Night Fears in Toddlers

Watching your baby's strong and undisturbed sleep is a pleasure, is not it? However, some parents, alas, are confronted with such an unpleasant and even frightening phenomenon, like children's nightly fears. A child who has just slept soundly, suddenly sits in bed, starts to rush in panic, mutter something, scream or cry. It seems that the baby is awake, because his eyes are open, but in fact he does not understand anything, does not recognize the parents who rushed to his aid, and does not react to attempts to calm him. More precisely, it reacts, but it is completely inadequate: it kicks, breaks, bites, scratches, tries to escape. Both native people, and familiar furnishings seem to him something of something frightening. The breathing and palpitation of the child are frequent, often it is all wet with sweat.

All this lasts an average of 3 to 5 minutes, although in the mildest cases, an attack of nocturnal fears can last less than a minute, and in severe cases - a protracted half an hour. Then the child calms down and again falls asleep. The next morning, he usually does not have any memories of the night incident.

Where do night terrors come from and what kind of children do they have?

Night fears are relatively common. According to statistics, about 4-6 toddlers out of 100 are affected, most of them boys (especially at an early age). Another thing is that many children have attacks of nocturnal fears only once or several times in their life and therefore can go completely unnoticed.

The first episode most often falls on the age of 5 to 7 years. However, the first in the life attack of nightly fears can survive and a six-month-old baby, and a fourteen-year-old teenager.

Night fears are a phenomenon, strangely enough, almost always connected with heredity. Scientific research shows that the children they suffer are very rarely characterized by increased anxiety or aggressiveness. But their close relatives often have or are marked in the past similar phenomena.

But the likelihood of a collision with nocturnal fears increases if the child is overworked, overexcited or overloaded. Some scientists note that the provoking factor is often any long-term psychotraumatic situation. Immature nervous system under such conditions can not cope with its tasks, and parasomnia develops - sleep disturbances, one of which is night fears.

Night fears are easy to confuse with nightmares, however these are two fundamentally different phenomena. The latter arise in the fast phase of sleep and are the most common dreams, just frightening content. The child can also wake up frightened to death and with a pounding heart, screaming or crying for fear, but at the same time he will immediately or very quickly become aware of the surrounding reality. He can be comforted, comforted, talk to him, explain that it was just a dream. The next morning, he is likely to still remember the contents of his nightmare. With nightly fears, the child will never explain to you what exactly scared him, and generally will not realize that he is being asked questions or trying to calm. And next morning, nothing will be remembered.

Unlike nightmares, nightly fears occur an average of an hour and a half after falling asleep, in a slow phase of sleep, when a person does not see dreams. At this point, the body normally rests, gaining strength. But in some children, the nerve centers are suddenly triggered "unheeded". We can say that the brain receives two conflicting signals. One orders to go with a fast, superficial phase of sleep with dreams, and the second - to remain in a deep sleep. Because of this discrepancy, nighttime fears arise.

What if you are confronted with the problem of a child's nightly fears?

The most important thing is to ensure its safety. Being in an inadequate condition, he can get hurt, hit or cause harm to someone else. If a child sleeps in a separate room, in time to find out what happens to him, the usual baby monitor will help. It is also important to remove away from the bed any danger to the excited and nothing that understands the child objects. Staying close to the baby, do not try to wake him up or get him an answer to the question what is going on and what scared him. Do not turn on bright lights, do not make loud noises and do not make sharp movements - all this can only exacerbate the situation. If the child does not try to push or hit you, you can take him in your arms or gently press against him. If he is aggressive, just gently hold it in place until he calms down. Try softly and calmly talk to him or sing a lullaby. You do not need to do anything else. In a few minutes the child will quiet down and fall asleep himself.

Be patient: the first thing you have to cope with your own panic (and not be scared, first seeing a child in this state is quite difficult). Remember that the only danger in this situation is the potential harm that the baby can inflict on yourself or others. Otherwise, nightly fears are a completely innocuous phenomenon. Sooner or later (most likely, in a few minutes) your child will calm down and fall asleep. Many children face nighttime fears only once in their lives and do not even know about it if their parents do not share it with them.

A single episode of nocturnal fears is not a cause for concern at all. This can happen with every child and does not require any treatment, not even a pediatrician's advice. But if the seizures are repeated, you need to show the baby to the doctor. Most likely, treatment is not required, and nightly fears will eventually disappear by themselves. The most important thing is to undergo a checkup to exclude the presence of epilepsy in the child, which sometimes manifests similar symptoms. Usually, doctors conduct electroencephalography (EEG) and polysomnography. Drug treatment may be required for frequent episodes of nocturnal fears or if they are preserved after 15 years.

It is more important to provide the child with the most peaceful environment, in which he will not be overworked or subjected to great stresses. Make sure he goes to bed on time, sleeps well, spends time outside the house, walks in the fresh air. Limit the time your child spends on a computer or watching television, to a reasonable extent. Before going to sleep, try to create a relaxing atmosphere for the child: include quiet music, read good books together, talk on pleasant topics. If the family has conflicts, protect the child from participating in them.