Preschoolers’ odds of having nightmares may be related to their temperament as infants, which may be noticed as early as 5 months old, new research suggests.

In a study that followed 987 children from infancy to age 6, Canadian researchers found that the majority had an occasional bad dream, while a few had them frequently. The odds of having nightmares — and of having them consistently through the preschool years — were higher among children who were considered to be more anxious or “difficult” as babies.

The findings suggest that young children’s bad dreams “are trait-like in nature and associated with personality characteristics measured as early as 5 months,” the researchers report in the medical journal Sleep.

A previous study with identical and non-identical twins suggested that people may inherit a certain vulnerability to having nightmares, Dr. Tore Nielsen, one of the researchers on the new study, told Reuters Health.

In this study, “bad dreams” as early as the age of 2.5 were predicted by signs of anxiety at the ages of 5 months and 17 months, explained Nielsen, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal. (…)

The results raise the possibility that calming infants’ persistent distress may relieve them of some bad dreams later in childhood, according to the researchers.

In this study, certain parenting routines — like taking 2-year-olds out of bed to comfort them when they were distressed — were related to a lower risk of nightmares later in childhood.

The study did not examine the effectiveness of any tactics for easing infants’ and young children’s anxiety — or their influence on the odds of having nightmares later, Nielsen said. However, he added that based on other research, a good starting point would be to improve children’s early bonding, or “secure attachment,” with their parents. (…)

Source: Reuters India, India
http://tinyurl.com/28d78t