Nightmares vs. Night Terrors: Everything Parents Need to Know About Their Kid's Sleep

Parentally tormented, nightmares for our little ones can be through crying, fear, and needing comfort; thus, inevitable in sleepless nights for kids and parents. But what if I told you that there's something even more disturbing on the list of nightmares that so many parents barely know? That is night terror, and it is important to make a difference between nightmare and night terrors for the qualitative sleep of your child.

In this blog, we will go over the main differences between nightmare and night terror disorders, the reasons it is great to recognize the signs, and how you can help your child get the best sleep possible for his health and development, and your peace of mind.

1. What are Nightmares?

Nightmare is a very real, scary dream that usually starts with your child asleep and then becomes awake, often frightened and upset. Bad dreams generally happen during the stage of REM sleep when most of the dreaming occurs and toward the latter part of the night.

Key Features of Nightmares:

• Emotional Distress: Nightmares involve feeling frightened, anxious, or sad; children often wake up and want to be comforted.
• Memory of the dream: Children can usually recall what scared them in the nightmare the next morning.
• Need for reassurance: After having a nightmare, the child normally seeks the comfort of parents, reassurance for safety, and assistance in going back to sleep.

While nightmares can make sleeping a miserable experience for the child, they are usually nothing more than that, but it can be how you handle the situation that will decide your child's ability to overcome his fears and settle back to sleep.

2. What is a Night Terror?

On the other hand, sleep terrors are much rarer and far more upsetting than nightmares. Sleep terrors strike during periods of non-REM sleep-sometimes in the very deepest stages of sleep-usually during the first third of the night. What is still scarier with night terrors is that your child doesn't have to remember what happened the next day-a concealed sleep disorder.

Key Features of Sleep Terrors Include:

• Partial arousal: The child, while in deep sleep, may partially wake up and even scream as if awake, sit up, thrash about.
• No memory of the event: Unlike nightmares, the child does not remember what happened that frightened them during the night terror.
• Unconsoled alarm: A child in the midst of a night terror may act as though they hadn't heard a word-as if trying to reassure him or her-only staring through as if not alert and awake at all.
• Self-limiting event: Events of night terrors usually last from several minutes up to half an hour and most often stop suddenly: a child calms down and falls asleep without ever waking up.

3. How to Deal with Nightmares

When it is an actual nightmare, reassurance on the part of the parent is instinctive, but the response can make all the difference in the world over time. It's very tempting to comfort your child by inviting him into your bed or by making some sort of alteration in his sleep environment; reassuring him without those sorts of accommodations is actually better, so dependence doesn't become part of the plan.

How to Handle Nightmares:

• Stay calm: Many times, it is only your presence at the bedside and some words of assurance that make your child feel secure in his bed.
• Avoid changing the sleep environment: Giving your child anything he or she does not normally have, such as a new toy or sleeping in your bed, is creating a sleep association and will depend on those changes to fall back asleep.
• Reassure and return to bed: Once comforted, return your child to his or her own bed to continue sleeping so that he or she can become confident in his or her sleep.

Helping your child through nightmares without sabotaging a good sleep environment will result eventually in better sleep for your child, and you.

4. Coping Strategies for Sleep Terrors

Night terrors, though distressing for anyone who happens to witness an attack, must be treated decidedly differently from nightmares. Since your child is technically not awake during a night terror, this can often exacerbate the situation substantially as it heightens their confusion.

How to Manage Sleep Terrors:

• Do Not Interfere: Although difficult, do not try to wake up your child because your child is experiencing a night terror. This only confuses the child and may exacerbate the incident.
• Observe the episode: Keep an eye on your child's safety but let the episode pass. Most of the time they will go back to sleep.
• Calm environment: Decrease the overall stress in the house, in coordination with a sleep schedule, to reduce the chance of sleep terrors.

Fortunately, night terrors disappear with the growing age of the child, though education about reaction reduces harm in the child's quality of sleep and general emotional well-being.

5. The Sleep Nightmare and the Night Terrors

Both nightmares and night terrors disrupt your child's sleep, but the aftereffects of each tend to be quite different. Nightmares may promote sleep-avoidant behaviors out of fear, while night terrors simply produce hidden sleep disruptions often overlooked by parents. Kids prone to frequent night terrors may become exhausted, irritable, ill more often, or have problems concentrating or learning-and never understand why.

These sleep disorders must, therefore, be diagnosed and treated for the overall health and development of your child.

6. Sleep and Your Child: A Guide for Parents

One of the best things you can do for your child's health and well-being is to make sure he or she gets deep, corrective rest every night. Understand how nightmares differ from night terrors, and you will be ready for either eventuality and know how to comfort your child through his sleeping problems.

A Few Important Takeaways:

• Nightmares: Require comfort and reassurance but without dramatically altering the sleep environment.
• Night terrors: Must be watched by parents but not interfered with.

Both are less likely to occur with deep-seated patterns of sleep combined with a quiet environment. If your child has a sleep problem, wakes up at night, or any other sleep-related issue that he may have, I will encourage you to get my free copy since it contains most of the realistic approaches that can help improve your child's sleep and will reduce nightmares or night terrors.

Conclusion: Understanding Nightmares and Night Terrors

Knowing the difference between nightmares and night terrors is one stepping stone toward ensuring that your child gets the rest he deserves. It certainly will make all the difference in the world to your little one-safe, secure, and well-rested-once you handle each situation correctly. Further into going ahead and guiding your child in his sleep journey, together you may look forward to sleeping far more restfully and uninterruptedly.

Have you ever had to deal with nightmares or night terrors with your child? Share in the comments below, and don't forget to download the free ebook for more sleep tips!