You said that you were concerned about your child's sleep problems. You said that your child wakes up at night
(or from a nap) after having a very scary dream. You also said your child can usually tell you about the dream.
S/he may have dreams about:
Something bad happening to him/her
Something bad happening to a person s/he loves
Being chased
Being attacked
Getting hurt
Making a mistake
Being embarrassed in front of others
You said that when your child wakes up from the dream s/he knows who you are. S/he is also aware of what is going
on around him/her.
Your child probably has these dreams in early morning hours. Your child may be afraid after waking up and find it
hard to go back to sleep. Some children are very upset by these dreams. They may be irritable the next day because
they couldn't go back to sleep. You may be upset, too. You said that these nightmares are causing problems for your
child at home, preschool/daycare/school, or other places. Your child's waking at night may be making it hard for you
to get through your day. Some children with these types of problems have Nightmare Disorder.
Your child may have more than one nightmare a night. It is probably about the same thing. These dreams may be making
hard for your child to get enough sleep at night. Your child may also have some of following problems if s/he is not
getting enough sleep:
feeling very tired during the day
has a hard time focusing; hard to stay on task
feeling sad or blue
worries a lot
is irritable
As many 50% of young children have dreams that are bad enough to worry their parents. Up to 50% of adults have an
occasional nightmare. Not much is known about how many children actually have Nightmare Disorder.
Nightmares often start between ages 3 and 6 years. These bad dreams often start after a child goes through something
very upsetting. Tell your doctor if this is true for your child. Most children who have a nightmare problem outgrow
it. For some children, bad dreams may keep happening when they are adults.
Adapted in part from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) (1994) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual for Primary Care (DSM-PC) (1996).
