Nightmares: Why does it happen to children and what to do?

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Nightmares are common in toddlers and preschoolers. To help children have a good night's sleep, parents need to pay more attention to the activities before bed, the space of the child's bedroom.

1. How to know if a child has a nightmare?

Signs of a child having a nightmare are waking up startled, crying, seeming scared, clinging to you and having trouble getting back to sleep. Usually, nightmares occur near early morning, in the later stages of sleep.
Nightmares are different from night terrors, a less common sleep disorder that usually occurs in the first 1/3 of sleep, in toddlers and preschoolers. Children with night terrors still sleep soundly, do not dream, but show strong agitation and cannot be comforted. The child then goes back to sleep on his own and has no memory of what happened.
The cause of a child's nightmare is often determined directly by the child saying he has a nightmare with his or her parents. Other than that, there is almost no way to know what causes nightmares in children.
There are many factors that trigger nightmares in children. These include health problems such as illness, discomfort, or children who have not yet learned how to go back to sleep after waking up.

2. Why do children have nightmares?

There are many factors that trigger a nightmare to occur, some of which are common causes of nightmares:
Stimulating feelings of fear before sleep : Listen to a scary story, watch a chapter annoying TV program, ... Stressful state due to the impact of external factors: Changing living environment from living with parents to living alone, experiencing health disorders such as illness, disease , have to be away from parents for a long time, ... However, parents should not blame themselves. Because nightmares are not heavily influenced by emotional problems and bad dreams are sometimes completely normal at this age.

3. How to soothe a child after a nightmare

Some of the following ways can be used to help comfort a child after a nightmare , including:
Reassuring the child: Hug or rub his back until the child calms down. Give your child a stuffed animal or favorite toy to hold. Adjust the bedroom space: Check if the night light is on, open the door to the child to feel you are near. If you put your baby to bed to comfort her, it's likely to create a habit that's hard to fix. Explain the nightmare: If your child is old enough to understand what you say, talk to them about the nightmare. However, telling your child "it was just a dream" won't be much comforting because the child is too young to understand the difference between reality and a dream.

4. How to prevent nightmares from happening to children?

Reduce the frequency of nightmares in your child by doing the following:
Create a peaceful bedtime routine: Take a warm bath, tell a soothing story, listen to a soothing song. Books related to sleep should be prioritized to read to children like Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. Keep the right bedroom temperature: Keep your child's room at a comfortable temperature, not too hot and not too cold. The best temperature for comfortable sleep is slightly cooler (according to the National Sleep Foundation, about 18 degrees Celsius). Proper bedroom lighting: Too much light will disrupt sleep. If the child is afraid of the dark, turn on the night light for the child to prevent monsters from his conception. Besides, in order for children to eat well and sleep well, parents should pay special attention to their nutrition, supplementing with lysine, essential micro-minerals and vitamins such as zinc, chromium, selenium, B vitamins, etc. Support the immune system, enhance resistance to less minor illnesses.

In case if the nightmares persist and the child is extremely afraid to go to sleep, take the child to see the doctor. Bad dreams that occur continuously require solving the problems that entangle the child's life.
If you have difficulties in taking care of, building a scientific diet and sleep regimen, you can take your child to Vinmec International General Hospital for examination and advice from qualified doctors. subject.
Vinmec International General Hospital is the address for receiving and examining respiratory diseases that infants and young children are susceptible to: viral fever, bacterial fever, respiratory infection, pneumonia In children, dermatological diseases....With modern equipment, sterile space, minimizing the impact as well as the risk of disease spread. Along with that is the dedication from the doctors with professional experience with pediatric patients, making the examination no longer a concern of the parents.
Reference source: babycenter.com