Q: Even as a child, I never slept well. My parents told me I was a poor sleeper and a failure-to-thrive baby. I had horrible nightmares and awoke feeling tired and anxious every morning. My issue is that I just do not understand why some doctors persist in the belief that “natural remedies” work best. I can tell you that I have spent most of my life feeling miserable because of doctors who push natural remedies, claiming they work best. Is there a natural remedy that really works, because if there is, I haven’t found it yet but I finally got up sufficient nerve to go to a psychiatrist who helped me and the one saving grace for me has been a caring doctor and medications. Even as a senior, I still remember some of my worst nightmares.
A: Nightmares for children may begin as early as three years of age. They commonly decrease in frequency and intensity after around the age of 10 yet in some individuals, the nightmares continue into a person’s teens, adulthood, and throughout their lives. The sleep disorder is referred to as parasomnia and involves less than pleasant experiences while falling asleep, during sleep, or on awakening.
Nightmares may be vivid, real, and extremely intense. The individual may awaken, feel anxious, afraid, sad, threatened, and falling back asleep may be difficult to impossible. And, the younger a person is when having bad dreams or nightmares, the more frightened he or she may be. The subject matter may have a bearing on the person’s age. A young child may dream of monsters, a scary TV show, or being in the dark, while someone slightly older may dream of not turning in school papers or being unable to find the right school bus to get on to return home. Someone older may have bad dreams or nightmares because of the death of a loved one, stress at work, or may reconstruct a traumatic event that occurred recently. So what causes nightmares or bad dreams to occur? For children, it may be irregular sleep patterns brought on by travel or visiting relatives rather than being at home, sleeping in a strange bed, or moving away from a “safe” house and to another town and attending another school.
Treatment may, in part, depend on the age of the individual having nightmares. With children, talking about the dream and making it clear that it is just that – a dream – must be stressed. The child may need to be comforted, need a favorite stuffed animal to hug, or have a night light left on to be sure the goblins don’t return in the night. You may be able to hang a note on a child’s door telling monsters or bad animals they aren’t allowed in. Or, you can make a lighthearted effort to do a nightly check under the bed and in the closet with a flash light to assure the room is a safe one and no monsters are hiding. And, I can appreciate that older individuals may require the help of a therapist or psychiatrist. As we age, stress, medications including beta blockers, anti-depressants or blood pressure drugs may be to blame. Substance abuse cannot be overlooked, nor can stress or mental health issues that require professional intervention.
No one wants to give a child medication and many older individuals prefer to be treated, whenever possible, with effective natural remedies rather than medication. A warm glass of milk before bedtime may help a child, and a cup of herbal tea or melatonin may help a teen or someone older. The key here is to speak with the pediatrician or primary care physician early on, not after years of agony, in the pattern and determine what intervention is appropriate. When natural remedies fail to provide relief and when a health care provider determines prescription medication is appropriate, that avenue should be considered. Drugs aren’t always the answer. They can have other side effects and we certainly don’t want to substitute one issue with another. So, you may be unhappy with beginning slowly but it may be best in the long run. I’m glad you have someone able to help you.
