What should I do if my child keeps having nightmares?

I believe everyone has had the experience of having nightmares. If it is only an occasional nightmare, usually there is no need to worry too much. This is a normal phenomenon. But if a child has nightmares more frequently, then it should be taken seriously. This may be caused by psychological factors, improper diet, etc. If you find that your child often has nightmares, parents can take the following methods to help solve the problem.

What should I do if my child keeps having nightmares?

1. Take appropriate measures to make children feel safe when sleeping

Use appropriate methods to help your child feel emotionally secure at night. If a child fears going to sleep because of the possibility of a nightmare, the result can be insomnia, which is neither physically nor emotionally beneficial. To prevent this from happening, leave the bedroom door ajar, keep the lights on, or turn the radio on low to give your child a greater sense of security. If your child wakes up from a nightmare and feels particularly upset, just let him sleep with you that night.

2. Create a safe and happy living environment for children

Children's nightmares often come from troublesome problems or events in their daily lives. Children who often have nightmares need care. We should avoid educating children through intimidation. A naughty and active child does not need to be disciplined by demons. Then work with your child to drive the nightmare out of the dream, tell your child that the monsters in the dream can be driven out by drawing, and then encourage your child to put the monsters into a small paper bag, symbolizing catching the monster. Find a day when the children are in a good mood, have them burn the small paper bag and then bury it so that the drawn monster disappears forever.

The difference between nightmares and sleep terrors:

Night terrors often occur in the first half of the night, when you are half asleep and half awake, or in the deep sleep stage without rapid eye movement. A child who has night terrors may appear confused and difficult to wake up and calm down, but he will soon fall back to sleep and wake up the next day with little or no memory of the previous night's events, or even no idea what happened the night before.

Nightmares mostly occur in the second half of the night, when people are basically in the rapid eye movement sleep stage. Children who have nightmares may be frightened and cry because of the scenes in their dreams, but they generally do not become mentally confused and their parents can comfort them. However, the child may be reluctant to go back to sleep because of fear, and may vividly remember the nightmare scene the next day.