How to get rid of nightmares and horrors. To have a restful sleep. Night terrors

Night terrors should be distinguished from the same nightmares. A nightmare is a terrible scary dream in which you are the observer or main actor. After waking up, you realize that everything you just experienced was a dream.

Horror dreams are also nightmares, but they occur in the deepest stage of sleep, several hours after falling asleep. At this moment, a person’s consciousness completely turns off, even after waking up he does not notice the real situation and people. then the person calms down, falls asleep, and in the morning he will not remember what happened.

Causes

In children, night terrors are rarely caused by serious psychological problems or depression.

IN childhood call night terror can:

• heredity,
• apnea,
• syndrome restless legs,
• overexcitement due to a large volume of new emotions and impressions (this often happens during travel, spending the night in a new place, attending entertainment events),
• watching TV for a long time.

Symptoms

During night terrors, a child can scream, cry, call for help, but even with his eyes open, he will not see his parents or hear them.

Characteristic changes during a night terror are:

• increased physical activity,
• increased sweating,
• whole body trembling
• frequent heartbeat.

In the morning, the child may not remember his horror and behavior

Diagnosis of night terrors in a child

In order to determine the presence of night terrors in a child, it is enough to sleep next to him. Horror does not pass silently; the child will react to it in any case, and the parents will notice it.

It is equally important to identify the reason for this mental disorder. To do this, parents need to observe the child’s activity during the day, find connections between events and the presence or absence of night terror.

If horrors are based psychological disorders, then to identify them you will need the help of a psychologist.

Complications

The main problem with night terrors in a child is lack of sleep and anxiety of parents.

If night terrors recur regularly, then most likely the cause of such fears is serious reason and can cause other more unfortunate complications associated with further development child personality disorders and other mental disorders.

Treatment

What can you do

Parents should not wake up their child while he is screaming. His sleep phase is so deep that he simply may not wake up. If he wakes up, he will start crying, because he will not remember his horror. An unexpected and abrupt exit from the delta phase of sleep can lead to insomnia.

Parents should identify factors that contribute to nighttime sleepiness and address them.

If necessary, you can seek help from a specialist.

What does a doctor do

Medical assistance for night terrors in a child is required in exceptional cases. If treatment is justified, the doctor may prescribe:

• a course of sedatives,
• drug treatment of an underlying mental disorder,
• psychotherapy (art therapy, hippotherapy, dolphin therapy and other types).

Prevention

To prevent night terrors in children, parents should:

• do not allow the baby to make a lot of noise and play around before bedtime,
• a couple of hours before bedtime it is better to switch to quiet games and other activities (reading, drawing),
• to relieve stress accumulated during the day (after a trip, going to the circus or visiting guests), it is advisable to take a shower or a relaxing bath,
• ventilate the children's bedroom,
• lay fresh bed linen made from natural fabrics.

To avoid night terrors, it is also necessary to cure existing apnea and background disorders of the child’s psyche.

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Arm yourself with knowledge and read a useful informative article about night terror in children. After all, being parents means studying everything that will help maintain the degree of health in the family at around “36.6”.

Find out what can cause the disease and how to recognize it in a timely manner. Find information about the signs that can help you identify illness. And what tests will help identify the disease and make a correct diagnosis.

In the article you will read everything about methods of treating such a disease as night terror in children. Find out what effective first aid should be. How to treat: choose medications or traditional methods?

You will also learn what can be dangerous untimely treatment Night terror disease in children, and why it is so important to avoid the consequences. All about how to prevent night terror in children and prevent complications.

And caring parents will find on the service pages complete information about the symptoms of night terror in children. How do the signs of the disease in children aged 1, 2 and 3 differ from the manifestations of the disease in children aged 4, 5, 6 and 7? What is the best way to treat night terror in children?

Take care of the health of your loved ones and stay in good shape!

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night, relieved to realize that everything scary and terrible you just experienced was just a nightmare?

Nightmares and fears

Nightmares should be distinguished from night terrors (fears). A nightmare is a terrible dream that appears in the phase REM sleep, occurring most often in the morning.

