Sleep Phobia in Middle Childhood—A Review of Six Cases

Abstract

Six children (three girls and three boys), between 10 and 12 years of age, with phobic reactions to sleep are described. Although early separation anxiety and mild forms of sleep disturbance had been present in their past, these children developed intense phobic anxiety at bedtime after an encounter with death, generally that of a relative or close friend. Because this age corresponds with the developmental phase in which the child, in comprehending the finality of death, comes to terms with his own mortality (the “existential plight”), psychotherapy was directed toward exploring concepts of death and sleep (between which they showed much confusion) and toward helping them master their anxieties in relation to loss of consciousness and reawakening.