Approximately 30% of children of preschool and primary school age suffer from nightmares and bad dreams, which not only prevent children from sleeping peacefully, but also have an extremely negative impact on the fragile psyche of the child.

What are nightmares in a child, why do they occur and how can you get rid of night terrors?

Night terrors in children - why do they occur?

Night fears from time to time occur in all children, they can be caused by nervous strain, fatigue, or some event that traumatized the child's psyche in reality.

Periodically occurring nightmares should not cause much concern to parents, the child's psyche thus tries to get rid of an overabundance of emotions, experiencing and "digesting" what happened in reality. Such nightmares are due to excessive impressionability, the immaturity of the child's nervous system and his inability to distinguish the imaginary from the real.

Another thing is if they are regularly repeated and torment the child, because of them he is afraid to fall asleep, screams and cries every night, and looks tired and intimidated during the day.

The roots of problems always lurk in real life.

The most common causes of nightmares in children are:

• Excessive exactingness and too high demands on the child - if the baby constantly hears: “you must be the best”, if he is scolded and shamed for the slightest mistake and makes too many demands on him, his psyche is not always able to cope with this and nightmares become one of the first manifestations of childhood neurosis. Pay attention: how often do you criticize the child, does he feel fear when he receives a bad grade, some kind of failure, or simply if he was “on top”;
• Aggression from others - dreams in which a terrible monster is chasing a child, most often indicates the fear that the child experiences in reality in front of someone. Moreover, the more “terrible” the dream seems to the child and the more often the nightmares are repeated, the closer the aggressor is to him and the more hopeless the situation seems to him. This can be caused by an aggressive attitude from classmates, teachers, some close relatives, or even fear of parents;
• A tense situation in the family - obsessive nightmares that recur almost daily, in which the child tries to escape from fires, floods, earthquakes, floods and other cataclysms, speak of problems that are brewing in the family. Quarrels, disagreements between parents, scandals and showdown always have a negative impact on the child's psyche, most often reflected in nightmares;
• Obsessive phobias and fears - monsters, monsters, scary animals and similar characters haunt children in a dream who are very afraid of something in reality. An obsessive fear may arise due to some kind of dangerous situation in which the child found himself in reality or due to a strong shock experienced by him. The child may not be aware of his fears or not tell his parents about their origin, but by his behavior and conversations, it is quite easy to determine the cause of fears.

How to get rid of childhood nightmares

To permanently get rid of nightmares in a child, you will have to make a lot of effort. In no case should you scold or shame a child or try to "educate" his courage by locking one in the bedroom and forbidding him to turn on the light or resort to his parents. Such behavior can lead to the child's neuroticism, the development of various complexes in him, as well as to the loss of trust in parents.

What can you do if your child is having nightmares:

• Keep calm, turn on the light and stay with the child for a while;
• Normalize the regime of the day and rest - often the cause of nightmares and fears in children is excessive nervous excitement, overwork and the wrong regimen of the day. In this case, to get rid of them, it is enough to put the child to bed earlier, make sure that he spends several hours daily in the fresh air, does not eat heavy food at night, and also does not watch TV and does not play outdoor games before going to bed;
• Leave a night light or projector turned on next to the child's bed;
• Listen carefully to him - you need to ask him in detail about what was so scary in a dream and try to apply one of the popular methods of getting rid of fears: lose them with the help of dolls and toys, giving the child the opportunity to defeat his enemy; draw a nightmare on paper and turn the scary into funny and let the child crumple and tear his drawing.
• Once again, carefully analyze what is happening in the family and adjust your behavior so that the child feels that everything is in order, his parents love him and will never give offense.
• If fears do not go away for a long time, be sure to invite a psychologist for advice and help.

Whatever method you choose to deal with childhood nightmares, remember that the most important thing for a child is the attention and care of parents, only with their help you can completely get rid of bad dreams and other problems.

