Anxious night sleep for a baby: recommendations from Dr. Komarovsky

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Lyudmila Sergeevna Sokolova Pediatrician of the highest category

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Article last updated: 05/25/2019

Most parents are faced with the problem of poor children's sleep. It is especially difficult for them at night. Why is this happening? In the first year of life, babies are often worried about hunger, abdominal pain, discomfort from teething, the desire to feel their mother’s warmth nearby, and much more. Often the reason why a baby does not sleep well is the lack of a daily routine.

Restless sleep up to six months

The quality and duration of children’s rest directly depends on the maturation of their nervous system. For example, for newborns whose brains are actively developing, shallow sleep predominates. Compared to deep, it takes up 80%.

Every day this ratio will change in favor of sound sleep and by 3 years the REM (superficial) stage will be only 30%. Thus, frequent waking up is not at all a problem for an infant, but a physiological feature necessary for the development of the nervous system.

A more significant factor is sleep duration. Exact norms in numbers can be found in the article “How much time do newborns spend sleeping.” Parents of infants should worry if their baby sleeps less than 14 hours per day. In addition to neurological problems, this occurs for the following reasons:

• is he hot or cold;
• the baby is hungry - this is especially true for infants, since “artificial babies” eat less often;
• colic begins;
• nasal breathing is impaired.

Newborns often awaken themselves with spontaneous movements of their arms and legs. Therefore, if your one-month-old baby sleeps restlessly, try swaddling him.

Newborn shudders in his sleep: 7 possible reasons, 28 doctor’s recommendations for parents

Article last updated: 04/25/2018

The common phrase “sleeps like a baby” conjures up images of a peacefully sleeping newborn for many parents. However, babies twitch, make gurgling sounds, stop breathing, move their arms and scream in their sleep. This behavior is normal, and the twitching is most likely a result of REM sleep or the spontaneous Moro reflex.

A twitch is a sudden, involuntary movement that occurs at any time, including when a child is deeply asleep.

REM sleep phase

What happens if a newborn baby starts in his sleep? Babies dream just like adults, which means they also experience REM, or rapid eye movement, sleep during their dream cycle.

During REM sleep, the newborn's face will tremble. He will also likely breathe irregularly, snort, whimper, and flail his arms and legs. Don't worry, REM sleep gets shorter as babies get older.

According to research, the order will change in about 2 to 3 months. As your baby gets older, he will go through other stages of sleep before entering REM sleep. As the child gets older, the amount of REM sleep decreases and sleep becomes restful. By age 3, children spend a third of the night in slow-wave sleep.

The reason for consultation with a specialist is a situation when the baby wakes up more than 10 times and looks scared.

The Moro reflex is another reason why newborns startle in their sleep. Babies are born with a set of reflexes, but this is the most alarming manifestation for new parents. When a baby starts in his sleep or feels like he is falling, he will throw his arms out to the side with a sudden jerk and perhaps scream.

Like many other reflexes, the Moro reflex is a built-in survival mechanism designed to protect a vulnerable newborn. And this is a primitive attempt to restore a noticeable loss of balance. Again, don't worry if you see your baby suddenly startling and throwing up his arms while sleeping.

Pain

With colic or teething, the child twitches in his sleep due to periodic pain.

Noise

This is another factor why a newborn twitches in his sleep. A loud sound can scare and wake up a baby.

But you don’t need to maintain absolute silence for your baby to sleep. There are sounds that are familiar to a baby - rustling sounds, the hum of a washing machine, the quiet voice of mom or dad, the sound of water, and others.

Sometimes there is a sharp sound of a siren or the sound of a falling object coming from the street. Such a noise is unusual and new for the baby, because of this the baby shudders sharply. Even after some time, when the fear seems to be forgotten, the child shudders in his sleep due to excitement of the nervous system.

Temperature

During sleep, the baby twitches and tosses and turns when he feels stuffy. Stuffy or musty air in the bedroom is irritating to the baby and causes discomfort.

