Nightmares Vs. Night Terror : How It Affects Work At Home Parents
As parents, mothers particularly struggle in many ways like raising their children from infancy to grown up children the healthiest way possible. Unknowingly, we are already facing one of the most difficult problems in raising our children and that is dealing with their sleep disturbance at bedtime.
We witnessed it every night and it's terrifying when we do not know how to deal with it from being unaware of the differences between nightmare to night terror as the two types of sleep disturbances should be managed differently. This uncertainty hinder us parents to prevent the attack in either event.
Here we identify the underlying differences between nightmare to night terror. Let this guide on how to tell difference to come to our rescue.
Nightmare
Nightmare by definition is a dream that frightens a sleeping person. I searched at different sites on the internet to find answers as to how nightmares become a sleep disturbance to our children. It is said that if our child wakes up crying with fearful reaction and has trouble getting back to sleep, it is possible that he or she had a nightmare. These circumstances usually take place during the second half of the night, when dreaming is most likely to appear. Nightmares usually occur during the stage of sleep known as rapid eye movement ( REM ). The exact cause of nightmare is not known.
Why Nightmare Happens
1. Children from ages 2 - 6 years old are more prone to have nightmares because this is an age when normal fear develop.
2. It can be triggered when a child listens to a scary story, watching upsetting program or movie.
3. Stressed during the day from playing or at a school activity.
4. Nightmare is common after a traumatic accident, injury, physical or sexual abuse.
5. Sleep deprivation and or Insomnia is associated with higher risk of nightmares.
6. Eating before bedtime can increase metabolism, which can cause the brain to become more active and can possibly lead to nightmares.
7. Medications, some drugs can trigger nightmare, however, most of the said drugs are for adults which have no association for child's nightmare ( anti-depressants, blood pressure medications ).
Night Terror
A night terror is another type of sleep disturbance. A child having a night terror may suddenly wake up from sleep in bed then cries out loud, scream, moan, mumble and thrash about with his eyes wide open without being truly awake. A child is unaware of your presence, a mother or a father's presence upon waking and is not probably responsive to anything you say or do.This scary event last from a few minutes to an hour, and when it's over he or she may abruptly fall back to sleep with no memory of the incident.
Why Night Terror Happens
1. Night terrors are more common in young children from toddlers to grade - schoolers and it often outgrew them by adolescent stage.
2. Fever in children could be a factor that triggers night terror more likely.
3. This is somehow considered hereditary because night terrors are more common in children who have family members that have had the disorder, such as sleepwalking.
4. Sleep deprivation
5. Being overly tired
7. Night terror seems to follow a pattern
8. Caffeine contributes to night terrors and caffeine can be found also in chocolate, food and drink flavored with the high amount of chocolate.
9. Sleep apnea can cause night terror.
10. Medications, some drugs can trigger night terror, however, most of the said drugs are for adults which have no association for child's night terror ( anti-depressants, blood pressure medications ).
What Is The Difference Between Nightmare to Night Terror
1. In a nightmare, a child is fully awake after the incident while in night terror a child will not remember or recall anything, without being truly awake.
2. Night terror happens in child during the first third of the night, during deep non-dream ( non-REM ) sleep, while nightmare happens in child during dream sleep ( REM )
*REM - Rapid Eye Movement
3. In night terror child is unaware of the parent's presence in the room associated with confusion. With nightmares, there is little to no confusion in child's eye and often seeks out a parent to help relieve their fears.
4. It is easy to wake a child who is experiencing a nightmare, but a child experiencing night terror is very difficult to wake.
How These Two Sleep Disturbances Affect Work At Home Parents
Here I enumerate factors that affect work at home parents because of the sleep disturbances their child suffers. Now if we look on the other side a child does not solely suffer from it and obviously, it has the greater impact on our parenting life because we parents are the primary persons affected by our child's sleep problem.
I too, as a mother had been experiencing that dilemma on my second child's sleep disturbance specifically his night terror attack every single night.
1. SLEEP DEPRIVATION is the main adverse effect that parents experience when they encounter either of the two sleep disturbances in their child. Aside from the fact that it gives us heart aches for watching our child suffer from that scary episodes every night, it will also keep us fully awake because we have to assuage them from fear. Comforting them until they will go back to sleep.
2. Prevalence of frequent nightmare or night terror on our child affects working parents at home since they have to GIVE PRIOR ATTENTION to their disturbed child than sitting and working on their respective computer tasks.
3. POOR CONCENTRATION on work because of our divided attention will make us less effective and provide a poor output on computer tasks.