Despite the absurdity of the plot and the absurdity of the situation, such dreams are so realistic that they seem to be really happening.

They are very rarely accompanied by physiological reactions in the form of increased respiration and heart rate or increased sweating. A person who wakes up usually remembers the content of the dream.

The situation is different with night terrors or fears. They arise in delta sleep, the deepest phase of sleep, and therefore appear during the first hours of rest. Night terrors are characterized by the absence of any pictures or images; at its core, night terror is a short and relatively simple dream.

The duration of a night terror can range from one to several minutes. It is often accompanied by pronounced reactions of the body: trembling, rapid heartbeat and motor movements.

It is very difficult to wake up a person and talk to him at this moment, calming him down, since he simply does not notice the presence of other people. After some time, he falls asleep, and in the morning he cannot remember anything about what happened to him at night.

Causes of night fears and nightmares

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of a nightmare; most often, terrible dreams arise from acute psychological experiences caused by illness or loss loved one, serious illness, complex medical surgery, car accident, job change or loss.

They are often the result of anxiety, prolonged depression or an unresolved psychological problem.

Sometimes the cause of a nightmare can be restless leg syndrome or. The predisposition to nightmares is often inherited at the genetic level.

Night terrors in children are very rarely signs of deep psychological problems; in most cases they are observed during periods of life that are extremely rich in new impressions, emotions and experiences.

Most often they occur during trips and trips, visits to entertainment events; their cause can even be a banal overnight stay at a party, a sanatorium or a boarding house.

A completely different reason for night terrors in adults. Night terrors are an alarm bell warning that something is wrong with the nervous system. Their causes, in addition to an aggressive state, anxiety or agitation, may be major changes able mental health person.

Getting rid of nightmares and fears

Frequently recurring nightmares and horrors require serious attention from a psychotherapist.

Even a simple discussion with a specialist about your nightly dreams and life problems will help you gain a sense of confidence and forget about nightmares, if not forever, then for a fairly long period.

If necessary, the doctor will help you select the necessary doses of tranquilizers that will help get rid of post-traumatic stress. stress disorders, anxiety and panic.

Consult your doctor about the medications you are taking. Some antihypertensive and hypertensive drugs, in addition to correction blood pressure, may increase the likelihood of nightmares. The same applies to antidepressants.

If night terrors and nightmares are not systemic in nature and appear quite rarely, it makes sense to reconsider your daily routine and lifestyle, giving up late snacks and night trips to the refrigerator, doing physical exercise, yoga, etc.

Spend the evening with your family or with a loved one, read, do crafts, watch calm TV shows or movies.

A warm shower or bath taken before bed will allow you to relax after a busy day, find peace and tranquility. Create a cozy and relaxing atmosphere in your bedroom. The room where you sleep should be fresh, comfortable and quiet.

Avoid or minimize your intake of nicotine and caffeine. As you fall asleep, imagine a pleasant and calm picture natural landscape, add sounds and smells to the visual images. Think only about good things.

Sweet Dreams! Be always healthy!

The mere mention of nightmares makes us shudder. We begin to think about the dreams in which we die; about monsters, criminals, ex-lovers who are haunting us; about storms, about rivers, about quicksand that suck us in; about deep and dark corridors that lure you in. Should we really be afraid of these dreams? Let's look at what nightmares really are and how we can use them to our advantage.

Physiology of night terrors in sleep

They seem so real! As a rule, we call scary, disturbing and unpleasant dreams nightmares. But for sleep and dream researchers, this definition is too vague. Scientists have found that most people report two types of “nightmare” dreams. The subjects either woke up with a feeling of fear or despair, but could not remember what exactly frightened them (they could only remember a “sense of catastrophe” or a “threatening shadow”), or woke up when they had a very vivid dream, at the most terrible or threatening moment of it . Based on the sleep technique, the first of them did not see nightmares, but the second saw just nightmares.

Night terror or nightmare?

When nightmare isn't it a nightmare?

When you know you are dreaming.

When in a dream you start throwing tables at the villain and try to scare him.

When it's a nightmare.