Every mother at least once in her life faced with night terrors in children. Most of all, kids are afraid of the dark, bad dreams, loneliness, the absence of a mother nearby. But not everyone knows how to behave properly, being alone with a problem.

Where do they come from

There are no children who are not afraid of anything at all. But, when the baby is afraid of something for a long time, this is already a cause for concern.

Night terrors in children do not arise from scratch, they are due to a number of reasons and factors:

• heredity;
• difficult course of pregnancy and pathology of childbirth;
• suffered serious illnesses, operations, especially under general anesthesia;
• lack of close emotional relationship with the mother;
• mental trauma of any origin;
• excess of impressions, neuropsychic overload;
• unfavorable atmosphere in the family, nervous state of parents, conflicts, frequent quarrels and aggressiveness in relations with children.

The main sources of fear in the lives of children are:

• events in a child's life(moving to a new place of residence, moving to another school, kindergarten, quarrels, conflict in the kindergarten, school, on the street);
• family situation(the birth of a second child, the appearance of a new family member, quarrels, conflicts, violence, divorce of parents, someone's death);
• a television- a huge source for obtaining negative information (criminal chronicles, programs about violence, disasters, events, incidents).

Night terrors in children

Symptoms

The child, who was sleeping sweetly a minute ago, starts from a heart-rending scream. Mom finds her baby all in tears with eyes wide open, full of horror. At the same time, he does not respond to the appeal, any words of reassurance, waving his arms, trying to run somewhere. A few minutes later, as if nothing had happened, he falls asleep. The next morning, he does not remember anything about what happened.

Any adult can be scared of night terrors in children. These are episodes of horror experience that are accompanied by screaming and panic.

This is a harmless violation of the awakening mechanism, which has nothing to do with mental disorders. Part of the baby's brain is still in the deep sleep phase, and part is ready to move into a less sound phase.

Night terrors are an imbalance caused by overexcitation or fatigue. Fears appear during the first 2 hours of sleep and are considered part of the natural growth process for children up to 6-7 years old.

How to help

Night terrors go away with age, but parents can make life easier for their child by using the following tips:

1. Keep calm. This is a common phenomenon, especially in children 3-5 years old, only from the outside everything seems terrible.
2. Stay close until it's all over. The task of an adult is to protect the child so that during an attack, waving his arms, trying to escape, the child does not injure himself.
3. Do not remember the night incident not to upset. Children often feel embarrassed about losing control of themselves.
4. You can warn against an attack of night terrors by waking up. If from time to time the child suffers from night fears, you can try to wake him up 30 minutes after falling asleep, avoiding a new attack.
5. Make sure your child sleeps well by increasing sleep time. A small child under 3 years of age should be provided with daytime sleep.
6. Make sure the child is not too tired during the day. Children 7-10 years old who refuse daytime sleep should be put to bed earlier or allowed to sleep longer in the morning.
7. There must be a strong emotional connection and fruitful communication between parents and children. Discuss the reasons for your anxiety. As soon as the child talks about it, he will understand that there is no reason to be afraid.

What are nightmares

Symptoms

Nightmares are vivid, dynamic, rich plot dreams that occur during REM sleep, when the brain is especially active.

Nightmares most often occur at night or in the morning during phases of relatively shallow sleep, in the second half of the sleep cycle. Falling asleep again is hard.

How to help

Terrible dreams can disturb children from 6 months of age. They are associated with different stages of child development. At 2-3 years old, it is often dreamed that children are left alone, at 4-6 years old, monsters, monsters and darkness dream.

The baby needs love, attention and care. Simple actions of parents can save him from nightmares:

1. If a child wakes up from a nightmare and runs to his parents, do not scold him for this and send him back to his room. Sometimes, to calm him down, you have to take him to your bed, turn on the light, show that there is no one there, everything is in order.
2. break the rules. It's not about going along with the children, but from time to time you can leave him for the night in your bed or go with him, sit next to him until he falls asleep.
3. Give your child protection from nightmares- his favorite soft toy, which will always protect him from any trouble.
4. Communicate more with your child. Only a close emotional connection with parents can provide the baby with a sense of security. If a child has nightmares, parents can relieve some of the stress.

