The Best Way To Handle Children’s Nightmares

An automatic response for many parents after their child has a nightmare is, “It’s not real, so you don’t need to feel scared.” The problem is, while the bad dream isn’t real, the emotions that the child is experiencing are intensely real and can’t be disregarded.

Source: Photo from 1, 2, 3, 4: Nightmare No More. Courtesy of Illustrator Michaela Schuett

What is the best way to tackle nightmares so that everyone in the family gets a better night’s sleep? Get to the reality behind the bad dream by getting into the reality of the child’s everyday emotions. Bad dreams at night are compositions that come from a pallet of daytime emotions including sadness, frustration, fear, embarrassment, shyness and shame.

During busy days, it’s easy to get into the habit of giving children directives rather than actively listening to them. “Wash your hands,” “finish your snack,” and “hurry-up” can take over the kind of communication parents have with children.

Strive to communicate with your child at a deeper level by being open and receptive to the goings-on in their world. Talking with children while doing an undemanding task like coloring makes it more likely for them to open-up. Also, being nonjudgmental will go a long way toward getting them to be freer with their thoughts and emotions.

This kind of communication with children will allow them to vent and process a range of thoughts and feelings, giving a solid base for the reduction of nightmares and coping with nightmares in a more constructive way.

Source: Photo from 1, 2, 3, 4: Nightmare No More. Courtesy of Illustrator Michaela Schuett

The following are tips that can also significantly reduce the occurrence of nightmares in kids:

• Help your child make the connection between events, thoughts and feelings during the day, and bad dreams at night.
• Have your child draw out the bad dream and come up with an alternate, empowering ending.
• Have a calm, consistent bedtime routine.
• Teach relaxation techniques such as deep breathing so kids learn to self-sooth.
• Keep an eye on program content that scares your child, ie. scary villians or challenging themes like the death of a parent. Help children to identify content that they are not ready for yet on their own, and introduce more mature content gradually, but never at night before bed.