If you chose the third answer, then you can celebrate your victory - you are right. Night terrors are not nightmares. These aren't even dreams. Night terrors happen to people during an NREW cycle. They usually occur in the first two hours of sleep, during the third or fourth stage of the NREW cycle. A person experiencing a night terror may wake up for 20 seconds or more and then go back to sleep.

Night terrors are considered “wake-up disorders.” Dr. Sonia Encoli-Israel, Professor of Psychiatry Medical school San Diego from the University of California, director of the San Diego Sleep Disorders Clinic and author of All I Need Is a Good night sleep"(1996), tells how night terrors are characterized.

Physiological signs of night terror

Night terror is characterized by:

A sudden but incomplete awakening.

Acceleration heart rate, breathing and increased blood pressure.

The classic physiological reaction to fear is dilated pupils, a feeling of confusion or panic, and sweating.

Screams or groans, hitting limbs or jumping out of bed.

Recalling a single image or feeling (“I was choking”) if the person woke up.

No memory of the night terror is retained if the sleeper does not wake up.

Causes of night terrors

The cause of night terrors is unknown, but it is believed that they are not a metaphorical representation of a psychological image as a dream. Most likely, their roots are purely biological functions. Indeed, during night terrors, the subjects under study present elements of both sleep and wakefulness.

Night terrors often occur in children between three and eight years of age. Dr. Sonia Encoli-Israel suggests parents curb their instincts to rush to their baby's aid to wake him or her up and calm him down. This does not mitigate or change the severity or duration of night terrors.

Let the night terror run its course and your child won't remember a thing. In children of this age, random night terrors are considered normal occurrence, and they do not reflect any deep psychological problems. They still upset parents.

Physiology of nightmares during sleep

Nightmares, like other dreams, occur during the REM cycle. Usually nightmares cause sleepers to wake up after long sleep in a REM cycle that lasts about 15 minutes. If you don't wake up, can it be considered a nightmare? WITH technical side No. You can just call it a bad dream.

Signs of a nightmare in a dream

Nightmares are most often characterized by the following symptoms:

• A feeling of a bad dream or a feeling of fear that a person experiences for several hours after waking up or even for several days.
• A physical paralysis called "atonia", which means sleeping in the REM cycle (as opposed to physically awakening with night terrors); With big amount eye movements, slightly faster than usual pulse and breathing.
• The ability to recall all or part of a bad dream. Usually the dreamer is actually threatened by something or is being damaged in some way.
• By recognizing strong personal themes in the dream, or by repeating the dream itself over months, years, or even decades.

The thing about nightmares is that they are scary. They are often long, complex, with lots of detail, and are the easiest to remember. Nightmares are not considered sleep disorders like night terrors. It is interesting to note that although people during night terrors exhibit symptoms of physical fear in the form of screams, moans, movements of the limbs and seem scared during the episode itself, they do not remember anything afterwards unless they are awakened. However, nightmares are a completely different matter.

What do nightmares mean in a dream?

A dream full of nightmares reveals a lot to us if we have the courage to take a closer look at what frightens us. As novelist Gail Godwin writes in her book Sleeping Children: “I believe that dreams carry us through the background of our lives, and if we want to get to know dark side“I”, then there will be signs there that are waiting to be deciphered.”

• Medicines,
• alcohol,
• excessive stress
• and lack of sleep

change the quality and quantity of REM cycles, and it should not be surprising that one of possible consequences This may result in fewer dreams, scary dreams or nightmares. While all of these things can give us nightmares, often what causes nightmares is the struggle we have in our lives. Everyday life. Many people swear that the cause of nightmares lies in pizza or too spicy food, eaten before bed, but we do not have a single scientific evidence to support this hypothesis.

How dangerous are nightmares?

• A killer aiming a gun at your head
• maniac on top of a volcano,
• laughingly pushing you into the red-hot magma,
• inability to run, move, even scream,
• when the wheels of a truck run over you

Nothing and no one in these nightmares can kill you, harm you in any way, or leave tire marks on your back. Nightmares are not external events. They are internal. Like holographic images, dreams, and especially nightmares, can be safe place, where you can survive scary situations or change your mind about scary thoughts.

