When fright strikes

By Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.
December 3, 2012

If your child wakes up crying in the middle of the night and has trouble getting back to sleep, chances are he's had a nightmare. These scary episodes of dreaming bugs in the bed and monsters in the closet hide meanings that parents should look into.

A nightmare is a bad dream that usually involves imagined danger or threat to people having it. It may involve disturbing images or figures of monsters, ghosts, animals, or bad people running after them.

Night terrors are extremely common in children, especially during preschool years. As part of children’s normal development, they begin to imagine and understand things that exist that might hurt them. The level of their fantasy becomes higher and sometimes uncontrollable.

Children don’t need to suffer nightmares alone. As parents, it is important to break the spell of nightmares to give immediate comfort. To help a child restore the capacity to sleep again, parents ought to know what to do to tame scary nightmares.

Nightmares may be caused by a lot of reasons, from simple to disturbing ones. Most of the time, nightmares are results of a frightening experience, such as being scared by a large barking dog to scary scenes on TV to traumatic incidents.

A child's nightmares may also stem from listening to horror stories, watching a disturbing show, or feeling stressed due to schoolwork. Problems in the family such as separation of parents and financial challenges could add up to the emotional burden.

When parents show unacceptable behaviors towards his child or to others, this sometimes translates into “monster” dreams. A nagger teacher or a bully playmate can be a human monster in his dreams. These translations reflect the emotional stress developed.

Nightmares are a normal response of a child to stressful events. When you hear your child shouting in the middle of a deep sleep, it is highly important to find out what the nightmare is.

Physical reassurance is important. Hug the child or rub his back until he calms down. Give him ample time to tell you about the nightmare but don’t press him if he doesn’t want to. You can talk with him when he is ready or when daylight comes.

Reassuring words, like “It was only a dream”, can make him feel at ease. If he’s still upset, be patient. We all know what nightmares look like in our dreams, they seem so real. His favorite stuffed toy can also be used as a security object for him to feel relaxed.

Children’s imagination is quite active when the light is off. This is the time when they see imaginary enemies in the corner of his room. A low nightlight on your child’s bedroom can also lessen the growing fantasy of your child on hidden monsters.

Often, nightmares can result to bedtime struggles and refusal to go back to sleep. At this time, don’t leave the child while he’s still recovering from a bad dream. If he falls asleep, from time to time, visit his room. There is no better remedy for nightmares than constant comfort of a parent.

Teach your child coping skills to respond to these night terrors. Let your child imagine happy thoughts, such as the time the family was in the beach or the time he won his first medal. Through this, terrifying thoughts are diverted to more positive memories.

Make a peaceful bedtime routine, a warm bath, an inspiring story, a song, or a hot glass of milk. These ways can help ward off nightmares by calming his senses. Limit the time you allow your child to use the TV, computer, and other gadgets. Technologies can bother a child when he is overexposed to them.

If you suspect anxiety or stress is behind the bad dreams, try talking to your child about what might be bothering him during the daylight hours. If nightmares persist and leads to other serious problems like insomnia, bring it up to his doctor. Recurring bad dreams could be a sign of an emotional issue that needs immediate response.

Every nightmare, distressing or terrifying, holds vital information about the emotional challenges a child is going through. Parents, as the closest people to the child, need to stand by and even rescue him from a terrifying memory of a pack a wolves running after him during a bad dream.