My 5-Year Old Little Girl Is Having Night Terrors...

I have never dealt with the nightmare's but I have read before if you are afraid a "sleep-walker" will open the door and leave the house it has been suggested to put a dead bolt up high where the child can not reach it. Also if you have stairs put up a baby gate across the stairway. I also have read try not to wake up the walker but direct them back to bed. They usually do not remember getting up in the middle of the night.
Hopefully this will pass.
Good luck
V.

I would recommend that you take her to a child psychologist. She is most likely very upset about daddy being gone all the time and she is probably worried about him and his safety. I went through something close when my daughter was younger.

My youngest daughter had night terrors around the time she was three. If they're true night terrors, stress has nothing to do with it. It has to do with the growing brain's sleep patterns being disrupted. It's not that uncommon, and children do grow out of it. It was terrifying, though! It was no use trying to talk to her, or to hold her. She couldn't hear me, and she would look straight at me with her eyes wide open and walk right into me, as if I wasn't there. I never really found a way to prevent them, but what her dad and I would do was walk around the house next to her to make sure she didn't get hurt. I'm a compulsive reader, so luckily I had read about this before it happened, and I had a great pediatrician at the time, too. We didn't talk to her and we didn't interfere with her except to make sure she didn't run into anything, etc. etc. Eventually, she would just go back to sleep, and the next morning she'd wake up with no memory of what had happened. Fortunately, this didn't last long. She is now a 15 year old, normal in every way, and very happy, too. And she only knows about her night terrors because the rest of us remember them. Best of luck to you!

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T071300.asp My daughter and I both have had night terrors. At 36 I still have them, it seems to come in bouts, and come every couple of years. At 5 my daughter doesn't have them to often anymore, but she had them since about 1 years old. Luckily she did seem to have it as bad as your daughter. Dr. Sear's said the wake up early method works 90% of the time. I guess we fit into the other 10%. Good luck.

My daughter is almost 2 and had her worst night terror yet last week. I was so desperate to do something to stop the screaming I carried her into the living room and put on her favorite Barney video. I kept the lights off and didn't try to wake her. After a couple mintues it seemed to penetrate the state she was in and she calmed. After 10 minutes I was able to put her back in bed. It's worth a shot if your daughter has a favorite video!

L.

This is what I have heard about "night terrors" in young ones. First of all, they are pretty common and not always related to stress - although that can be a contributing factor. It has more to do with what level of sleep they are in and how their little somewhat immature nervous systems are dealing with her sleep patterns.

If they are truly "night terrors" they will happen at the same or very similar intervals. The key is to break the cycle by waking her very gently just prior to when you would expect them to start.

For example. If she goes to bed at 9 pm and gets her night terrors at midnight, try to determine if they are typically at 3 hour intervals. If this is the case, wake her gently at 11:45 (or whatever time it would be 2 hours and 45 minutes after she went to sleep). Make sure she is fairly roused but no active play. Maybe take her to the potty or give her a drink, that type of thing. Put her back to bed again. After a few nights of this is it supposed to alter her sleep patterns enough for her not have these anymore.

Hope this helps - it did with my little one.

I am still going through it with my six year old. We can now pin point it to the times when he has had a full day of play and is extremely tire, then we can do all of the above wake hime before we know that he will have one.

The only thing that SOMETIMES work is my talking to very softly and hugging him when he allows me too. He would cry out for "Mommy" and i'll keep trying to console him that I'm there, some times he allow me to massage his feet I guess the constant motion, or touching helps.

If we are on our way home after a long day without naps then we can count on it that he will have one. it is not consistant as every night. I try to encourage him to take naps if i'm home with him during the day, because I have proven that this wards them off. But try getting a 6yr old to take naps.

As to the person with her boyfriend who gets them my husband does too, but his i've been able to pinpoint to when he really stressed, so he has the exact sympttoms as she's described.

The kicking wakes me up during those times. I can hold a whole conversation with him and he answers and never remembers what he said , and he doesn't believe me when I tell him either, though he was so afraid to have our son sleep next to him before he started sleeping in his room. When his begin I usually ask him to roll off his back to his side or change his position and that helps. I wish you the best too. I'm still struggling and only found out what they were by talking to my son's bestfriend's mother and she voiced that her 8yr old use to have them until he was about 7 I think she said, then I researched it. Let me know if you get any advice that helps.
M. B

My daughter had night terrors when she was about 3 1/2. Her's I figured out were due to a very stressful visit from her grandparents about a month or so before.