The main task of parents is to be patient and grow up with their children, overcoming fears together.

When to See a Doctor

In most cases, parents themselves are able to help children cope with night terrors and nightmares. But there are cases that should alert parents.

You should immediately contact a specialist if:

• attacks of night fears in children last more than 30 minutes;
• episodes occur in the second half of the night;
• if the child's behavior is inadequate, he twitches, his speech is incoherent;
• if during an attack of fears the actions of the baby are dangerous to his health;
• the child develops daytime fears;
• if the cause of the child's fears can be a stressful situation in the family, frequent conflicts, violence, divorce;
• if nightmares not only do not go away, but, on the contrary, intensify, become more frequent;
• if fears from dreams affect the activity of the child during the day;
• when under the influence of fears and nightmares, the child often urinates in his sleep;
• in any other alarming case.

Particular attention should be paid to attacks of night terrors if children have convulsive readiness:

• stuttering;
• nervous tics with rolling eyes;
• protrusion of the tongue;
• sudden movements of the head;
• twitching of the shoulders;
• repeated profuse urination at night;
• asthma attacks;
• false croup;
• bronchial asthma exacerbate the situation of the child.

Fear is accompanied by:

• motor excitement;
• cries;
• sharp movements;
• turning off consciousness.

This is an urgent reason to see a doctor who will be diagnosed and treated with drugs. The child's classes with a psychologist will be effective.

Treatment

Drug treatment of nightmares is usually not prescribed. If nightmares are the result of a physical or mental illness, treatment should be directed at that. If nightmares are the result of stress or anxiety, consultation with a psychotherapist or psychologist is recommended.

In rare cases, severe sleep disorders are treated with drugs to shorten the rapid eye movement phase or prevent waking up at night.

Diagnosis of children's fears is the work of a psychologist. During communication with children, specialists determine the degree of threat, sources and prescribe methods of struggle using various techniques:

1. Effective methods of working with children are drawing fears, role-playing games and theatrical performances, where, using the example of fairy tale characters, they pronounce causes and effects.
2. Children are a reflection of the situation in the family, parental anxieties and fears. It is the parents who reinforce the child's pattern of behavior by imposing excessive distrust and cowardly behavior.
3. In order for the baby to be less afraid of the dark and nightmares, parents should avoid conflicts and improve relations in the family. Playing sports has a positive effect on children. It can be swimming, jumping hurdles, neutralizing fears of darkness, heights, and water.
4. Working with children's fears involves the direct removal of children's fear of fear. After all, being afraid is normal and natural. Fear helps to avoid danger. Parents should repeat that they are not ashamed to be afraid, they need to accept their fears.

Raising a brave and active baby is not easy, but it is possible using some tricks:

1. Never humiliate a child and do not exalt him high. Communicate as an equal adult family member and individual.
2. Do not scare the child, do not punish.
3. Children need communication with parents, relatives, friends, peers.
4. Draw and make with your child what he wants more often. This will help neutralize fears. In addition, you can assess the psychological state of his work.
5. Do not forget about the importance of physical contact with the child. Hug more often, stroke him, kiss him. This will give you a feeling of security and safety.
6. A favorable atmosphere in the family will help to neutralize fears or reduce them to a minimum.

Every person has fears. And if adults can, with a great desire to get rid of them on their own, then children without the help of their parents will not be able to do this.

