Night terrors and night mares are common phenomena in children. What is nightmare? Nightmare is a mental phenomenon in which the child either shrieks loudly during sleep or is terrified; tries to speak but can not speak. He becomes cataleptic. The child awakes from sleep/ dream terrified, looks around in awe and clings to mother. The child goes on repeating such episodes of nightmares at regular intervals with remission. The parents are generally oblivion to the gravity of the situation. They take it lightly as if nothing had happened to children as the child is o.k. after shrieking episodes. Night
terrors and night mares are warning signs/ signals of future mental disorders. This can lead the child to severe depression, anxiety, phobia, psychotic episodes etc. in his adulthood.Why children feel terrified in dreams and shrieking desperately for help? The shrieking is nothing but the mental torture the child is undergoing and had previously undergone. The crying or weeping is nothing but an effort to seek help and escape the panicky situation. The child feels possessed by some dragon, phantom or evil force and is in complete possession of that spirit temporarily. The child feels threatened as if some monster/dragon is following him or terrifying and threatening him. In utter desperation to save itself from the clutches of evil spirit the child starts shrieking or is so possessed and pressured in the chest that he can not sleep at all but only tries to speak by saying uuuuuuuuuu. He becomes totally cataleptic in body parts.
Nightmares are nothing but spontaneous eruption of the unconscious mind in a forceful way. This is sure sign of the tumultuous happenings in the deep structure of mind with upper layer of tranquility and serenity. It is the reflection
of the child’s immediate bitter life experiences. Some terrifying event from child’s life experience is threatening him in disguised and symbolic form. It may be bullying event from school or surrounding atmosphere. The very parents may be the subject of bullying with imposition of strict discipline and code of conduct on the innocent psyche of child.The parents should look into the causes behind these episodes of nightmares. The bullying event is at the root of the shrieking and nightmare episodes of the child. The parents should address this problem themselves before it damages the mental set up of the child and the child experience serious mental health problems. The bullying events at school in the age group of five to ten years are generally responsible for such nightmare episodes. When the children are bullied at the age of five and onwards, it is very shocking experience for the child’s psyche. The child silently repressed these bullying events only to reoccur in dreams as terror dreams or nightmares.
The shy, bashful, and timid type children suffer in silence and don’t report such incidents of oppressions and torture to teachers or parents. These are getting repressed in the individual unconscious of child and seek their power full and spontaneous outlet in sleep or in dreams so that farther damage to psyche may not happen. It is as if the psyche is trying to lift a heavy mountain or stone from itself and fears being buried in its heavy weight or Heavy Mountain are falling on child and the child is desperately running to avoid being buried under them.
