How To Help Your Kids Overcome Halloween Night Terrors

Halloween is the one night a year where we pull out all the stops to be as scary as possible. Dressed as a zombie? Check. Halloween treats with fake (edible) blood? Check. Trick or treat basket? Triple check. Whilst you might be fully prepared for Halloween Night itself, we suspect you’re less prepared for what’s to come next: terrified kids that refuse to go to bed alone. “Because mum… what if there’s a monster under my bed?!” We’ll save you the trouble of having to check for scary monsters and give you our best tips on how to help your kids overcome night terrors this Halloween 2023. 

How to Avoid Nightmares for Kids

We firmly believe that prevention is always better than cure. But when it comes to nightmares, this can be difficult as it might feel like there’s nothing you can do for your kid. If your kids often wake up upset during the middle of the night after another scary nightmare, this will affect your quality of sleep too. There are a couple of ways to stop nightmares in kids which will help both you and your kids to get through Halloween without any night terrors. After all, Halloween should be a fun night filled with joy, silly costumes and above all lots of candy. There is simply no room for Halloween night terrors! 

Avoid Nightmares By Regulating Your Kids’ Sleep Pattern

Don’t be fooled, this may sound like a tough job but luckily, this tip is quite simple and has proven to be very effective in stopping nightmares from happening. Most nightmares happen approximately 90 minutes after falling asleep. At this point, your kid will transition between stage three and stage four non-REM sleep for the first time. In this part of sleep, most night terrors occur. The key to stopping any Halloween night terrors from happening is by waking your child up after an hour of them falling asleep. Make sure that you remember what time they fell asleep at, because it’s important to wake them up at least 15 minutes before they transition to their non-REM sleep. Bonus tip: offer them a sip of water to ensure they are really awake! 

Distractions Before Bedtime

During Halloween Night, your kids will be surrounded by spooky figures, fake blood and zombies all night long. No wonder why they end up with nightmares! If you put them to bed immediately after their round of trick and treating, we can assure you they will struggle to sleep or wake up from nightmares. To avoid this from happening, distracting them before bedtime can help. Put on one of their favourite films (you might want to skip the horror genre), make them a soothing cup of tea or warm milk and read from their favourite books. This distracts them from all the spookiness they just witnessed and may help to conquer the night terrors!

Create a Safe Haven for Your Kids

Lastly, it’s important that they go to sleep feeling relaxed, comfortable and completely safe. Their bedroom should be a safe haven where they drift into a peaceful, deep sleep. How do you do this? By picking the fluffiest, most comfortable kids bedding of course! Our Night Owl duvets are the best kids bedding and they even come in a starry print. An additional benefit: they are machine washable which makes it super easy to clean the duvet in case any bed wetting accidents occur at Halloween.

Image by Coconut-Couture.co.uk