No one will object that there is a close emotional connection between the child and his parents, especially the mother:

1. If parents in childhood were prone to attacks of night terrors or suffered from nightmares, their children are more predisposed to these phenomena than those whose parents did not have this.
2. Parents who experienced attacks of fear in childhood react more painfully to such phenomena in children than those who did not have these fears, fixing children's fears at the level of a reflex. Anxious expectations of the next attacks at the subconscious level provoke them. Parting words like: “If anything, we are nearby, call”, “Go to bed, otherwise you will dream again”, “Do not be afraid, there will be no bad dreams”, on the contrary, play the role of an invitation, reinforce fears.
3. The emotional psychological state of adults is transmitted to their children. If the mother is constantly alarmed, she is tormented by fears for any reason and panic seizes her, then the baby experiences similar emotions. Is it possible to guarantee the baby a restful sleep and protection? Parents urgently need to bring their condition into balance so as not to transmit anxiety to children, otherwise problems with children's sleep cannot be avoided.

Common Adult Mistakes

To cope with children's fears, parents should remember some rules:

1. It's never worth denying and ridiculing fear like a phenomenon. The kid expects understanding. Give it to him. Phrases: “What did you think of yourself?”, “Stop it!”, “So big and you are afraid!” won't bring any results.
2. You can not blame and shame the child for his fears. This will add anxiety and guilt. Even the "future man" has the right to fear.
3. Children should not be offered to overcome fear directly. leaving in a dark room. Help him overcome his fear. Walk together through the "terrible" places where imaginary creatures can hide, so that he himself sees that there is nothing terrible there. Looking under the bed, in every corner, on every shelf, and not finding a threat there, the child will calm down.
4. Don't scare kids that if he behaves badly, a monster will take him (Baba Yaga, Barmalei, Babai).

Children's imagination - the cause of night anxiety

All children are different. Everyone has their own views on things, imagination, fantasy. Children are able to invent for themselves the objects of nightly fears, endowing them with the most insidious features. To combat night terrors in children, parents can use their own abilities.

It is important to draw the baby into contact by telling stories, including him in a dialogue in order to find out the cause of concern:

• Come up with a story together with a happy ending that would tell a way to eradicate fear.
• Together you can draw what exactly the child is afraid of, and then destroy the drawing, and with it the fears. The child must understand that his nightly fears exist separately from him, and he can control, change and defeat them.

How to overcome fear of the dark

The fear of the dark is the most popular childhood fear that everyone goes through. There is a lot of room for imagination here. The task of parents is to direct the imagination against fears.

Weak light sources are the first helpers in the fight against the fear of the dark. Having taken care of the interior in the children's room, providing the baby with light sources of light, parents also dispel fear.

It can be fluorescent stickers in the form of stars, a night light in the form of a favorite animal that will protect, or the sun that shines even at night.

Fear of being alone

Often, under the fear of the dark, children mask the fear of loneliness. The child simply does not have enough communication with native people: dad and mom.

If, carried away by other activities, such as playing, a child is not afraid to stay indoors without lighting, and calls his parents in the middle of the night, then he is not really worried about fear or a nightmare, but loneliness.

Try to give your baby more time and attention during the day, then at night he will stop calling for help.

Prevention

Any problem is easier to prevent than to deal with it. By providing conditions for normal sleep, we will reduce the risk of developing night terrors.

Attacks of night terrors and nightmares are typical for preschool children. It will not be possible to completely eliminate them, it is only possible to alleviate the children's fate.

Sleeping area

If material and living conditions allow, it is better to allocate a separate room for the child to sleep. The atmosphere should radiate peace and comfort.

1. Linen should be clean, fresh, made from natural fabrics of light, soothing shades or with the image of your favorite fairy-tale characters.
2. It is allowed to use a "magic" night light that will drive away fears, or a favorite toy.
3. The room where children sleep is recommended to be isolated from unnecessary noise and sounds.
4. According to the recommendations of Dr. Komarovsky, the air temperature in the room should be 16-20 ° C and air humidity 50-70%. Mandatory is frequent wet cleaning and ventilation.
5. To protect the child from injury and damage during an attack of fear, you need to check the bed for sharp corners and dangerous objects.
6. A radio or video baby monitor will help you find out about the onset of an attack of fears or nightmares if the baby is in a separate room.

