among others.

Well, even while sleeping, the mind does not stop organizing information, with which the dream guarantees to assimilate memories and thoughts in memory to the point that it is possible to find the solution to a problem or difficult situation. But here there are no limits of consciousness, so nightmares tend to appear.

Particularly in the case of minors, all sleep problems are related to irregular sleeping habits or anxiety about going to bed and falling asleep. This is because bedtime represents a certain separation from parents, which is why it creates these little problems.

Nightmares and Nighttime Fears in Preschoolers

Fears about going to bed are normal in children between 2 and 5 years old. So, do not be alarmed if your child is afraid of the dark, ghosts or sleeping alone, because he is in a stage marked by his powerful imaginative capacity, which comes to create things that dislike and scare him.

During this stage, he spends much of his time immersed in fables and fantasies that he himself creates with absolute normality. Likewise, when going to bed it is difficult to disconnect from his imagination, which is why certain events alarm and startle him since he does not know how to separate fantasy from reality.

In parallel, this stage of child development that can last up to the child’s 9 years of age not only responds to the state of their vivid imagination, but also to their understanding of a world in which certain dangers inhabit, which can harm them.

Although there is no apparent and proven cause of nightmares, some specialists link them to stress and anxiety in children and claim that they occur during light sleep. Also, some children will have frequent nightmares while others may not.

In general, these night terrors are not cause for concern for adults, but it is advisable to know how to act in such cases. Therefore, your job will be to help the infant to clearly differentiate the real danger from something that only resides in his mind.

What to do to help the child overcome his night fear?

Obviously we cannot control the inevitable dreams of our children, but we can form and respect certain routines in order to ensure that children have pleasant and pleasant dreams. These are the actions with which you can help your little one to face this stage:

• Take advantage of his fantasy to create an imaginary benevolent character capable of protecting him at night and fighting evil monsters and ghosts.
• Designate a protective plush to take care of the child at night.
• Avoid scaring the child to influence their behavior by using reckless characters.
• It favors the differentiation between fiction and reality.
• Demystify and remove entity from beings that transmit fear to creatures.
• A good sleep routine capable of ensuring the environment conducive to rest has a positive influence.

• Avoid the child watching movies with violent scenes, especially before going to sleep. Better tell him a nice story or read a nice book.
• You can leave his bedroom door ajar if that makes him feel more secure.
• Transmit tranquility the next morning: “There is no reason to fear, you have the care and protection of mom and dad . “
• After a night of nightmares comes a morning of drawings. This way the boy will show his fears.
• Do not hesitate, accompany him, calm him and offer him comfort without falling into overprotection,  because your child will not become more courageous by ignoring him or minimizing his experiences.
• Don’t minimize her feelings by saying “it’s not true” or “don’t be silly . “