4. DELAYED COMPLETION of a given job orders.
5. We parents are just mere human beings and we are bound to commit mistakes and that is the feeling of IRRITABLENESS. Since lack of sleep and tiredness come together when it happens we tend to get mad easily.
How To Help Our Child From Preventing Nightmares and Night Terror
We do not want to prolong our agony and so as our child's agony too. So to prevent nightmares from happening, we have to make drastic changes to their lifestyle and to eliminate the triggering factors around them.
We have to make sure our child is getting enough sleep. A bedtime routine like a warm bath. Avoid late bedtime snacks especially sweet foods and foods that contain chocolate. Avoid them from watching scary movies, television programs, and pictures.
If our child's nightmare is frequently occurring due to traumatic past events, counseling may be recommended. With the nightmare, It is best to talk to them in a calm manner, giving them assurance that there is nothing to be afraid of. As early as possible teach them how to Pray.
In Night Terror, do not attempt to wake him or her up. Because a child having a night terror really can not be calmed down. If you insist holding him or her up, it will only make him or her wilder. Wait until they settled down that's the time to comfort them.
Maybe our child wants a brighter light when they go to sleep because they are afraid of the dark, we may introduce night lights or overhead lights with dimmer.
I have read on an internet site ( health.time.com ) that too much TV and COMPUTER GAMES appeared to contribute to sleep disturbances.
My Personal Experience From My Child's Night Terror
I have witnessed night terror in my second child Justin Troah, 5 years old now, has been experiencing this scary sleep disturbance for a long period of time already. Hereditary may contribute to his night terror since my mother when she was young used to sleepwalk at night. Justin's diet was quite unhealthy because he used to eat sweet foods like chocolate bars, chocolate wafers every after meal specifically after dinner. He watched movies and played computer games before bedtime. And that I guess the main reason why he suffered night terror.
What We Did To Justin's Night Terror
I have always been praying but I realized, for the longest time, I have not included my child's problem in prayers. That I only realized after sharing this case to my Coach Grace, She gave me words of wisdom, she even offered her time to pray over my child. It was indeed a big help that I unloaded my heavy burdens with Coach Grace I was relieved then. After that, I included my son's night terror to my prayer that ALMIGHTY GOD THE FATHER ABOVE hears me, end Justin's night terror someday in HIS WILL.
Aside from seeking divine providence, we also made huge changes in Justin's lifestyle and diet. I stopped him from eating anything related to chocolates and sweets, though it is inevitable not to eat sweets someday in his case I have to regulate a number of calories intake for now.
I did not allow him to watch scary and violent movies, television programs and pictures. I controlled his playing time of computer games, beyond dinner time is not permitted.
I encouraged him to pee before bedtime. Unloading his bladder from urine will also ease his uncomfortable feeling that might trigger sleep disturbance that leads to a night terror.
I controlled his physical activities like playing with his older brother before bedtime to avoid over tiredness.
The Outcome After Intervention
It was a great success to my child's case. I thought we have to live with it for the rest of his childhood life and wait for him to outgrow his night terror.
It was not easy, It took us quite some time to implement that changes to him. It serves as an eye-opening to us that nightmares and night terror are a correctable case. Now we know how to rescue our child's sleep disturbance may either of the two.
It will be beneficial not just to our child but also to us parents. To be efficient again in working, particularly those who work at home by night shift
Summary
The strategies I mentioned above was successfully implemented to my child's case, and we achieved the result we wanted, however, these do not work to some child's cases. If your child continues to experience with consistent sleep disturbance ( nightmare or night terror ) you may want to seek professional advice like asking your pediatrician, child therapist, sleep therapist to diagnose further your child's condition.
I mentioned earlier Coach Grace who helped me get through my personal problem by lending her ears and heart with great compassion. Coach Grace and I shared the same wavelength in terms of providing our family's financial needs without leaving home. And it is through being a "Work - At - Home Mother".
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Sources:
https://www.babycenter.com/0_night-terrors-why-they-happen-and-what-to-do-about-them_142.bchttps://sleep.org/articles/what-is-a-night-terror/http://www.alaskasleep.com/blog/night-terrors-vs-nightmares-how-to-help-terrified-childhttp://me.askmen.com/diet-eating/1000311/article/night-terrorshttp://www.dreams.co.uk/sleep-matters-club/how-to-talk-to-your-children-about-their-nightmares/http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/27/tv-video-games-at-night-may-cause-sleep-problems-in-kids/