Sleep ritual

The child should be taught to go to bed at the same time every day.
The ritual of falling asleep should be pleasant, able to relax the baby after a busy day, calm his wild imagination.

They will help to find a restful sleep, distract from fears, creating a favorable atmosphere, and feel the love and care of parents:

• favorite fairy tale with a happy ending;
• sweet lullaby;
• listened to light music;
• soft toy;
• gentle mother's hugs and a kiss goodnight.

You should pay attention to the diet. In order not to overload the stomach before going to bed, to direct the brain to a quiet rest, and not to digest food, heavy fatty fried foods should be excluded, sugary drinks, sweets, chocolate are strictly prohibited.

Psychological comfort

For normal sleep and development of children, a healthy psychological climate in the family is important. The child should be protected from unwanted negativity. Only a trusting relationship between parents and children can provide normal conditions for the development of the baby.

Parents should remember that only love for children, respect for their opinions, wise upbringing, attentive attitude are the key to the health of the baby, restful sleep for the whole family and happiness in general.

Video: How to measure children's fears

According to statistics, almost every third child between the ages of 4 and 6 suffers from nightmares. Why does a baby have scary dreams and how can parents help him cope with this problem?

Common Causes of Nightmares in Children 3-6 Years Old

The quality of a child's sleep largely depends on his psycho-emotional state.

If the family has an unhealthy psychological atmosphere or the baby does not have relationships with peers in kindergarten, he begins to experience severe stress, which in turn can provoke night dreams in which threatening pictures predominate: death, danger, chases. They are so real that the baby quickly wakes up from fear and then is afraid to fall asleep again.

Nightmares in children aged three to six years can occur for the following reasons:

1. According to psychologists, all the emotions of a woman during pregnancy affect the state of the fetus and subsequently can affect the mental development of the baby. If during the gestation of the fetus she experienced fear or depression, it is likely that the child will be tormented by nightmares in the future.
2. Frequent conflicts between parents can provoke psychological problems; too strict upbringing or lack of close emotional contact between the mother and the child.
3. Nervous strain or severe overwork.
4. The kid spends too much time at the computer or often watches scary movies on TV.
5. Social maladaptation, lack of frequent communication with peers.
6. Nightmares can result from surgery or a car accident.
7. Phobias, for example, fear of closed spaces and darkness.
8. Full bladder.
9. Violation of the daily routine.
10. The presence of any diseases: enuresis, fever, as well as diseases of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
11. Change in the usual diet or eating too spicy and heavy food.

Important! Nightmares can provoke a child's nervous breakdowns, depressive states and the fear of falling asleep alone. If you notice that the baby began to wake up often due to terrible dreams, it is recommended to make an appointment with a pediatrician or psychologist.

How to save your baby from nightmares - valid proven tips

• The cause of terrible dreams is often a strong nervous excitement, therefore parents should organize the correct daily routine for the child, excluding excessive overwork . Make sure that the baby is more often in the fresh air, does not eat heavy meals, does not play the computer and does not watch TV.
• Leave the lights on at night in the child's room, and sit with him for a while until he falls asleep.
• Ask the preschooler to tell in detail what he is dreaming about, and then invite him to play games that will help get rid of fears. For example, a toddler can draw scary images on a piece of paper and turn them into something fun and funny. Another option is to play a terrible situation with toys, the child must defeat his enemy and understand that in fact he is not so terrible.
• If the family has an unhealthy psychological atmosphere, parents should reconsider their behavior . The baby should feel that mom and dad love him very much, and also always take care of his safety.

Child psychiatrists advise you to keep a special sleep diary in which you need to note for several days how long the baby sleeps at night, when he begins to have terrible dreams, and at what time they end. The child should be awakened a few minutes before the nightmares begin, and then put back to sleep.