Remember, you are the one who creates your dreams. You are the producer, the director, the crew, and the cast of all those late-night movies you watch. Even thrillers. Like all the other types of dreams we've talked about, nightmares are messages from one part of yourself to another. Their meanings are encrypted. Often the strength of fear or anger in dreams and nightmares is equal to the strength of these feelings in reality. Sometimes the images in them are especially capricious and changeable, and then in a dream we experience a large number of negative emotions.

Causes of nightmares

Many of us were raised to believe that aggressive tendencies are bad. When we were children, we were taught to “be good”: we were punished for whims and rewarded for smiling.

Therefore, we should not be so surprised that we do not welcome aggression either in ourselves or in others. We push her away. Appearing in our dreams, it can appear in a distorted form, and we will see a nightmare.

You're angry at your boss for not promoting you. You may have a nightmare in which you are being chased by a strange stalker who wants to sacrifice you. Isn't this self-punishment in a dream for daytime thoughts and desires to break your boss's neck? Or have you had to shuffle your feet and bow to this old brat who interferes with your progress, and only in your dreams do you dare to give vent to your anger? And how scary, hot and menacing it seems to you!

What scares you most about bad dreams?

We know from experience that the most common nightmares are dreams in which you are either being followed or being hunted. There is an explanation for this: dreams of being chased and tracked are the earliest memories from our human collective unconscious, and they date back to the primitive times when our ancestors were chased by wild animals. And then to be caught meant death.

The most common themes of nightmares

What people, things, objects and events scare you most in bad dreams. Here are the most common answers.

Invasion of menacing strangers

Falling off a cliff

Dark rooms, forests, alleys

Heights and depths

Storms on land or sea, tides, earthquakes

Friends or relatives who have suddenly aged or changed their appearance

Friends or relatives who suddenly turned violent and dangerous

Guns, knives and other weapons

Car and plane accidents

Find yourself lost

Such dreams leave people feeling as if their place in the world is literally being taken away from under their feet. The dreamer feels completely helpless. Could the dream be a metaphor for the feeling of “shaky ground under our feet,” as we sometimes describe situations at home or at work? Self-confidence or self-image goes through a meat grinder (that's what's scary...)

What else do we have in this life, besides a view of the world and an idea of ​​ourselves? From this point of view, it makes sense to consider dreams in which our world - our confidence - is shaken, to be a big nightmare!

The main types of nightmares in a dream

We have made a distinction between night terrors and nightmares. But scientists also say that there are two types of nightmares.

Anxious dreams in the REM cycle

Post-traumatic nightmares.

Features of post-traumatic nightmares

Post-traumatic nightmares are different from normal REM sleep or the run-of-the-mill nightmare. As a rule, they are experienced by those people who have experienced some kind of trauma, and their dreams are in one way or another closely related to this trauma. Therefore, there is nothing particularly mysterious in their dreams.

Robert Van de Castle points out that such a dream is repeated from time to time, with little modification, except that some elements from the constant environment may gradually be introduced into the dream.

World War II veterans and concentration camp prisoners were known to suffer from post-traumatic nightmares even fifty years after the war. Post-traumatic nightmares usually occur during the REM cycle, but can also occur during the second stage of the NREM cycle. Unlike "normal" nightmares, these dreams can be accompanied by significant physical symptoms, such as increased respiratory and heart rate, muscle cramps - in the REM cycle, people wake up several times.

One psychological theory suggests that post-traumatic nightmares are a way in which our brain and body work together to “re-enact” events, trying to recreate them in a “safe” context when the brain and body are asleep, when these events can be relived, but without harm to yourself. Gradually, the anxiety and stress associated with the trauma diminish as the person gains a sense of safety and trust in reality.

It's also important to note that things like a noisy and messy divorce process can be traumatic for children. Therefore, although we were not prisoners of war (thank God!), events can occur in our daily lives that can be considered traumatic.

