The Root of Children’s Nightmares

Watching frightening films such as “It,” Stephen King’s masterpiece, which is engrossing its monumental audience, is a favorite pastime of many young people. This industry is vast and creates a large amount of wealth for many of the people behind it. However, parents should diligently research these films’ psychological effects on minors before allowing their children to engage in this form of entertainment. After all, “‘Given that very young children may not yet know what types of stimuli frighten them most, nor do they enjoy the power to choose which media the family will view, they are in special need of protection from exposure to such scary stimuli before coping strategies are necessary’” (“Scary”). This shows that parents must carefully consider the content they allow their children to see. People watch horror movies for myriad reasons, as shown in Stephen King’s essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” and watching these films have both positive and negative effects that parents should be aware of, which are displayed in Stephen King’s essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies” and in the USA Today article “Scary Movies and TV Programs Have Long-Lasting Effects.”

Should a parent shelter their child from violent media? Gerard Jones, author of “Violent Media Is Good for Kids,” claims that the exposure to violent media does not harm children but instead allows them to release different emotions, resolve conflicts between themselves and the outside world and learn to fear less (78-79). Jones argues, that when people shelter their children from violence, it causes the child to not have trust in themselves, become easily manipulated and cannot truly express who they are (80). Children need to be exposed to some sort of violent media because it helps build character and gives the child inspiration.

President Herbert Hoover once said that, "Children are our most valuable resource." Everybody knows the saying “The children are our future.” If everyone knows this saying than why are parents exposing our future to inappropriate and explicit content. This is because most people do not realize the explicit content their children are being exposed to. The shows, movies, and even commercials children are watching effect not only their actions and thought process but can also effect the future decisions and choices they make. From the day we are born to the day we die we have seen many different movies and seen many different TV shows; while we are watching and hearing these through our own eyes and ears we do not truly realize what our brains are consuming, because in reality we are viewing and hearing much more than we can naturally see.

Night terrors are a type of parasomnia, that cause screaming, intense fear, and flailing, while still asleep. These episodes are most common but not limited to children between ages of four to twelve, for they can also still occur in adults. Mostly children are affected by this parasomnia, but only three to six percent of them have these night terrors, and the percentage of occurrences in adults are lower. Some studies show that there are some variables, such as tiredness, or drugs, may cause a development of these disturbances during sleep. While most will grow out of their sleep terrors, some may not, and must find different ways to control or reduce their chances of having night terrors. Usually, night terrors are not normally due to psychiatric disorders, so with that in mind, it is logical to assume that they are often triggered by certain environmental factors.

Both Freud and Jung provided important and interesting theories on dreams; encompassing their functions, their roots, and their meanings. Freud looked at dreams as a result of repressed memories, particularly repressed sexual memories from our childhood. Jung however, believed that dreams delved beyond sexual repression during younger years, to other problems, be it trauma, anxiety etc. Jung also believed dreams changed predominately through middle adult years, while Freud believed the opposite. There is little empirical evidence to reinforce either Freud or Jung’s theories, however, their contributions to the study of dreams in psychology cannot be lessened or denied.

The US National Library of Medicine defines a nightmare as, “a bad dream that brings out strong feelings of fear, terror, distress, or anxiety.” A dream, then, is a series of thoughts or images that happen during the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep. Research has shown that the biggest amount of common adult dreams are in a category known as “pseudonightmarish” dreams, which is essentially any dream of being in trouble or in danger, being alone and/or trapped, something you don’t have control over (like losing your teeth), or facing natural forces.

Parents have a reason to be afraid. In this age, youngsters can casually hop online and quickly find an easy recipe on how to make their favorite deadly explosive, many schools now have metal detectors at the doors to prevent armed students from massacring their peers, drugs flow freely down suburban streets, and children have unprecedented access to. . . . .video games?

Nowadays, people all around the world learn and get their influence from mass media. Also, America is the country that has the most access to any mass media. However, mass media type like PG-13 rated movies have been in question for triple gun violence contents since 1985 (Wilson & Hudson 2013). In 2012, the contents of gun violence appeared in PG-13 rated movies exceeded to the contents in R-rated movies ( Bushman 2013: 1017). Since the movies were rated as PG-13, children who are younger than 13 years old can easily have access to the violence contents in the films ( Bushman 2013: 1017). By exposing violence contents in PG-13 rated movies, young teenagers might act out those violence materials in real life. In addition, PG-13 rated movies earn 45% market share with high-grossing movies (Wilson & Hudson 2013).