Uncomfortable position

It is likely that the baby is not comfortable sleeping in the position in which his parents put him. The baby shudders and begins to spin around in search of a comfortable position.

Feeling insecure

Some pediatric doctors have given the name “4th trimester of pregnancy” to the first three-month stage of a baby’s life and advise recreating conditions for the baby that maximally imitate those in the womb. This will give the baby a feeling of protection and deep sleep.

The sleep jerking described above is normal and does not require treatment.

However, there are times when a child shudders in his sleep due to various diseases.

Why does the child flinch? Pathological causes

Convulsive rhythmic movements of the baby that continue throughout sleep, combined with screaming and crying, are signs of health problems. Parents who discover these manifestations should take their baby to the doctor as soon as possible.

1. Metabolic disorder. The baby's central nervous system is gradually stabilizing, so it is still difficult for his body to carry out certain metabolic processes.
   Remember that a possible discrepancy between the amount of food and the child’s physical activity leads to metabolic disorders, which causes a shortage or, conversely, an excess of certain elements. All this leads to diseases, the symptoms of which are cramps and muscle spasms. This could be spasmophilia or anemia.
2. Lack of calcium. When a baby does not eat properly and the body lacks calcium and vitamin D, rickets develops, a disease that causes changes in skeletal structures. Externally, the body seems to be distorted. Problems with the functioning of the nervous system may occur.
3. High intracranial pressure. Sleep disturbance is one of the symptoms of increased intracranial pressure. This pathology can occur as a result of trauma at birth. Brain cancer may also be the cause.
4. Syndrome of increased neuro-reflex excitability (HRNRS) is the result of a disruption of the central nervous system. For this reason, the infant often shudders. This diagnosis is most often made to children with birth trauma.

If the disease is not detected in a timely manner, this will lead to inattention, restlessness, and sloppiness in the child in the future. Memory lapses are also possible.

• Ventilate the bedroom every day before putting your baby to bed;
• even in severe frost in the nursery, open the window for 5 - 10 minutes;
• Install a thermometer in the bedroom and monitor the temperature. It should not exceed 18-21° C;
• do not wrap the baby up. Dress your child in high-quality, warm pajamas made from natural fabric, rather than covering him with several blankets;
• the crib must be placed as far as possible from the radiator and heaters;
• experiment by placing the baby on its side or back to choose the most comfortable position;
• Change the baby's sleeping position every three hours if he has not done this himself. For example, turn your head in the other direction;
• remove everything unnecessary from the bed;
• dose activity while awake. 1.5 - 2 hours before going to bed, proceed to quiet activities;
• Give your baby a relaxing bath before bed;
• give a soft massage. This will help the child relax;
• In the children's bedroom, when going to bed, eliminate extraneous movements and loud conversations. A quiet environment will help the baby fall asleep faster;
• swaddling your baby at night will recreate his intrauterine sensations;
• You can use a special zippered cover. In it, the baby will not twitch his arms and will not frighten himself.

Weak and short-term twitching at night is not dangerous; this is considered normal behavior for infants. Experts argue that the baby’s brain structures are still immature and excitation mechanisms predominate over inhibitory reactions. Therefore, parents should not panic. They need to provide the most comfortable conditions for the baby to sleep soundly.

If the baby’s sleep anxiety persists even after providing comfortable conditions - the child sleeps poorly and constantly wakes up, you should consult a doctor. If there is a disease, the necessary measures will be prescribed.

Thus, infants may have prolonged dreams and exhibit bizarre reflexes during sleep. Babies make a lot of strange noises while they sleep. They will gurgle, pant rapidly, stop breathing for as long as 10 seconds, whimper, scream, whistle, and make rattling noises if their nose is blocked. This is completely normal.

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Source: https://kroha.info/health/novorozhdennyj-vzdragivaet-vo-sne

Sleep problems from 6 months to a year

By six months, the baby’s motor activity increases: he learns to sit, crawl, and already knows how to manipulate objects. A large number of new impressions leads to overstimulation, he cannot sleep for a long time or completely misses one of the daytime rests.