All of the above methods will be effective only if the parents show care and attention to the baby, feeling the love of their loved ones, he will be able to get rid of not only nightmares, but also many.

What helped us save the child from nightmares - Personal experience

1. Faced the problem of nightmares when my daughter turned 4 years old . We turned to the pediatrician, he advised me to change the daily routine and limit the time I watch TV. We began to walk more often, watch cartoons less often, and besides, every day before going to bed I gave the child a soothing herbal infusion of chamomile. Fortunately, after two months, the attacks stopped, now my daughter sleeps peacefully and does not even ask to turn on the light at night.
2. I managed to save my son from nightmares only using complex methods . Together with him every day we drew his fears, then tore the leaves into small pieces and threw them away. During the day I walked with the child in the park, in the evening I gave him a warm relaxing bath, and before going to bed with a happy ending. Now the baby sleeps soundly at night, in the daytime he is less naughty and behaves more calmly.

Dear readers! Do not pass by the problem - share your experience in the comment, please.

When parents are woken up in the middle of the night by a screaming child or an unexpected visit with tears in their eyes, this, of course, is very frightening. You should not panic, the kid just had a nightmare - a terrible dream that made a strong impression and scared. Despite the fact that nightmares are not the most pleasant memory in the morning, they are even useful for a person. Dreams are the result of thoughts, experiences, analysis of ongoing events, and metaphorically (or directly) convey the necessary information and help to realize it. No one is immune from nightmares, such a dream can be seen at 5 or 15 years old. Experts note that frightening dreams usually occur in children no earlier than at the age of three. In order to cope with the problem, you need to understand its causes and find out whether it is necessary to deal with nightmares in children.

Why do children have nightmares?

Adults also have terrible dreams, but with age, a person begins to clearly understand where the boundaries between dream and reality are, so the fear of bad sleep quickly passes. Children, on the other hand, have a harder time - they realize for a long time the unreality of the event that happened in a dream, remember their dream for a long time and worry about it. When a child has a nightmare, he behaves restlessly, constantly spinning in bed, and may wake up in a cold sweat from fear.

Photo gallery: possible causes of nightmares in a child

The first thing parents should suspect is the presence of physiological causes. So, nightmares can be a consequence of:

• feverish state (high temperature);
• organic lesions of the brain;
• some mental illnesses;
• helminthiasis.

Often, when the root cause is eliminated, the symptom itself goes away, and nightmares in such a situation are no exception.

Further, the reasons should be considered in the context of the types of bad dreams. So, if this is a single nightmare, then it may be the result of overexcitation due to watching a scary movie or cartoon, an action movie with scenes of violence, etc. Such pictures are dangerous for the psyche of the child, so parents should protect their baby from viewing them. Such nightmares are usually quickly forgotten and do not cause serious injury.

More dangerous are nightmares that recur. They may also be the result of an unpleasant event experienced or seen that greatly affected the child.

Sometimes even an accidentally peeped scene from a scary movie can become a serious problem. If the child is very impressionable and sensitive, then she can haunt him in his dreams for more than one night. It will be more difficult to work with such a deep impression, but it is necessary to do it.

Often frightening dreams are a consequence of an unhealthy situation in the family. The reasons may be as follows:

• emotional needs of the child in contact with parents remain unsatisfied. This is due to the cold attitude of adults, their desire to raise a child in severity and without affection;
• tension in a child's mind can be created by the constant reversal of roles between mom and dad, that is, inconsistency in their behavior (for example, today mom is angry, and dad is good, tomorrow it’s the other way around);
• parents expect too much from their child;
• frequent scandals and quarrels in the family, tough showdown. Parents who quarrel in front of a child make a big mistake - in addition to nightmares, this can cause more serious psychological problems;
• if one of the parents is very anxious, is constantly afraid of something and shows it, then the child can adopt such moods.

