subject: Children's insomnia: causes and treatments [print this page] Children's insomnia: causes and treatments
Insomnia means not being able to sleep, not being able to get the amount of sleep you need to wake up fresh and rested. Because different people need different amounts of sleep, insomnia is defined by the quality of the sleep and how you feel after you wake up. If you feel tired in the morning and not able to do your obligations, you may be experiencing insomnia, it's not important how many hours did you spend in the bed.
For insomnia it could be said that is not just a sleep disorder, it's more a symptom of another problem that could be different from person to person. It could be related to something as simple as drinking too many coffees or a more complex issue like a medical condition that it's still underlie.
Also there are a number of things that can cause sleeping disorders or nightmares when it comes about your children. Something that is maybe a everyday thing for the parents, it could be a problem for the children. Children don't feel safe if something has changed and this often affects on the dreams.
List of the main reasons for appearing of the child nightmares and insomnia:
Stress can be one of the leading causes for sleep disorders. The children are not enough grown up to understand things like divorce, death in the family, change of a job or start working.
Some kind of disease, especially fever, can be cause of nightmares.
Scary TV shows, even cartoons or scary games. Watching plenty of gun shots and talk about bodies and blood can cause trauma and nightmares at their children.
If the child has a big imagination, his imaginations can still keep working after we're asleep.
Different kinds of fear, for example fear of the dark
Different types of medication.
How can you diffuse these childhood nightmares and insomnia?
Children need to have a regular bedtime so this will establish when bedtime is. If they wake up in the night because of some noise, they may not be able to go back to sleep or it may take some time. Also children like to sleep in their own beds, with own pillow and blanket.
Always go straight in to your children, if they wake up scared, don't wait for them to cry it out because this will make them more frightened and upset. Spend some time calming your child, read him his favourite story.
Ask your children about their dream. Retell them a happy ending, it will be very interesting for them and will take their bad thoughts away.
Be very careful for the TV programs that you or your children are watching. It's the same with the video games.
If your child is afraid of the dark, install a night light in his bedroom.
