Nightmares and Night Terrors: How to Properly Handle Them?

Having nightmares and night terrors is inevitable with children. Most probably it is because of the movies they've watched, scary stories they have heard or folklores that they have been taught about. Fatigue, stress and sleep deprivation are also some of the factors that can trigger it.

Because most parents don't know the difference between the two, often they are left without any idea on how to handle the situation. So in order to find solution, it's better to understand what is happening first.

Nightmares or scary dreams, according to Parents, occur during REM or the phase where children fall into deep sleep. Children who experience it usually wake up from their sleep and remember what they've dreamt about even until the next day. Whenever this happens, typically the child is aware and they often want to be comforted.

Night terrors, on the other hand, happen before REM, which is before midnight. During this phase, children's body is still awake but their mind has already rested. Whenever they experience this, they often don't have their minds set to it.

That's why, no matter how children scream, cry, breath rapidly and have a fast heartbeat with their eyes wide open during night terrors, they don't often remember any of it. So if their parents try to comfort them, children often give them their cold shoulders.

So instead of trying to wake them up, the best thing that parents should do is to help their children go back to sleep, as noted by Live Science. Sometimes night terrors can also lead to injuries, so parents should also protect them from that.

Most of the time, having night terrors is just normal. But if the child is already having it for more than 30 minutes, has been greatly affected even during daytime or has done something harmful during the phase, it is now better to let the physicians intercede, according to Standford Children's Health. Having these symptoms might be a sign that the child is experiencing another psychological or physical issues that experts need to attend to.