New skills haunt him even at night. The baby sleeps restlessly, and when he wakes up, he sits down in the crib or jumps up on his legs (by 8 months).

In the second half of the year, children are introduced to their first complementary foods. Kids are not always happy about new food, and it is sometimes poorly digested. This leads to a lack of nutrients received during the day, which is why the little one sleeps restlessly at night, waking up more often than usual to feed. The wrong yogurt or puree can cause allergic reactions and digestive problems. Then a sleepless night is guaranteed for the whole family!

The most popular reason for restless sleep at night is teething. The pain especially bothers the baby in the dark, causing him to cry and be capricious for a long time.

Rapid growth of teeth and bones in children under 1 year of age leads to calcium deficiency in the body. As a result, increased excitability appears, from which the child wakes up at night.

Komarovsky recommends monitoring the amount of mineral in the body, and in case of deficiency, giving the baby 1 tablet of calcium gluconate daily. Do not forget also that its absorption occurs only with vitamin D.

Bad sleep after a year

A one-year-old baby sleeps restlessly at night for almost the same reasons as before: an unbalanced diet, lack of calcium, teething. But the duration of sleep is significantly reduced.

Every year, children switch to one day of rest. If the baby begins to go to bed later in the evening, constantly wakes up and “spins” in the crib, and gets up in the morning at the usual time, then it’s time to eliminate the second day’s rest.

You can learn how to do this from the article “How much do one-year-old children sleep, and when is it time to sound the alarm.”

Another turning point at this age is weaning off nightly “meals.” From a physiological point of view, Komarovsky recalls, an infant is ready to give up snacks at night as early as 6 months. However, most mothers resolve this issue at 1-1.5 years, receiving another reason for nighttime whims.

In this case, a well-known pediatrician advises feeding the baby high-calorie milk and cereal porridge before bedtime, so that the child remains full longer, and offering only water at night.

What if a newborn baby doesn't sleep well during the day?

Reasons why newborn babies do not sleep well during the day:

1. Stomach ache . A baby and even a 3-month-old baby can face this problem. Babies suffer from abdominal cramps because the intestinal microflora takes several years to form. The digestion process is unstable, so a large amount of gas accumulates in the small tummy. The main sign is that the baby farts often and a lot, strains, groans, screams sharply, spins and twitches.
2. Hunger . Another most common reason for lack of sleep in infants is constant hunger. Some new mothers do not produce enough breast milk. You can contact a specialist to establish lactation or supplement your baby with formula. The first week is the most difficult for him. Some children fall asleep only in the morning and often cry in the evening and at night.
3. Thirst . If the mother's milk is sweetish or excessively fatty, many babies become thirsty. You can offer the baby some purified boiled water.
4. Discomfort . An infant has delicate skin that reacts sharply to external stimuli. They often develop atopic dermatitis, erythema and other pathologies. Constant or severe itching cannot allow the baby to sleep peacefully, so they become restless. This problem can also appear at the age of two, after the first vaccination in kindergarten.
5. Full diaper . Babies may react to a full diaper. For this reason, they do not fall asleep until their mother replaces him.
6. Overexcitement . Excessively active play or skipping one nap during the day can cause babies to have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. A one-year-old baby is more active, but it is important for parents to monitor his routine. It is necessary to take care of regular walks in the fresh air, bathing in warm water with chamomile. To quench your thirst, you can give tea with fennel or chamomile, which is sold at the pharmacy.

It is important to observe the baby and determine the cause of his restless sleep. A four-, five- and six-month-old baby should spend more time outside than a newborn baby.

Poor sleep at 2 years old

Komarovsky does not see anything terrible in the fact that a child does not sleep well at night in the first two years and attributes this to the norm rather than to a violation. As people say, “it will outgrow.”

