Should you wake up a child who's having a nightmare or just let him sleep it out?

Sometimes that all depends on your child.

I would wake my child if he/she was having a nightmare and screaming, although the waking may be more frightening it'll help you child cope with knowing that you're there to protect and it'll break the reality of the dream.

Sometimes nightmares can have long lasting affects and if parents can stop that by a "rude awakening" then by all means please do wake your children.

Dreams can be very powerful at time and sometimes they can drag you into such a realistic state. When fallen into a deep sleep it's often hard to be awaken.

I've had times where I'm having a horrible dream and it's so realistic that I try to escape my own dream and i try to even wake myself, then that leads to me waking up into a different dream so when I finally wake up I'm completely lost and dazed.

Nightmares and children aren't a good combo so I say wake 'em up!