Do babies also have nightmares?

Dreaming is an experience that everyone has. Some dreams are so beautiful that they are worth recalling, but some nightmares make people afraid to fall asleep again, afraid to go back to dream. Does everybody dream?

Let’s start with the physiology of sleep, the process of sleep is actually not a simple two stages of falling asleep and waking up. Sleep can be divided into two main categories, one is called the rapid eye movement phase. During this period, although people are asleep, their eyes are constantly moving. This is also a time for dreaming. The other stage is called the non-REM phase. During this period, in addition to the eyes no longer moving, the heartbeat and breathing are also normal and regular. Within a few hours of sleep, the period of immobility of the eyeballs has been repeated several times. In other words, in the course of such a sleep, I have had several dreams. If you wake up during the non-REM phase, you won’t feel like you’ve dreamed. However, if you are woken up during the REM phase, that is, during the dreaming phase, you may be able to remember the dream clearly.

Little babies also dream

This sleep cycle occurs around the eighth month of the fetus, so it is speculated that even newborn babies should be able to dream, but we don’t know what exactly their little heads are dreaming.

Nightmares can be divided into two categories, one is the real nightmare, also known as the nightmare. This is the stage that occurs during the rapid eye movement phase. One in five school-age children may have had this horrific experience.

When children wake up from their sleep, they will remember the terrible dream they had just had, so they will cry and dare not fall asleep immediately, and often need the comfort and companionship of their parents to fall asleep. As the saying goes, “I think about it during the day, and I dream about it at night.” “It makes sense for this nightmare. Parents don’t have to rush to ask their children what they are afraid of in the middle of the night, so they may want to give them an immediate sense of security and let them relax and fall asleep. The next day, during the day, talk to your child about what they are really afraid of, and find a way to solve the psychological pressure.

Waking up in the middle of the night is not necessarily a dream

Another kind of nightmare is not really a dream. We call it “nocturnal frightening”. Children suddenly sit up in their sleep, scream loudly or talk in their dreams, even breathing, rapid heartbeat, night sweats, and dull eyes, so that they do not answer. After a few minutes the children lay down quietly on their own and fell asleep, and the next morning they were asked that they did not remember anything at all.

This kind of nocturnal chill occurs during the non-REM period, so it is not considered a real dream. About 5 percent of children have this phenomenon, which is related to family inheritance, which means that other people in the family may have experienced similar conditions. The situation is quite frightening, and it is frightening to see the family, not the person. They will be mistaken for a soul flying and taken away for a shock, or they will be mistaken for possession, etc.

In fact, it doesn’t hurt me, most of them only happen once or twice once in a while and rarely reappear. It’s just that it frightens the parents who don’t know why. Don’t worry if parents encounter this phenomenon in their children.

It didn’t do much to comfort the children at the time of the incident, just help them wipe their sweat. It is worth noting that a small number of children may sleepwalk, that is, climb out of bed and go out, once the child sleepwalks, as long as you look after them, don’t let the sleepwalker go out of the door and suffer a collision, this is by no means a soul possession, no big deal.