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Teeth and digestive problems are behind us; if a child at this age is sick, he himself will tell you where it hurts. Now the reasons for waking up at night lie not at all in physiological, but in psychological discomfort. For example, if a child experiences stress when attending kindergarten. Or there is an unfavorable psychological situation in the family: parents swear, speak in a raised voice, and do not pay attention to the baby.

At two years old, children already have a well-developed imagination. Often, after reading a fairy tale or watching a cartoon, fears and nightmares may appear.

What to do? The doctor recommends limiting watching TV before bed, avoiding too noisy games and not indulging in sweets. Then both the little one and the parents will sleep peacefully all night.

Startling in a dream: when parental negligence can harm the baby

For us, adults, there are many different factors on the basis of which a conclusion is made about the state of health of an infant. Sleep is one of the important aspects. If a child twitches in his sleep, this is not always an alarming sign for parents.

Causes of a child's flinching

Having said that every person shudders in a dream can be said with great confidence. Month-old babies twitch when falling asleep or during sleep many times more often than adults. There are a number of physiological features to explain. The famous doctor E. Komarovsky believes that occasional twitching is normal for young children.

Almost always, night shudders do not cause any harm and do not indicate existing risks to the body. But you need to be on alert; regular repetitions may indicate existing pathologies. That is why, if you notice that your child is shuddering, take a closer look and see if this is repeated while awake.

• The chesty little one shudders due to the temperature. If you notice that your child is twitching in his sleep, you need to measure his temperature. After all, such a condition may indicate heat. A high temperature accompanies both a common cold and serious abnormalities, for example, convulsive syndrome, which is accompanied by a rapid increase in temperature to life-threatening levels. The younger you are, the more serious the complications can be.
• Tummy pain, bloating or cramps. The baby is born not yet mature and his body develops after birth. The gastrointestinal system is mainly active. During the process of growth, various unpleasant sensations are possible, from which the baby twitches.
• Teeth are being cut. The process of teeth appearing is very painful for a baby. And even in his sleep he may feel discomfort causing twitching.
• Immaturity of the nervous system. A newborn has increased excitability and this affects sleep. Even older children can get twitchy at night from too much activity during the daytime hours.
• External stimuli. It is completely normal for a month-old baby to twitch when exposed to loud noises or other stimuli. A baby's sleep is very sensitive and he actively reacts to everything that happens. If restless sleep and tremors become regular, you should seek help from a doctor.

We shudder as we fall asleep

For all people, dreams consist of transitional phrases. They replace each other, and such changes are repeated several times during sleep. In a child who has only lived for a month, such changes occur more often.

During such transitions, a month-old baby may not only shudder, but also wake up. And the reason is not poor health, but normal changes in sleep phases.

Dr. Komarovsky advises swaddling babies well, this will make sleep more comfortable.

How to Make Your Bedtime Relaxing

This means that special conditions are necessary for the baby to fall asleep calmly and for his sleep to be healthy. The main thing is proper child care that is appropriate for the age group. Regular feeding, monitoring the condition, good emotions for the day, a clear routine, and a quiet evening - all this directly affects the quality of sleep of a small child.

Why these factors?

The baby should go to bed with a feeling of comfort and the absence of moral and physical excitement, but otherwise you need to be prepared for constant shuddering. The room in which you put your small child to sleep should also not be an ordinary bedroom.

It is necessary to maintain a constant temperature, regularly ventilate and keep the air fresh, the color scheme should be calm, and the lighting should be dim. Also, many babies are very excited by evening bathing, so the procedure should be carried out in the morning.

Sleep optimization according to Komarovsky

Reflecting on the topic of poor sleep, a famous pediatrician is sure that most often the problem lies not in children, but in their parents. It is because of pedagogical errors and poor sleep hygiene that moms and dads themselves pay the price at night. What does the doctor mean?

Set your priorities

In order for a family to remain physiologically and mentally healthy, all its members need a good night's rest. Only well-rested parents can give their child and each other love, and this is most important for his development.

Follow the regime

It is not necessary to jump up with your baby at 6 am and run for a walk. Adjust your baby’s daily routine to suit yours, and then carry it out. If the family is used to going to bed at 11 and getting up by 9, also teach the baby.