Anxious dreams-nightmares in the REM cycle

However, the most common among disturbing dreams in the REM cycle are dreams about stress related to work, school, and personal relationships. They are not life-threatening (although, of course, in a dream we may experience a feeling of helplessness in the face of impending danger), but they are a threat to our self-confidence. Such dreams belong to the category of dreams after which you can exclaim with relief: “It was just a dream!”

Dr. Ernest Hartmann, director of a sleep laboratory in Boston, discovered that many people who suffer from nightmares for a long time have “thin skin.” That is, they

• emotional,
• creatively capable
• sensitive
• and are often prone to depression,
• have difficulty withstanding internal and external shocks.

People who have frequent nightmares often see more unclear, blurry, or dismembered images in their inkblot texts.

It is possible that the kind of people described by scientists may be sensitive, easily moody artists who receive food for inspiration in dreams - including nightmares.

Using nightmares for creative problem solving

When we wake up from a nightmare, our hearts are pounding, our thoughts are racing, and it’s hard to believe that this is just a dream. And it can be just as difficult to remember that we are the authors of nightmares. They don't just come to us. We create them. So what does this mean for us and how can we make nightmares less scary?

How can we make nightmares our helpers?

When we have nightmares, our unconscious can send such a “loud” message that we can only wake up. The content of a dream often warns of some unpleasant events that we are not ready to face consciously or that we actively resist during the day. Nightmares can suggest new solutions or a different way of thinking about a difficult situation.

For example, you dream night after night that you are ironing an amazing white blouse. You think you did a great job. When you put it on, it becomes all wrinkled, wet and burnt. You turn around and see that the iron has swollen to incredible sizes and is blazing hot steam at you with hissing and splashing, and you prudently run away in fear that it might burn you.

What does this mean?

• Do you hate ironing? Are you one of those women who buys things that are intended exclusively for “dry cleaning”?
• Are you only concerned about your career?
• Or perhaps the iron is your caring inner voice, who yells at you while you spend twelve hours a day perfecting a report.
• Or it’s likely (just likely!) that you actually want to ruin this blouse, despite the excellent ironing! And at this time your parents are asking when you and your partner will get married and start a family life...

What to do about childhood nightmares?

Because nightmares contain images that threaten our sense of emotional security and well-being, we often see the same events, faces, and surroundings in our dreams over and over again.

Can you remember any of your childhood nightmares? In our practice, most people could do this. These dreams are well remembered. Some scientists say that you can even have nightmares one year old child, others say that children see them only from the age of five. We tend to think that nightmares begin from the moment we begin to experience anxiety and fear and acquire the ability to create mental pictures.

There are many things in the dark that children are afraid of. Dr. Charles Rycroft points out that for small child and in the light of day the world is scary and strange. There is huge dogs who bark; loud rumbles of thunder; other people's faces looming indistinctly in front of them; loud sounds, which frighten; parents who quarrel.

And since the child’s ability to distinguish reality from fantasy is still poorly developed, the “monsters” attacking them may seem absolutely real. And since it is difficult for children to express their fear in words, it is even more difficult for adults to explain to them that a bad dream was just a dream.

The source of fear is in our distant early childhood(except for those unexpected disasters that happened to us later). Mostly very Small child afraid to be left alone (without parental care, children can literally die), and later, when the child begins to crawl and walk, they begin to fear bodily harm.

These two circumstances influence a person throughout his life. A forty-year-old man going through a divorce can see the sky falling above him and him desperately seeking some kind of refuge. This is an echo of the fear of being abandoned and alone.

How to deal with nightmares in adults?

If you have a nightmare in which you are being chased, you might want to consider distinctive features your scary stalker, and then ask yourself:

• Is there anyone in reality who resembles this pursuer?
• Are you fighting a disguised stranger who you would describe as "persistent, persistent, half-human, half-animal, a little sexy."
• Maybe this is a part of yourself that you have rejected, and you should pay more attention to your untamed animal sexual desires?

Of course, the nightmares that appear so vividly before you are the collapsing roof; your car stalled on the highway - can warn you that you need to pay attention to the things around you and fix them.

What if you wake up in a dream or realize that it’s just a dream? What if you stop running from the monster and turn to face it?

