When your little one wakes up in the middle of the night crying over the visions they see in their sleep it can be heartbreaking. It’s normal that they pop up from time to time. But, if your kids are starting to develop symptoms of frequent nightmares from grinding their teeth, wetting the bed, or having difficulty processing what they see, you may want to start looking deeper into what’s causing it.
Here are some of the reasons to consider why your child may be having nightmares, and what you can do to help.
Tensions At Home
If things have been particularly tense at home or there’s been a lot of fighting, perhaps this may be a factor. Kids are emotional sponges, soaking up everything that they hear around them.
It’s important to consider that even when you think they can’t hear you or pick up on your anger, they are processing it in a million different ways.
Sometimes they don’t know what to do with these feelings or tension, so it takes form in their subconscious leading to vivid nightmares which reflect their feelings of instability at home.
Bullying at School
Kids may not always share what’s going on at school. Sometimes they’re too afraid to tattle if a child has been bullying them, or maybe they don’t want to be perceived as weak.
Since children spend a large portion of their week at school, it’s no surprise that heavy bullying during these periods of time will take its toll on their emotional state.
Video Games
Video games can often have a lot of violence. Even though it may seem like harmless entertainment to many, it’s actually encouraging violence and tension in many ways.
There is a good reason why there are certain games which are banned for children under 18 years old. When children are younger, their little minds are more affected by the violence and gruesome images. When they lay their heads down at night to sleep it’s no wonder why they wake up in a panic. Make sure that you monitor what kind of content is in the games which they play.
Active Imagination
Sometimes there may not be anything to attribute to nightmares other than plain imagination. Some kids are incredibly creative and think all sorts of things up.
It can be difficult for their minds to calm down at the end of the day, leading to nightmares when they sleep.
Overheating
Often when you are too hot while you sleep, it can lead to bad dreams. As your body is trying to tell you that it’s uncomfortable in the midst of a deep sleep, it can start to create unsettling images in your dreams.
Originally posted on June 7, 2018 @ 12:56 pm
