Nightmares are more common in children than adults

Question

Nightmares are more common in children because children often experience more vivid and imaginative dreams. Factors such as stress, anxiety, changes in routine, or exposure to scary stories or media can also contribute to the frequency of nightmares in children. As they grow older, the frequency of nightmares typically decreases.

Comments

After reading the article and the fact check, I think you did well in giving a clear explanation as to why nightmares are more common in adults rather than children. To improve this fact check, you could cite reliable news resources and provide more details on specifics like ages, genders, etc. Overall, this was informative, but I think you left out some major key details when creating this fact check.

Answer 1

The original article talks about children experiencing nightmares and states that some possible causes of these frequent nightmares could be due to stress, traumatic events, a fever, or an active imagination. It doesn't specifically state in the article that nightmares are more common in children than adults but implies it through the sentence, "reaching its peak between ages 3 and 6 years". However, an article by Harvard supports this claim. The article mentions Deirdre Barrett who has a PhD and is an HMS assistant clinical professor of psychology at Cambridge Health Alliance said, "Children are smaller and are vulnerable to many more threats than adults. Nightmares may partially reflect this vulnerability". Thus, children are more likely to have nightmares than adults due to them being more vulnerable and having active imaginations. They do not have a clear understanding of what is going around them and they are not able to detect what's real and what's not making them more susceptible to nightmares.

https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/nightmares-brain#:~:text=Although%20adults%20can%20suffer%20from,ages%20of%203%20and%206.

Comments

This is great. Now knowing why I had nightmares when I was makes a lot of sense now. I also like how you back it with a Harvard source, very trusted. I do think you could add one more source to really hammer it in but overall great a fack check

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I definitely had way more nightmares when I was a kid! They are very rare nowadays. This was a very in-depth fact-check, thank you.

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I think this is a great fact-check to the claim "Nightmares are more common in children than adults." Using an article from a source such as Harvard contributes a lot to the credibility and accuracy of the information you provided! I liked how you went in depth about the quote you provided and further expanded on the ideas. Your fact-check and the article you used to back the claim helped me better understand why I would get nightmares as a child, and it was helpful to learn more about the science behind it. You did a good job with utilizing multiple sources to cross check the information. This was an overall strong fact-check, but I think it could be even stronger with the addition of one more source!

Answer 2

The claim that nightmares are more common in children than adults is supported by evidence from both Better Health and Harvard Medical. The Better Health article suggests that nightmares peak between the ages of 3 and 6 years, implying they are more frequent during childhood. This is further proved by the Harvard Medical School article, where an assistant clinical professor of psychology explains that children are more vulnerable to threats than adults, and that is reflected in their nightmares. Children’s active imaginations and limited ability to distinguish reality from fiction also make them particularly susceptible to frequent nightmares. Together, both of these sources support the notion that nightmares are more prevalent in children than adults due to developmental and psychological factors. https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/nightmares-brain      https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/sleep-children-and-nightmares

Comments

I like your fact check that examines two very different sources and shows how they agree with each other. The one area I think you could improve in is adding a second more science based source or including a small piece of more specifically scientific information. Overall great fact check!

Answer 3

This article seems to be true. The article is written by the Victoria State Government and the Better Health Channel, which is a government-endorsed health website. The article references the Sleep Health Foundation, a trusted resource for sleep health information. It is a website that gives sleep advice and mattress and product reviews. Each article posted on the Sleep Health Foundation undergoes rigorous vetting before publication. The Sleep Health Foundation believes that frequent nightmares are more common in children (https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares). There are other sites that agree with this idea that children have more frequent nightmares than adults. Harvard Study and Psychology Today agree. They both have articles about this topic. Harvard Study is a credible source, and Psychology Today is a credible pro-science source.

Harvard Study - https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/nightmares-brain

Psychology Today - https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/dreaming?msockid=11229913a1f76db214748c19a04d6c7e

Comments

You did a good job here cross-referencing sources of varying types. You also did a good job explaining why the original poster's source was reputable before backing it up with other sources. Also, you cited your sources, which seems obvious, but isn't always followed through on, so well done. You could expound on what those other sources you provide specifically say about age ranges or frequency of nightmares, though.

Answer 4

It is shown that children tend to have more nightmares than adults because of a more vivid imagination, but it is not factually true that all children have more nightmares than adults. A large reason why younger children have more nightmares is because it is harder for them to determine what is real and what isn't, but children younger than 4-5 are not thought to have nightmares because they aren't necessarily developed enough to know to be afraid of things. There are also a number of reasons why one may have nightmares such as stress, anxiety, fear, and sleep deprivation which are also things that adults suffer from. Again, it is statistically more common for children but not a cognitive fact.

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/nightmares-in-children

Another study from Harvard Medical School indicates that nightmares are more common in children because they are "smaller and more vulnerable to threats", including that nightmares "reflect" this idea. They also state that nightmares happen when REM sleep intervals lengthen and that allows us to remember them more vividly. This study also points out that people who suffer from PTSD tend to have more nightmares, one way of showing that it's not always more common in children although it is statistically more likely.

https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/nightmares-brain

I believe that this post is correct that children have more nightmares than adults on average, but there are many statistics that play into the amount of nightmares that both children and adults have.

Answer 5

nightmares are more common in children than adults is an interesting claim that has been proved to be true. “Among children with anxiety disorders (other than PTSD), nightmares are commonly reported (Alfano, Beidel, Turner, & Lewin, 2006; Alfano, Ginsburg, & Kingery, 2007). According to parents, up to 80% of children and teens (ages 6-18 years) with generalized and other anxiety disorders experience nightmares (Alfano et al., 2006; Alfano et al., 2007; Chase & Pincus, 2011). Data based on child reports are more rare but complaints of sleep-related problems, overall, are frequent among anxious youth (i.e., youth 7-14 years of age” (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7388348/) 

Another study done by Harvard says it is most common to have nightmares occur for children than adults due to children being smaller and more vulnerable than adults. Although adults can suffer from nightmares, they are more typical in children, especially those between the ages of 3 and 6. https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/nightmares-brain

It’s normal for both children and adults to have bad dreams and nightmares every now and again. About 2%-8% of adults have problems with nightmares. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares

This study by the sleep foundation and multiple articles from health institute and Harvard describe that although it is not impossible for adults to have nightmares, it is common in very young children due to their vulnerability and adults have nightmares due to their past trauma. Overall this claim is true that children commonly have more nightmares than adults. 

Answer 6

Hi! This claim appears to be true, as it's also supported by an article from the Harvard Medical School. However, the article linked to support your claim doesn't make any mention of children being more likely to have nightmares compared to adults besides asserting that nightmares are more typical in children ages 3-6, which the Harvard article also supports. Altogether, the source provided lacks evidence proving your claim but further research still shows that the claim is true.

https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/nightmares-brain