How to help children cope with nightmares

by Dr Keith Souter

Virtually every parent will at some stage have had to comfort a child after they have woken from a nightmare.

Usually it wakes the dreamer up and they feel full of fear. They are very common in children between the ages of three and eight.

Children commonly report that they have been chased by animals, witches or monsters. It is worth thinking about the games you play with your children, especially if you play the common ‘monster is going to get you!’ It might be worth missing that out.

Nightmares can be manifestations of stress, so domestic and family problems, bereavements, worries at school all need to be considered. Other potential triggers for nightmares are easier to avoid or minimise, including: too much cheese, rich food, fizzy drinks late in the day, too much screen time or reading or listening to scary stories, and vigorous exercise or ‘horseplay’ before bed.

People think that it is a myth about cheese too late at night causing nightmares, but there is truth in it. The problem arises because cheese contains tyramine, which is a breakdown product of tyrosine, an amino acid protein. Tyramine acts as a brain chemical stimulant. That is why cheese should be avoided at night in susceptible children.

Children often feel better by talking through their nightmares, so it is worth gentle exploration with them. Going further and drawing the nightmare gives a way of bringing it into the open day, where it can be shown to be less frightening. This would then give him the opportunity of ripping it up, and getting rid of it by throwing it away.

All children are imaginative, and therefore are susceptible to nightmares. And that being the case, you can use their imagination to help. One technique is to imagine the nightmare characters and ‘talk’ to them, laugh with them, make them lose their scariness. And yet another technique is to use the imagination to change the story of the nightmare, to give it a happy ending.