How to save a child from nightmares

In order to save the baby from nightmares, first of all, one should turn not only to their causes, but also to the content. Regarding the reasons tied to the violation of the internal processes of the body, then first you should restore his health, as a result of which the nightmares will also go away. As for the rest, here you need to work with the content of dreams and investigative connections that cause nighttime discomfort.

To save the baby from nightmares, you need to eliminate the cause

A dream is a product of our unconscious, which reflects all the experiences that are relevant at the moment, regardless of how long ago they affected us. For the analysis of dreams, it is useless to use formal logic, since the unconscious is not systemic and the images that are contained in it have a metaphorical manifestation.

If dreams are systematic and no means help, then you should contact a psychologist who could work with this request. This practice in most cases is universal, and will also become a favorable factor in the formation of the child's personality and the premature prevention of possible neuroses and other disorders.

There are a number of tips that would help prevent nightmares that occur in a baby:

• you should not eat a few hours before bedtime, because as a result, a large amount of energy is produced in the body, which is not used up and during sleep can lead to strong brain activity, expressed in the form of nightmares. This is especially true for sugar-containing foods that stimulate intensive brain work;

Sweets before bed are not recommended.

• protect from strong emotional experiences. This applies to emotionally charged games and films that contain violent and scary scenes. Experiences may not be fully realized at the time of watching the film and return at night for re-scrolling in the subconscious, where the baby involuntarily becomes the main participant in the events;
• the daily routine should be observed, especially with regard to the clearly established time when you should go to bed and wake up. Outdoor walks should be daily, and physical activity should be proportionate to age to expend the required amount of energy.

A great way to work through an already dreamed nightmare is to discuss it together. The role of the parent here is to show the difference between the real and the dream. In such a situation, it is important to make it clear that there is really nothing to be afraid of, while everything must be done very carefully so that the child does not decide that you do not need his experiences. The main task is to give a sense of security, as well as to teach how to cope with fear in principle.

Night terrors in children are a widespread group of sleep disorders. Any child sooner or later faces the manifestation of night fears or horrors. This usually happens a few hours after he goes to bed.

Awakening from a nightmare occurs with screams and chaotic movements. The child cannot calm down for a long time after this and often in the first moments after waking up does not even recognize close relatives.

Many psychologists and somnologists agree that this phenomenon is natural and is due to the completion of the formation of the central nervous system. And only in cases of their frequent repetition, the child needs the help of a specialist.

Children from one to three years old sleep very soundly and the dreams they see are completely erased from memory. Since at this age children do not actually distinguish between reality and dreams, sometimes they can wake up and cry because they are not able to explain to themselves the sudden change of scenery. For example, a child dreamed that he was playing in the sun, and suddenly, suddenly, he was alone in a dark room; finding a mother nearby, the children quickly calm down and fall asleep.

The first night fears in children appear from 3-4 years of age. Around this time, the final stage of myelination of neurons occurs, that is, the brain finally completes its formation and the separation of dream and reality occurs. The first nightly fears are associated with an unconscious fear of the dark and active fantasy - the child's brain draws in his imagination pictures of shadows in the bedroom, which appear to him in the form of terrible monsters from children's fairy tales.

At the age of 5 years, the main reason for the appearance of fears is the processes of adaptation of the child in society. Children during this period begin to defend their place in the hierarchy of their environment and the recognition of a social group or loved ones is very important for them.

The experiences of babies at this age come down to relationships with friends and the fulfillment of the minimum social functions that they already have at the moment. It can be both joint games and performing some simple tasks: whether it's a public speaking at a children's party or helping mom with housework. Any failures in these simple processes can actually greatly affect the baby's psyche, which, of course, will negatively affect his restful sleep.

After a school appears in a child's life, the main causes of anxiety and phobias are associated with it. Children at 7 years old are not always able to control their emotions, especially when they are in a state of severe congestion.

In nine-year-old children, the symptomatology of fears also changes.

