Magazine Health Books. To send a link and summary of this article to a friend, click here . We may spend one-third of our lives sleeping, but it's not always time well spent. Sometimes our imaginations take us to the wrong side of the railroad tracks in dreamland.
Nightmares are perhaps the most common form of sleep disturbance.
Nightmares are distinctively frightening experiences that may be a reflection of significant psychological stress or may mean absolutely nothing. They tend to occur toward the end of sleep, usually an hour or two before awakening. Most common in children under age 12, sleep terrors can be associated with stress, sleep deprivation, fever and some medications. It's even more frustrating the following morning, when the child remembers waking up scared but does not recall what scared him. Mostly, the best thing you can do is endure it and be supportive of your child.