Most children anticipate the prospect of submitting to surgery and anesthesia with fear and apprehension. Youngsters who have to be given an anesthetic are afraid that something disastrous may happen to them while they are asleep. The child fears not only what he can understand but also what is less understandable, such as will he ever wake up or is he going to be killed? There are many connections in the child's mind between anesthesia, sleep, and death.1
When a child is brought to the operating room heavily premedicated or asleep, without having his fears allayed or his anxieties resolved, he will usually experience a nightmare of restlessness on recovery. During such a confused and stressful state, a child is more subject to psychic trauma than one who will recover quickly and quietly to a state of full consciousness and awareness.2 Sleep disturbances, temper tantrums, hallucinatory phenomena, and