Dreaming and night waking

At 2 -3 years of age dreaming becomes vivid. By three years of age your child may not require a nap, but until that time an average of an hours nap in the day is usually helpful to avoid sleep deficit.
This is the stage when children’s sleep may be disturbed by Nocturnal confusion Night terrors or Nightmares and there is a difference.

Nocturnal Confusion occurs mainly in very young children who are distressed and agitated but do not respond to parents attempts to reassure them.

Night terrors occur early in the night, usually in the first third of sleep (deep Non REM sleep) the child is distressed and agitated, and although your child’s eyes may be open the child is not completely awake and no reassurance from you will comfort your child. Sleep returns fairly quickly and there is no memory of events in the morning.

Nightmares usually occur in the second part of the night (middle to late REM sleep)
Your child has had a frightening dream and will accept comforting and reassurance. It can take longer to re settle the child to sleep afterwards and it is important that the parents reassure and encourage the child to remain in his/her own bed and return to sleep. While the child was asleep, during this episode they are fully awake and remember this afterwards. Nightmares can be precipitated by illness or stress, in which case there may also be night terrors.

Nightmares usually peak at about 3 -6years of age. They are universal and a normal part of cognitive development.

There are things you can do to reduce the frequency of nightmares and night terrors for your child and Dream-Angus can help you with this.

If these are a problem for your child let us give you some simple strategies to try first.

In most cases simple measures are very effective; however, if the night terrors or nightmares remain persistent and severe and fail to respond to behavioural strategies, then a psychological assessment may help.


Contact Dream-Angus.com

Daytime napping

When a child is born most of the day is spent in sleep. During sleep the brain is growing and although asleep the child is seldom completely quiet. During the first three months it is not usually difficult to settle an infant. As long as the infant is fed and comfortable sleep will usually follow.

Children who do not settle quickly and easily at this stage often have reflux to some extent, or are victims of "colic". Reflux should be treated, as the issues this causes are often prolonged and difficult to resolve otherwise. Colic usually peaks at 3/4 months and is seldom an issue after that time, with the notable exception of children who have allergies to lactose.

Children need to have regular daytime naps. At first three scheduled naps during daytime until they are about 6/7 months when two naps making a total daytime sleep of 4 hours is the goal. When night sleep is disturbed some parents think that removing a nap time will increase night sleep. Unfortunately this is far from the case. If daytime naps are reduced the child is too tired to settle properly at night so night waking may become more frequent.

By the 6/7 month stage baby should be sleeping through the night for 10 hours and having two naps, the second of which should be completed by 3/3.30pm if the child is on a "wake at 7am bed at 7pm" schedule.

Working on improving daytime naps is easier on parents who are more awake and more patient during the day, and has a knock on effect of improving the child's night sleep, which is easier for parents too.

By 3 years of age one single 1 hour nap is enough and by 4 years most children no longer require naps. As daytime naps reduce night sleep should be slightly longer and eventually even out at 10-11.5 hours.

If you need help to resolve your child's sleep issues, Contact Dream-Angus.com

Sleep in children starting school

Sleep disorders in children starting school are associated with impaired performance and behavioural difficulties. This is not at all unusual and a recent study by Lehmkul G Fricke-Okermann L, Wiater A and Mitchke decided to look at the causes and effects of sleep disorders in this group. It is already recognised that these disorders manifest themselves highly variably among children of any given age, and even in an individual affected child, they need an appropriate diagnostic evaluation so that the many environmental and background factors that may be relevant to the further course of the problem can be assessed.

In order to look more closely at this extensive data was obtained on approximately 1400 children who were tested before beginning school in 2005. This was accomplished using a special sleep questionnaire and another screening instrument that is used to assess behavioral strengths and difficulties (the SDQ, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire).

Five percent of the children were found to have difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, or nocturnal awakening. Less frequent problems included parasomnias such as pavor nocturnus (0.5%), sleepwalking (0.1%), and frequent nightmares (1.7%).

This study showed that sleep disorders increase the risk of daytime fatigue and of psychological problems in general, including both hyperactivity and excessive emotional stress.

These results imply that sleep problems and emotional disturbances are intimately connected and underscore the importance of diagnosing sleep problems in young children.

If you are aware that your child is having sleep difficulties contact Dream-Angus.com for support and advice.

Night Waking

Waking in the night is one of the most common difficulties that beset children. Recent studies looking at the age and stage of children who have difficulty in sustaining sleep show that 25-50% of 6-12month olds, 30% of 1year old children and 15-20% of toddlers 1-3 years old continue to have night wakings.

These night wakings occur for a variety of different reasons but persistent problematic night wakings are often due to inappropriate sleep onset associations. For some these wakings occur as regularly as every 45-90 minutes. This is of great concern to parents who are also deprived of sleep in order to settle the child.

There is often considerable variation in the night to night and week to week patterns and neither infants, nor parents, are consistent in the way they behave and interact at these wake times. Of course what one parent sees as a difficulty another parent or family accept as "normal" so night wakings are seldom addressed in the same fashion across the population.

Children or adolescents who experience persistant night wakings that are extermely disruptive to the family as well as the complainant should be seen by a sleep specialist. There are very effective ways to alter this night waking behaviour and to improve the night sleep.

If you are experiencing this difficulty within your family Contact Dream-Angus.com we can help you to resolve this issue and improve your night sleep.

Night waking

Night waking is, as the title suggests a waking in the night when everyone should be sleeping. it is one of the most common problems parents face. Although babies of 6 months are physically capable of sleeping through the night and no longer require night feeds, a high percentage of them still wake.
In fact it is recognised that all children, regardless of age wake briefly four to six times during the night. Children who do not rouse their parents have learned to self soothe and return to sleep without any intervention. Children who have come to rely on set conditions being met before their initial sleep often require that the same situation is re created before they will resettle.
This is known as "sleep Associations". learning to sleep involves learning to sleep with the "right/good" associations so that further intervention is not required.

Sleep is a learned behaviour and we owe it to our children to teach them the best possible associations and behaviour patterns so that they can carry them throughout their lives and reap the benefits.


If your child has problems with night waking contact us at Dream-Angus.com for information and support.