How and with whom to sleep

Today, many parents choose to co-sleep with their baby. Komarovsky admits this decision, but does not believe that sleeping with his parents is beneficial for the baby.

The doctor is considering two options. In the first case, the child sleeps in his own crib, which is located in the parent's bedroom. After a year, the pediatrician recommends putting it in the nursery, but allows adults under 3 years of age to be in the room.

Control the amount of rest

At every age stage, children have daily sleep needs. For example, at 6 months it is 14.5 hours, and at 2 years only 13. If the baby rests too much during the day, it is not surprising that he wakes up at night.

Don’t be afraid to wake up your little one, advises Komarovsky! In his responses to letters to readers, the doctor sometimes even recommends giving up daytime sleep altogether if it interferes with nighttime rest.

Optimize feedings

What prevents mothers from getting enough sleep during the first 1-1.5 years of motherhood? Night feedings! Komarovsky speaks categorically about them.

It is recommended that newborns be put to the breast on demand; at 4 months it is possible once. After six months, children do not need night feedings. The pediatrician is sure that from this age you need to completely stop snacking, despite the baby’s dissatisfaction. He urges not to teach him to eat at every “squeak”, because overfeeding is the main cause of digestive problems.

The more parents support rocking, sucking and other ways of showing attention, the more often the baby requires it. To prevent a sleeping baby from being awakened by hunger, Komarovsky suggests feeding the baby something more satisfying before going to bed.

Activity during the day

For healthy sleep and proper development, children need to move and walk a lot. At night, limit emotional stress and adhere to your own bedtime ritual.

Air in the nursery

“Cool, damp air” - this phrase is repeated by the TV presenter in almost every program, regardless of its topic. However, not all parents follow this rule.

18-20 degrees and at least 50% humidity - the doctor recommends not skimping on a thermometer and a humidifier for the children's bedroom and strictly monitoring the performance of these devices. Ventilate the room well before going to bed. From birth, teach your baby to sleep with the window open at any time of the year.

Bathing

Long water treatments in a spacious parent bath are good for health and help you sleep soundly. “Being pretty tired and having eaten a lot, any little one sleeps soundly,” the pediatrician is sure.

The right bed

You can learn more about what a baby’s sleeping place should be like in the article “With or without a pillow - how should a small child sleep?”

Don't skimp on diapers

Today you don’t have to get up several times in the middle of the night to change diapers. But only a high-quality diaper can preserve children’s and parents’ sleep, so if you want to get enough sleep, buy products only from trusted manufacturers.

The time when babies wake up in the middle of the night passes very quickly. Someone adheres to strict upbringing and does not allow the toddler to exhaust him from night to night. Others agree to rocking and feeding, as long as the child does not cry. But in the end, all these “costs” of motherhood are remembered with a smile and sadness, because children are small only once.

Initial causes of sleep disturbances and nightmares in children

Authors : Zakharov A. I.

Most often, nightmares (hereinafter referred to as CS) occur in children whose nighttime sleep has certain deviations. Without them, nightmares are also possible if the child is impressionable, the circumstances, the environment are traumatic, or there is any painful disorder. We were able to find out the general prevalence of sleep disorders in children through a survey of 1,466 parents at two pediatric clinic sites. The figures below are based on the opinions of parents who report visible sleep disturbances, when in fact there are many more of them.

Every third child from 1 to 15 years old falls asleep poorly, usually for a long time, without differences by gender. In preschool age, difficulties in falling asleep are significantly more common than in school age, which is associated with more pronounced signs of neuropathy and organic disorders of the central nervous system in preschoolers. Girls and boys fall asleep the worst when they are five years old. In girls, this coincides with an increase in the CS, that is, nighttime restlessness in girls is more reflected in falling asleep than in boys, or, which is the same thing, girls are more sensitive at this age to what they dream at night. Every third child also sleeps restlessly (talks, wakes up, tosses and turns), be it a girl (somewhat more often) or a boy.

