subject: Help your children confront sleeping disorders [print this page] Help your children confront sleeping disorders
When we say insomnia, we mean about inability to sleep. Different people need different amounts of sleep so starting from this, insomnia is defined by the quality of your sleep and how you feel after sleeping. It's not so important how many hours do you sleep if you feel tired and exhausted in the morning and if you are not able to do your responsibilities.
Insomnia could be related to something simple as drinking too many coffees during the day or too much stress, but also could be related to some more complex issue like an underlying medical condition, so we could say that it's more precise to think of insomnia as a symptom of another problem that could be different from person to person.
When it comes about your children, there are many things that can cause sleeping disorders or nightmares. Children are so sensitive and they have the possibility to feel if something has changed and this often has affection on their dreams.
The list of the main reasons that cause child nightmares and insomnia is very ample.
Stress is at the top of the list and very often it can be one of the leading causes for sleep problems. Sometimes the parents do some every day things and they are not aware that they affect on their children. Maybe it's about normal stresses or something bigger like divorce, death in the family, new job The children are not enough grown up to understand this things.
Fever or some other kind of illness can be cause of nightmares.
Watching scary TV shows, even cartoons or playing scary games can cause trauma and nightmares at the children. Often the parents are not aware how does these shows affect on them.
There are children with a wide imagination and they can be especially prone. Their imaginations still keep working after we're asleep.
Different kind of fear, especially fear of the dark
Some types of medication.
The good thing is that there are also few things that you can do to diffuse these childhood nightmares and insomnia.
Very important thing is that the children need to have a regular bedtime, waking them up, when you come back home from some function, can also cause insomnia. They may not be able to go back to sleep or it may take some time.
Always go straight in to your children. Don't wait for your children to cry out, if they wake up frightened, this will only make them more frightened and upset. Spend some time calming them, read them their favourite story.
Talk with your children about their dreams, help them inventing happy ending to the dream - it will be very interesting for them and will take their bad thoughts away.
Be careful about the TV programs that you or your children are watching. It's the same with the video games.
You could install a night light in your child bedroom if he is afraid of the dark. Use low wattage lights that cast a reassuring glow and are pretty safe.