Gail Delaney, a professor of philosophy, in her book Living in Your Dreams (1996), argues that by recognizing all these nightmare people, places, things in our dreams, we can curb their evil energy and reclaim those parts of our personality that are not recognized as their own.

She believes that there is no need to run after the monster, attack him and beat him bloody: although a victorious feeling will awaken in us, we will never know what the monster needed from us and what his message to us was. We will learn much more from our nightmares if we learn to bravely ask:

• What do you need?
• Why did you come into my dream?
• Why are you following me?

This is the main dilemma in the film “A Nightmare on Elm Street”: how best to understand why the monster went on a rampage, but not to die ourselves!

Numerological horoscope for the number of the day - 23

2 gives the opportunity to cooperate with other people, gives faith in good deeds. 3 is cheerfulness, the ability to discard previous negative experiences in order to step forward with faith. It's time to manifest out-of-the-box thinking, expand interests. Any complex matters and problems can be solved if you use intuition and the ability to introspect.

The 23rd will allow you to adapt to any unusual situation that arises. You can be flexible in your mind to appreciate prospects that seemed too far away.

“At night, my daughter wakes up with hysterical screams, doesn’t recognize or hear anyone, calms down herself after about five minutes, doesn’t remember anything in the morning. There is no more strength..." (from comments)

To safely help a baby who has woken up with heartbreaking screams, you need to understand why he woke up.

In this article: how night fear manifests itself and its causes, how parents should behave, when and where to seek help.

Night terror is

parasomnia, a condition accompanied by behavioral disorder V various stages sleep and during the transition from one phase to another, is caused by the immaturity of the central nervous system (central nervous system), which explains the more frequent cases in children compared to adults.

Parasomnias (from the Latin word somnus (sleep) and Greek para (something)) are unusual sleep phenomena.

These include nightmares, sleepwalking, sleep talking, sleep paralysis, and etc.

Synonyms for the phenomenon: Pavor nocturnus, night terror, night horror.

Pavor nocturnus occurs approximately an hour and a half after falling asleep, when deep sleep dominates.

Children aged three to twelve are susceptible to night terrors. Boys suffer more often.

How does night terror manifest itself?

Characterized by instant awakening from one’s own sudden body movements and screams.

Accompanied by severe fear, rapid heartbeat and breathing, redness of the skin, sweating, and dilated pupils. The baby suddenly sits up and screams uncontrollably, his gaze frozen, his eyes wide open in horror.

At the same time, he does not react to others in any way. If woken up, he will be in complete prostration, without orientation in space and time.

Awakening lasts from several minutes to half an hour, the child calms down and falls asleep. The next day he doesn't remember anything.

During an attack, the baby is very active, his behavior may be unsafe for himself and for those around him.

The difference between night terrors and nightmares

The behavior of children during episodes of night terrors and nightmares is very similar, but has a number of fundamental differences that caring parents need to know. The most important difference is awareness on the part of the child.

Nightmare- a terrible dream. The child wakes up from it and can be calmed down. In the morning the baby remembers content and details of the dream.

Pavor nocturnus overtakes in the phase itself deep sleep. Screams, throwing, open eyes- everything happens while the child is fast asleep and left alone with his fear, screams at you, but does not feel your presence, cannot ask for help. The next day is yours the child will not remember the events of the night.

Causes of night terrors

• Heredity. More common in children with a family history of night terrors or sleepwalking.

• and disordered sleep.

• Feverish conditions.

• Sleeping away from home, in a new environment. If you have to spend some time in a foreign place, take your favorite toy with you, with which your baby will fall asleep peacefully.

• Traumatic brain injury.

• Medicines.

• Multivitamins. If your child experiences night terrors, try stopping taking vitamins. There are cases when they served as a provoking factor.

• Poor sleep quality:
  for example, due to sleep disordered breathing. Pay attention to how your baby breathes when he sleeps.

• Overexcitement, restlessness, sudden noises, or a full bladder.

• Stressful situation.

• Changed daily routine (new brother or sister, school starts).

• Fatigue is physical and mental.

• Low blood sugar.

How parents should behave

Parents, as a rule, feel helpless, not being able to calm their frightened child.

