Children need quality rest time to support their growth and development. However, children often experience sleep problems, among others, disturbed by nightmares.
In life, we must have had nightmares. But in fact, children experience it quite often. In fact, 50 percent of children ages 3-6 and 20 percent of children ages 6-12 experience recurring nightmares, according to the American Psychiatric Association.
Then, what can parents do to help overcome the nightmares experienced by children? Here Thevolume.net summarizes some tips that can be done, reported by Colorado Parents:
1. Entertain and calm children
Let the child tell about the bad dream he had. Calm the kids down by making sure mom is with them. Take time to talk about fun things or funny stories to help your child feel more comfortable.
2. Turn on the night light near the bed
If your child is used to sleeping in the dark, when he has bad dreams, turn on the night light or keep a flashlight nearby. This can help the child feel more secure because he is not surrounded by total darkness all night long.
3. Talk about reality and fantasy
Scary scenes or characters in movies or stories can trigger nightmares. When that bad image comes up, talk about the difference between what’s real and what’s imaginary. Children need to know to recognize that what happened in the nightmare was not real.
4. Overcome overstimulation during the day
Some children experience excessive stimulation during the day. For example meeting a lot of people, emotional outbursts, or after a more active day than usual.
If your child is overstimulated during the day, make sure the bedtime routine is calm. You can take your child to take a warm bath, drink warm milk, accompany them before going to bed with fun stories, and so on.
5. Slow down busy day
There are days when children are busy with their activities. This excessive tiredness can cause children to have nightmares at night.
You can take your child to do some yoga poses or play some relaxing music while getting ready for bed.
If your child has frequent nightmares, is depressed before bed, shows more intense emotions at bedtime, wets the bed, or refuses to carry out other daily activities, we recommend that you seek professional support to improve the quality of your child’s sleep.
I hope this information is helpful.