At this time, the causes leading to nightmares are already more global and significant phenomena:

1. Fear from the realization of one's own death or the death of parents.
2. Fear of being alone in a world full of strangers and evil people.
3. Fears of the impossibility of social adaptation, lack of self-confidence.
4. Fear of wars, catastrophes, violence and other things.

The fears experienced by children change with age. As the child grows and becomes acquainted with new manifestations of the world around him, the child's psyche develops.

Night terrors in children are an unconscious manifestation of the difficulties that the child faces in everyday life.

With the right reaction of parents to such manifestations of behavior, they will end at the age of 9 to 10 years. However, this figure is very individual. Often the process of getting rid of nightmares can take up to 12 years; there is nothing abnormal in this. If the problem persists even after this age, in order for fears and nightmares to end, the help of a specialist is needed.

An important point in understanding the behavior of a child is that childhood fears and nightmares are two different phenomena. Nightmares are of a slightly different nature; in addition, their frequent appearance leads to hypnophobia - fear of sleep.

The problem of frequent nightmares needs to be solved by completely different methods than the problem of night terrors.

Actually, the manifestations of these two problems are completely different: night terrors affect falling asleep, and nightmares come much later, at the stage of REM sleep.

The symptoms of fear are:

• unwillingness of the child to go to bed;
• the need for a light source in the room;
• even next to the mother, the child cannot fall asleep for a long time;
• a sleeping baby suddenly wakes up and starts screaming or crying.

During the manifestation of night fears, even the state of drowsiness is restless; the child turns in bed all the time, constantly shifts, sometimes even gets up.

From the outside, it may seem that some kind of obstacle does not allow him to relax and fall asleep. Actually, this is the reason, because if the baby falls asleep and goes through the drowsiness stage, then he sleeps peacefully until the very moment of morning awakening.

The manifestation of nightmares is completely different: until the moment REM sleep begins (about 1.5-2 hours from the moment you fall asleep), everything happens within the normal range. From the moment the nightmare begins, the child's heart rate accelerates, he breathes heavily, and sweating may occur. The child may begin to thrash around convulsively, fight with someone, even get out of bed, but at the same time he continues to sleep and it is difficult to wake him up.

Suppression of children's nightly fears does not imply an open struggle with them: there is no need to somehow shame the child, let alone joke about him. The kid is frightened quite sincerely, therefore, the problem can be solved only with the help of goodwill, patience and affectionate attitude.

In the fight against nightmares, it is necessary to let the child understand that his parents, especially his mother, are always on the same side with him, and he will never be without proper attention and support. This will greatly help the child and will stimulate him to gain courage and not be afraid.

It is necessary to respond correctly to attacks of children's fear, namely:

You also need to remember about preventive measures. First of all, the child must be provided with comfortable conditions: a cozy bed, the absence of extraneous noises or sounds, soft and dim lighting in the form of a night lamp.

Before going to bed, it is undesirable to expose the child to strong emotional experiences: you should not watch action-packed films or animation before going to bed. And even more so, it is not worth in any way to make the child a witness to the solution of intra-family problems.

A good option in the fight against fears is to read children's books before bedtime, and always with a happy ending. Do this constantly and very soon you will see progress in overcoming fears.

The best way to get rid of and prevent night terrors and nightmares has always been and will be goodwill and a calm, comfortable atmosphere in the family. Try to establish and maintain a trusting relationship with your child, do not ignore his problems.

The child's body, starting from the age of 5 years, despite its huge “margin of safety” in terms of physiology, is very vulnerable to mental problems. Sometimes, due to dreams burdened with nightmares or even simple fears, a child can develop quite serious health problems.

These include:

• asthma attacks;
• various manifestations of nervous tics, twitches;
• urinary incontinence;
• stuttering;
• feeling of nausea or bouts of vomiting.

In the event of the appearance of such symptoms, you should immediately seek help from specialists - a neurologist or a child psychologist.

The sooner parents can respond to such manifestations, the more successful the process of treatment and rehabilitation will be.