a new therapy has been shown to be effective in children and adolescents

“There is a lack of research on nightmares in children, most of the work has been done on adults. We really want to get to the root of the problem, because when children suffer from nightmares, they are afraid of s “sleep, which makes them tired and irritable during the day, and they are prone to have behavioral problems, which can affect their functioning in school and other areas of their life”, said Tara Buck, child and adolescent psychiatrist and professor at the OU School of Community Medicine in Tulsa (United States). This is why, as part of a study, she decided, with her team, to test a therapy aimed at specifically treating nightmares, independently of children’s comorbidities.

Sleep: “We also help them rewrite their nightmares to make them pleasant dreams”

For the purposes of the research, published in the journal Frontiers in Sleepresearchers recruited 46 children ages 6 to 17 with sleep problems and experiencing chronic nightmares at least once a week for at least six months and, in some cases, for years. Participants were mailed a box containing items, including glasses, typically used to demonstrate alcohol impairment, that helped them better understand the effects of sleep deprivation. The team also gave them a pillowcase and markers to write or draw things they wanted to think about at bedtime.

Then the volunteers were divided into two groups. During the intervention, 23 young people benefited from the new therapy, based on a therapy already used in adults, consisting of five weekly sessions. “It uses cognitive behavioral therapy, but also relaxation strategies, mindfulness, stress management and visualization to modify the structure of dreams. We also help them rewrite their nightmares to have pleasant dreams so they can go back to sleep”explained Lisa Cromer, co-author of the research. The control group received this new therapy only after the study ended.

Fewer nightmares and suicidal thoughts thanks to new therapy

The scientists observed a statistically significant improvement in the number of waking nights, number of weekly nightmares and nightmare-related distress in the therapy group compared to the waiting list group. While at the start of the intervention, five children in each group reported having had suicidal thoughts, only one young person in the treatment group reported persistent suicidal thoughts, compared to four in the control group at the end of the work.

In the future, the researchers would like to obtain funding to test their nightmare therapy as part of larger research that would follow children over a longer period of time. Currently, they are adapting the therapy to different ethnicities and cultures, and they have initiated work to screen for nightmares in a primary care setting.