Children who experience night time fears cannot distinguish betwween fantasy and reality

Updated on: Monday, February 18, 2013

Children who experience night time fears have a harder time distinguishing fantasy from reality, a new study has found.

Majority of children experience some form of night time fears, be it the fear of nighttime separation, fear of the dark or scary dreams, researchers said.

While most kids tend to outgrow these fears as they age, some children develop severe nighttime phobias.

Researchers found that kids who suffer these severe jitters at night have a harder time distinguishing fantasy from reality, the 'LiveScience' reported.

The study involved 80 children aged 4 to 6 who experienced severe nighttime fears (50 boys and 30 girls) compared with 32 normal children without such fears (18 boys and 14 girls).

Researchers interviewed the children and their parents individually to gauge the kids' level of fear.

In the children's interviews, they read the kids a brief picture-book story that set the mood for kids to talk about their fears.

The parents were asked about the content of their children's nighttime fears as well as how often and severe those fears were.

The kids were given the "Koala Fear Questionnaire," in which they had to rate their fear of scary pictures on a scale of Koala bears depicting different levels of fear. Parents were given another questionnaire asking them to rate their children's fear levels.

The kids were also shown images of real or mythical beings and situations and asked to decide whether the subjects were imaginary or could occur in real life.

The kids also were asked to distinguish between real and fantasy situations, such as "burglars breaking into the house," or "a monster frightening a child in the dark."

The study revealed that children who experienced nighttime fears had a harder time making fantasy-reality distinctions than the other kids.

The findings suggest a developmental delay in nighttime fear sufferers, the researchers say. In addition, younger children had a harder time at the fantasy-reality task than older ones, showing that the ability improves with age.

Children who experience night time fears cannot distinguish betwween fantasy and reality

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