Let us note (according to computer analysis) reliable relationships between disturbed sleep and the characteristics of pregnancy and childbirth, and the psychological state of the mother. Using them, you can reliably predict what sleep disturbances await children.

Let's start with superficial sleep, when even at the slightest noise the child immediately loses sleep, and at best he plays, at worst he screams and cries. It turned out that shallow sleep is associated with worries (emotional stress) of the mother during pregnancy. The unrest itself stems, in this case, from the mother’s lack of confidence in the strength of the marriage and the presence of fear of childbirth. Keeping yourself in constant tension and fear, as we see, is not in vain. The fetus is tense, restless and cannot sleep properly while still in the womb. Increased maternal fatigue during pregnancy, no matter what the reasons, leads to the same results.

Let us remember: with the most common neurosis - neurasthenia - sleep is most often disturbed. You can’t get enough sleep, sleep doesn’t bring you joy, it’s filled with all sorts of worries and anxieties. You feel even more tired during the day, your sleep gets worse - a vicious circle arises with inevitable irritability and mood disorders. What can we say about the overstrain of neuropsychic forces during pregnancy, when the load is already taking its toll, and endurance may not naturally be the highest. Accordingly, the fetal sleep biorhythm is upset, and often for a long time.

Any pediatrician will confirm another pattern we have established: restless, shallow sleep is most typical for children born prematurely. Their sleep is immature, intermittent, and day and night change places. And here everything can be settled if everything is calm at home and the mother is loving, and not always dissatisfied with the child who appeared “early of time,” and she herself is too nervous. The child's restless sleep also brings constant torment to young parents. Everything doesn’t suit him, he can’t find a place for himself, he rushes about in his sleep, throws off the blanket, babbles something, tries to fall out of bed. And... the more the child behaves in this way, the more worried and tense the parents become, invisibly conveying their excitement and only aggravating the child’s sleep problems.

You need to worry, but not excessively, and don’t dramatize your children’s nightly problems. This will not make them sleep better. But it’s worth stroking the sufferer, whispering friendly words, and calming down yourself. Parents were usually surprised when they saw how I, as a pediatrician, calmed the most hopelessly crying children. He took the children in his arms and walked around, rocking them slightly, talking gently and soothingly - for the mother, naturally. And she studied, since she was young and programmed by the rules written in another country.

How can one not remember the grandmother from the village: without any books or instructions, she rocked the cradle with one hand, cooked porridge with the other, and even sang a song. And in similar cases (in the 60s) I did not see nervous sleep disturbances in those who no longer crawled, but walked. In the village, new life is a sacred thing. The family was not supposed to worry about a newborn, and they were not supposed to invite loitering people, so that they wouldn’t “jinx it.” Folk wisdom and instincts spoke about this. On the physical side, of course, there were flaws - and they worked until the last minute, and gave birth in the field, but to “poison” a child, to prevent him from being born or to give him to strangers - this happened extremely rarely. Pregnancy as a message from God was perceived as something natural, natural, bestowed by fate.

Now there is continuous stress before birth, among which in the first place is a lack of confidence in the strength of the marriage, conflicts with the husband, other worries, poor health and irritability, the threat of miscarriage and emotional shock during childbirth from painful contractions. We ourselves can eliminate all these causes of restless sleep in children if we are more mature at the time of motherhood and more mentally protected.

Crying in a dream in children of the first years of life does not allow parents to sleep peacefully, feeling clearly “out of place.” It affects not only emotional stress during pregnancy (anxiety, poor health and increased fatigue), but also various deviations during pregnancy and childbirth (toxicosis of the first half of pregnancy, premature birth, excessively rapid or prolonged, premature release of water, entanglement of the newborn’s neck with the umbilical cord) . Swaddling is the same routine procedure as feeding. However, some children clearly calm down, being tightly swaddled, others, on the contrary, struggle to free themselves, and only when fairly tired from the abundance of movements do they calm down and fall asleep. The temperament is already visible here.

