As a rule, they appear during sleep in the first third of the night and are not remembered (as opposed to nightmares). They are observed in 1-6% of children and in 1% of adults. During the night of fear the child usually screams. If you wake him up, then within 15-30 minutes he will be disoriented and remain confused. Children look confused, do not react to their surroundings, worry, sweat, their heartbeat quickens. These phenomena frighten parents more than children. Usually, while calming a child, parents encounter resistance and whims that they are very concerned about and upset.
The fact is that nightly fears up to the age of six are not considered pathologies.
Night fears usually last no more than 20-30 minutes and pass without consequences. When parents try to wake the child, ask or soothe, this increases the duration of nightly fears.
Children who are stressed out or do not get enough sleep are more likely to have night fears. You can reduce the frequency of these phenomena, if you postpone the time of bedtime to an earlier hour and make sure that the child falls asleep at the same time. It is impossible to wake him up at the moment of nocturnal fear, because, unlike nightmares, he will not remember them in the daytime. No need to calm him down, ask, clarify. It is better for parents not to worry about the children’s night fears, but to create a good psychological climate in the family and ensure the observance of the rules of sleep hygiene.
The baby’s crib should be in the place that is most protected from irritating factors. Mom needs to do so that he was not disturbed by noise, too bright light, fields of harmful energy. In children, sleep should be associated with pleasant sensations: a fairy tale, reading, a song before bedtime, observation of the month and stars in the sky through the window. The formation of the sleep ritual in childhood has an effect on proper sleep throughout life. The child enjoys minutes of communication with his beloved parents before bedtime, when their attention is not distracted. This creates the conditioned reflex mechanism of healthy sleep. It is completely wrong to punish children, threatening to send them to bed for a crime. Such actions can cause behavioral insomnia.