DANIEL LEWIN, PhD: We'd like to know what's around us and that's important for our survival. So letting down vigilance, by definition, should not be easy. So for adults, we've learned lots of ways to let down vigilance. We can talk to ourselves, we can tell ourselves that we're safe, we know where the telephone is if there's a problem, we know that we can turn on a light, we can tell ourselves that everything will be okay, that we'll be okay the next morning.
ANNOUNCER: But try telling that to your child.
DANIEL LEWIN, PhD: Some toddlers make the transition to sleep beautifully and we don't need to worry about them. But other toddlers have much more difficulty making the transition to sleep, because they don't let down vigilance easily.
ANNOUNCER: To any child, the appearance of bedtime fiends is serious business.
DANIEL LEWIN, PhD: Nighttime fears are, first of all, very real. Some children who have a little bit more anxiety during the day, a little bit more trouble calming down at night, may have far more fears at night. And, for those children, helping them with those fears is very, very important.
ANNOUNCER: What parents don't want to do is give the monsters too much airtime.
JODI MINDELL, PhD: Parents need to be careful about that because they're walking a fine line in that, if you do too much and overreact to it, what you may be is reinforcing is that there really is something to be scared of.
ANNOUNCER: What parents do want to do is acknowledge that their child's fear is very real, if only to the child