Children with a choleric temperament find it more difficult to tolerate any constraint and are just waiting to be freed; phlegmatic people prefer to be wrapped up according to all the rules. And sanguine people, that’s why they are sanguine, so as not to make special demands: not very tight and not very loose - it will be just right. But even outside of temperament, sometimes we see how a child falls asleep only tightly swaddled. Such addictions are associated with the presence of a threat of miscarriage during pregnancy and extremely painful contractions during childbirth. The same factors are involved in the origin of restless sleep in children, since sleep is in a certain way analogous to intrauterine existence, when the child is left alone, in the dark and in a confined space. In addition, negative emotional reactions were recorded in the fetus from the ninth week of life - at the standard age of artificial termination of pregnancy or abortion.

When there is a threat of miscarriage, the appearance of emotional shock cannot be ruled out, which, together with the mother’s similar stress, leads to the release of a large amount of anxiety hormones into the blood. This dose is in some cases enough to disrupt sleep in the coming months and years. A completed miscarriage means the inevitable death of the fetus, but the threat of miscarriage also leads to disruption of the placental circulation and intrauterine hypoxia (insufficient oxygen supply to the fetal brain). The same applies to excessively intense, painful contractions of the muscles of the uterus during the opening of its cervix. The threat of death, physical destruction reflexively turns on the instinct of self-preservation in the fetus in the form of a defensive reaction of motor anxiety and fear.

After birth, an excessively open space, the absence of a cradle, crib, as well as clothing, gives rise to an unaccountable feeling of anxiety, usually in the form of crying, less often - screaming and difficulty falling asleep. Now it is clear why tight swaddling calms children who have suffered the threat of miscarriage and painful contractions of the mother during childbirth. They are again, as it were, in the womb, but in safe conditions of existence. The main thing is that if there was any threat of premature birth, swaddling is necessary, reproducing the conditions of safe intrauterine life.

With organic damage to the brain from asphyxia, birth trauma, the sensitivity of the skin painfully increases, there are tremors of individual parts of the face or convulsions, tension, hypertonicity of the limbs and torso. Then tight swaddling, on the contrary, will increase the child’s anxiety and crying; The best option would be loose swaddling or more frequent positioning of the baby fully open.

In general, 10% of boys and 15% of girls are susceptible, according to their parents, to frequent night terrors. Much more accurate, but not absolute due to repression and amnesia of night fear, we obtain data from direct, morning questioning of children about what they saw at night, including nightmares. Over the course of ten days, 79 children from 3 to 7 years old in kindergartens were interviewed in a similar way. It turned out that during this time, 37% of children (at least every third) had a nightmare, 18% (almost every fifth) saw it repeatedly, sometimes in serials, almost every night. Thus, parents state only the “tip of the iceberg.”

In case of nervous disorders, as shown by an additional survey of children in the speech therapy group of the kindergarten, the CS is even greater. Regardless of the state of the nervous system, the number of CS in preschool age, according to a survey of children, significantly increases from 3 to 7 years, marking an increasing awareness of the problems of life and death, the beginning and end of one’s life. We have repeatedly been convinced of the existence of a relationship between the fear of nightmares and their actual presence in children. Moreover, such fear unmistakably indicated the existence of a CS, even if the child could not remember what exactly it was. As already noted, the question was formulated as follows: “Are you afraid of bad dreams or not?”

Despite the possibility of reflecting the past traumatic experience of dreams in the answer, in most cases the answer reflected the current, that is, the last experience of perception of terrible dreams. A total of 2,135 children and adolescents aged 3 to 16 years were surveyed. The survey data is shown in the table.

Table. Age distribution of fears of nightmares (FS)

From the table we see that the maximum values ​​of fears of CS in boys are observed at 6 years old, in girls - at 5, 6 years old and in preschoolers - at 7 years old (the survey was conducted in the late 70s). This is far from accidental, since it is in older preschool age that the fear of death is most actively represented. It is precisely this fear that is present in children’s nightmares, once again emphasizing the underlying instinct of self-preservation, which is more pronounced in girls.

