NIGHTMARE REMEDIES: HELPING YOUR CHILD TAME THE DEMONS.

Children suffer more frequent BAD DREAMS than their extended family members and, prior to the age of six, nightmares are especially common. As soon as your child can speak, he or she may wake with a one or two word tale of a wolf or ghost. There is even speculation among specialists in child development that the sleep disturbances of infants in the first year of life may be wordless nightmares.  Nightmares lessen as children grow older, instigate their fears, and gain more power over their world. A long-term study of 252 children showed that five to ten percent of seven- and eight-year-old children had nightmares once a week. By the time children in the study were between eleven and fourteen, upsetting dreams were infrequent, especially for boys.