Introduction

Many children experience nightmares and night terrors, but most grow out of them. They don't cause any long-term psychological harm to your child.

Night terrors are very different from nightmares.

A child having night terrors may scream and thrash around, and may not recognise you if you try to comfort them. This behaviour occurs on waking abruptly from deep, non-dream sleep. Your child won't be fully awake during these episodes and will have no memory of it the next morning.

Nightmares occur from dream sleep (REM sleep). Your child may wake up fromthe nightmare and, depending on their age, may be able to remember and describe the bad dream to you.

Both night terrors and nightmares in children are described in more detail below, along with advice about what you should do.

Content supplied by the NHS Website

Medically Reviewed by a doctor on 16 Jan 2017