A unique comparison can be made among preschoolers and schoolchildren aged 7 years. It seems that the age is the same, but the tendency towards a decrease in fears of CS is noticeable among first-graders. The explanation is similar to the decrease in the average score of all fears at school age, due to the new, socially significant position of the student. This is a kind of left-hemisphere shift in the child’s consciousness, when the right-hemisphere, spontaneous, intuitive type of response (which includes fears) must give way to the rational perception of left-hemisphere school information. We see that the number of fears of CS is significantly greater in preschool age for both boys and girls. In turn, fears of CS (like all fears in general) are significantly more often observed in girls, reflecting a naturally more pronounced instinct of self-preservation. It was previously noted that the most active in relation to all fears is the senior preschool age. The fear of CS is no exception, which is closely related (according to computer factor analysis) with fears of attack, illness (infection), death (oneself and parents), animals (wolf, bear, dogs, spiders, snakes), elements (storm , hurricane, flood, earthquake), as well as fears of depth, fire, fire and war. Based on all these fears, one can almost unmistakably assume the presence of nightmares and, accordingly, fear of them.

It is interesting to compare the fear of CS in children from the so-called normal population and children suffering from neurotic personality disorders. People with neuroses have more fears of CS than most of their peers who are healthy. This is not surprising, given the increased anxiety, emotional vulnerability, instability of mood, and lack of self-confidence, self-confidence, and capabilities that are characteristic of neuroses. What also attracts attention is the defenselessness of children, their inability to withstand danger; even a small child can offend them, as one mother said.

Children with fear neurosis are most afraid of CS, when they are so overwhelmed by fear itself that they cannot fight back any dangers that await them day and night. In children with all neuroses, fears of the CS are most often presented at the age of 6-10, when fears appear during the day, like mushrooms after rain, under the influence of experiences caused by the fear of death, problems of learning and adaptation at school. Normally, fear of CS is usually limited to older preschool age. In other words, the fear of CS in neuroses has a more prolonged, extended nature and indicates a more pronounced inability of children to solve their personal problems on their own, without the help of adults.

Since children with neuroses are much more sensitive to CS, it makes sense for them to further consider all the problems associated with CS. “What is Caesar’s is for Caesar, what is Caesar’s is for Caesar.” The same applies to girls and boys. The former have a relationship with CS during pregnancy, the latter do not, and nothing can be done about it. If there is a girl in the mother’s womb, and the mother has toxicosis in the first half of pregnancy (uncontrollable vomiting), then after the birth of the girl, they will significantly more often see CS and be afraid of them. And toxicosis of the second half of pregnancy (nephropathy), albeit at the level of a trend, will have a similar effect. Boys have similar relationships “at zero.”

Thus, the mother’s problems during pregnancy and her poor health have a more traumatic emotional impact on girls, as can be seen in their subsequent dreams. Since the fetus “sees” dreams in the womb, starting from 8 weeks of life (according to neurophysiologists), we can compare this period of pregnancy with the maximum severity of toxicosis in the first half. Then our conclusions, even statistically based ones, will not seem meaningless.

When asked why all this is expressed only in girls, we point out their more pronounced instinct of self-preservation compared to boys (remember that girls experience fears 2 times more often than boys). Therefore, toxicosis, creating the threat of weakening and termination of pregnancy, causes, first of all, hormonally mediated anxiety in girls, as a kind of instinctive protective reaction.

The relationship between fears immediately before sleep and fears during sleep, that is, CS, was examined separately. The previously made conclusion about the reproduction of children's daily experiences in the CS was confirmed. Moreover, by the anxiety experienced by children before bedtime, one can confidently judge the appearance of CS in them, even if they are completely amnesic (forgotten) in the morning.

Encyclopedia of practical psychology "Psychologos"

published 25/11/2013 14:15 updated 09/12/2013 – Pedagogy and psychology