The journal entry begins by introducing the concept of nightmares and the negative emotion that is followed by such occurrences. People who are experiencing negative emotions more frequently are often times more likely to having nightmares or other intolerable dreams. The journal also points out how many people who experience nightmares also experience frequent dreaming in general. All the data contrived from people who experience frequent nightmares found that these people experience a wide variety of dreams that are usually triggered by a state of severe emotion. Another form of dream experienced by such people is Day-dreaming. The journal explains that people with a higher occurrence of nightmares, experience dreams in many other forms. They also are more prone to letting their mind wander even when they are not fully asleep. These people may experience similar states of

A typical night terror begins about ninety minutes after falling asleep, during stage four of sleep (Web MD, 2017). It begins with a piercing scream. The child will sit up in bed in a state of panic – eyes open, heart pounding, perspiring, and breathing rapidly (Sharma, 2006). They could get out of bed and walk or run around, and some adults are at risk of preforming violent acts during this time. The subject is still in a sleep like state during night terrors outbursts and can be awoken with some difficulty (Sleep Association, 2016).

Bad language, illegal activities, and violence are becoming more common in movies and television shows. About ninety percent of the top-grossing films in the last twenty-five years have had at least one violent main character and in about seventy-seven percent of these films, that same character took part in one other risky behavior. Because adolescents are badly influenced by what they see in the media, the age at which adolescents should be allowed to attend "R" rated movies should be no less than fourteen. Even though fourteen year olds are old enough to realize the difference between a movie and reality, adolescents under fourteen should not be allowed to watch "R" rated movies because the content can cause them to act violently, it can

Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/nightmares Sleep- children and nightmares. Better Health Channel. Retrieved from http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Nightmares_and_children Blagrove, M., Farmer, L., & Williams, E. (2004, May 26). The relationship of nightmare frequency and nightmare distress to well-being. Journal of Sleep Research,

Saturday morning cartoons contain twenty to twenty-five violent acts per hour (Stranger & Gridina, 1999). Pediatricians warn that media violence can be especially damaging to children under age eight because they cannot readily tell the difference between real life and fantasy. Many violent acts are perpetrated by the "good guys," whom kids have been taught to emulate. Even though kids are taught by their parents that it's not right to hit, television says it's OK to bite, hit, or kick if you're the good guy. This can lead to confusion when kids try to understand the difference between right and wrong. And even the "bad guys" on TV aren't always held responsible or punished for their actions (Nemours, 1995-2009). “These violent behaviors are learned,” said Dr. Slutkin (Herbert, 2010, p. 1). “They are largely formed by modeling, the almost unconscious copying of one another (Herbert, 2010, p. 1). And then they are maintained by the social pressure of peers (Herbert, 2010, p. 1). It becomes normal to reach for a gun (Herbert, 2010, p. 1). TV is full of programs and commercials that depict behaviors such as sex and substance abuse as cool, fun, and exciting. Studies have shown that teens who watch lots of sexual content on TV are more likely to initiate intercourse or participate in other sexual activities earlier than peers who don’t watch sexually explicit

Premium broadcasting networks include a larger variety of various potentially violent materials (Freedman). Could lots of euphorically violent images and stories on television affect the mind of a young child over time? What might have been missing in the child’s life that left him or her in a mental state not strengthened by positive reinforcement?

The media has a way of influencing people of all ages. Specifically, violence and horror in the media are the most debated. Why do people go to watch violent movies or horror movies? They go for entertainment without realizing the physical or mental effects. Kathy Benjamin’s “5 Scientific Ways Watching Movies Effects You” and Bernie DeGroat’s “Scary Movies Can Have Lasting Effects on Children and Teens” both mention the negative effects of movies, especially horror movies, with research or studies. However, only one of the essays, “5 Scientific Ways Watching Movies Effects You,” mentions some positive effects. Statistics have shown that watching these type movies can have short and long term repercussions.