The best way to cope with an attack is wait patiently. Children usually calm down on their own and go back to sleep.

Don't try to wake up. When your child wakes up, he will not recognize you, will be disoriented, confused and even more frightened, and will take much longer to calm down and fall asleep again. Your task is to protect the child so that he does not get injured.

Only after the episode is over, wake the child. Fast return V deep phase sleep may trigger the next episode of fear. Offer, if necessary, to go to the toilet before the baby goes back to sleep. Make sure he is fully awake to break the vicious chain.

Try do not discuss with the child or in front of him events of the night, this can increase the baby's anxiety.

How to overcome night terrors

If terror attacks occur frequently and at specific times, keep a diary. After analyzing the records, you can wake up the child 15 minutes before until the expected time of the attack, and then go back to bed. By breaking delta sleep in this way for a week, you will stop the episodes of terror.

Necessary measures.

Nightmares and night terrors are similar in many ways, but they have different nature. If we're talking about nightmares usually mean that a person has a vivid, imaginative dream and wakes up with a feeling of intense fear or horror. Night terrors (also known as parasomnias, night terrors and night tantrums) are when a person is only partially awake and may scream, sometimes very loudly, and make erratic movements with their arms and legs. Another difference is that episodes of parosomnia rarely occur in adults, while nightmares affect people of all ages. Thus, nightmares and night terrors are different phenomena, so you need to be able to distinguish between them and apply different approaches to deal with the problem.

Steps

Part 1

Find out more about characteristic features nightmares. Nightmare is a certain type unpleasant dreams which occurs during the period of falling asleep, sleeping or waking up. Here are some character traits, allowing us to understand that we are dealing with a nightmare:

It is believed that people of any age are susceptible to nightmares. Nightmares are more common in children aged 3 to 6 years; approximately half of children of this age see scary dreams. At the same time, adults often have nightmares, especially those who are in life situation With high level anxiety and stress.

Pay attention to what time a person has nightmares. In most cases, a person has nightmares late phase sleep cycle, the so-called REM sleep phase (rapid eye movement phase - REM phase). It is during this period of time that a person dreams, and he can have both a nightmare and a pleasant dream.

Consider the underlying reasons behind your nightmares. A person can have nightmares for no reason, but if a person hears or sees something that causes them fear or anxiety, this experience can result in a nightmare.

Be prepared for the fact that after the nightmare you will experience unpleasant feelings for some time. Upon waking up, a person often feels strong fear, horror or anxiety. It is usually difficult for a person to fall back to sleep after having a nightmare.

• If your child has a nightmare, be sure to calm him down. Stay with your child, help him come to his senses and explain that this is just a dream and he has nothing to be afraid of.
• If an adult, teenager, or older child has frequent nightmares, it may be helpful to talk to a psychologist. A specialist will help identify the source of stress, anxiety or fear that manifests itself in the form of nightmares.

1. Do not try to wake up a person with a night terror. It is very difficult to wake up a person who is in a state of night terror. Even if a person does wake up, he usually wakes up from the sleep state without realizing what is happening. Often people cannot understand why they are so sweaty, out of breath, and are perplexed at the sight of the mess on the bed.

   Be patient when dealing with someone who has a night terror. He's likely having a very difficult time responding to you at this point, even if he seems to have "woke up" from his night terror episode. The thing is that parasomnia episodes occur during the deep sleep phase.

2. Be aware of dangerous behavior. A person experiencing a night terror attack sometimes poses a threat to both himself and others, although he does not realize it.

   • Check to see if the person is suffering from sleepwalking. During an episode of parasomnia, a person may walk in their sleep, which poses a serious danger to them.
   • Protect yourself from unexpected blows. Sudden movements hands and feet (pinches, kicks, punches), which are characteristic of the state of night terror, pose a danger both to the person himself and to the person sleeping next to him, as well as to people who are trying to wake the person up at this moment .

3. Use the right tactics when dealing with a person with night terrors. Do not try to wake the person unless the night terror poses a danger to them.

   • Stay with the person during a night terror episode until they calm down.