Night Frights

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Nightmares can start in toddlerhood
and last into the elemental)/ school years.

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

M

y 16-month-old
son has a few dif-
ferent sounds he
makes in the
middle of the night
First, there is the grunt as he
scrambles in his sleep across the
crib on his tummy. The second
is a whine when he bumps his
head at the top of the bed and
has to turn around and start his
trek across the mattress all over
again.
The third is much more dis-
tinct and startling. It is a desper-
ate scream that follows his
being jolted awake from what I
believe is a nightmare. "All chil-
dren have nightmares at one

time or another," said Dr.
Steven Spector, the executive
co-director of Beacon Hill Clinic
in Birmingham and an adjunct
professor of child clinical psy-
chology at the Wayne State Uni-
versity School of Medicine.
These terrifying dreams are
usually the child's sub-conscious
way of dealing with emotional
issues they weren't able to rec-
oncile during daylight hours.
Nightmares begin in young
children and toddlers and are
usually associated with issues in-
volving separation from a parent
or guardian.
As a child grows, the subject
of the nightmare changes.

"From the ages of 3 to 6, the
child has to resolve a lot of ag-
gressive and sexual impulses,"
Dr. Spector said.
Once a child is between the
ages of 7 and 11, the frequency
of nightmares should decrease
unless there is a stress in their
lives such as divorce, death or a
move, Dr. Spector said.
Jonah still cries out in the
middle of the night every so of
I imagine he will continue
to do so.
But mixed with his bad
dreams are the ones that cause
him to smile and
e in his
sleep. Those dreams are the
best of all. ❑

Getting Through The Night:
A Parent's Guide

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

THE APPLETREE

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When a child wakes from a
nightmare, the feelings of anxi-
ety and dread can be over-
whelming.
To help a child through this
experience, parents may only
have to provide a simple hug
and some words of assurance,
said Dr. Steven Spector, a local
child psychologist
"Hug them and recognize
that your child is truly fright-
ened and needs your 100 per-
cent support and reassurance,"
he said. "You may need to stay
with them for a short time."
In Getting Your Child To

Sleep And Back To Sleep, Vicki
Lansky suggests responding to
the bad dream as one would
respond to fright in the day-
time.
"Don't make light of the fear,
but don't overreact, either," she
writes.
It is important to convey to
the child that the situation is
under control and that nothing
bad will happen to them. But
in doing so, he warns against
looking for imaginary monsters
in the closet or under the bed,
a game some parents play with
their children.

"You should try instead to
convince them that monsters
aren't real," he said
If a child still is not comfort-
ed, the parents may want to try
laying down with the child in
their own bed or bringmg the
child into the parent's bed.
However, he warns against do-
ing this on a nightly basis lest
the child develop a dependen-
cy on a parent's presence to fall
asleep.
The best time to resolve the
issues that result in nightmares
is during the daylight when a
child is awake. 0