Basically she would just start screaming in the middle of the night and shaking like crazy. I would hold her but she could not be consoled. They lasted about two weeks.

As for your situation, I would try to talk to her to see if she can tell you anything that might be bothering her or that she may be feeling worried about. (from what I read night terrors are usually caused from stress as you said and it is usually stress that relates to something in the past.) If you can get her to talk to you about her feelings maybe you can reassure her that everything is okay, that daddy is going to be home soon. Did she just start kindergarten or preschool? Maybe she is feeling stressed about that.

As far as her walking around the house, I can understand why that part would be very scary for you. Maybe have you tried putting up a child gate in her doorway? Maybe that would at least keep her in her room until you can get to her to make sure that she doesn't do anything to hurt herself.

Night Terrors are very hard and I felt really guilty that there was nothing that I could do to help my daughter through them. One thing that I did read when I was researching on the internet is that they do not remember anything about it. I even would ask my daughter the next day if she had had a bad dream or if she remembered crying in the middle of the night and she always told me that she had not had any bad dreams and that she did not start crying. She actually thought that I was making it up. So at least I felt better that she was not remembering any of the fear that she was feeling in her sleep.

Good luck.

My husband�s daughter had night terrors and was sleep walking as a toddler/preschooler. They just put a chain lock on her door up high so that they could leave it open a bit, but she wasn�t able to get out at night, and they could hear if she tried. It went away in a fairly short time.

Also, are you sure it�s night terrors? My daughter started shrieking in the middle of the night before she was even able to talk, and that lasted until she was about 8. Sometimes she�d still be sleeping and sometimes not. Once she became verbal she was able to communicate that it was her legs that hurt. She was in terrible pain. Tylonal, a leg massage, and/or a hot bath when it happened eased it a little.

Her incompetent docs kept blowing me off, and she was 7 before she was finally diagnosed with arthritis.

Hope this helps.

Hi - This sounds really silly, but does she watch TV before she goes to bed? Dragon Tales is on PBS at 7:30 - it's an extremely "sweet" show and is a "nice" relaxing show for kids before sleep - How about a cd when she's going to sleep - Laurie Berkner or other's you see on Noggin have some great ones out. Maybe it would be calming enough to settle her for the whole night.

Just a thought. Good luck :)

My son had night terrors. Though at the time I didn't know what it was and thought he was possesed. The best result was to just leave him alone, and it was hard. I had an alarm system installed, and if he had tried to open the door it would've went off. Home Depot sells a wireless one that you can put on your exterior doors. You can install it yourself, and save your self the monthly monitoring fee. I hope this helps. As I looked back in my childhood, I suffered from them as well. I remember once realizing that I was standing out in the road thinking that aliens were invading the earth. My parents were asleep, and I had opened the door and went out on my own. It was weird, I know, but I didn't remember it until I read something on the internet about night terrors. I've always had very vivid dreams, and so does my son. I think that's what causes the half wakened state. I've talked with him about thinking about something happy, and trying to change his dream. Sometimes he says it works. I also try to limit what he watches. No violence. Hope it helps.

My mom used to tell me that I had these, of which I have no recollection. In my house I am always saying SAFETY FIRST!!! Squash the concerns you know you can control. Put a chain or swivel lock high enough on entrances/exits to house, locks on windows(sliding glass doors and sliding windows locks can be found at Home Depot), perhaps even put a door knob cover on the knob in her room so she can't "escape". Also, I would suggest talking to your daughter in a non threatening way or even have her start a journal. If she can't write, you can write for her as she tells you what is on her heart. I f she can resolve issues with you that may help alleviate her terrors. Good luck!

I did some research recently on night terrors as my son had about three episodes. Same thing, won't accept any comfort from me. From what I gathered night terrors only happen when the child is in deep sleep. It was suggested that I gently rouse my son to semi awakeness prior to an episode and then shuss him back to sleep. This process apparently prevents them from entering that phase of sleep and avoids the terror. So if she seems to be having the episode around the same time every night try and rouse her about 45-1hr prior. My son was under stress when he got the episodes. He was starting a new daycare, not feeling well and going through seperation anxiety. His lasted for 3-4 days and he's fine now. The night I was going to try the wake method he did not have anymore episodes so I'm not sure if it works. But I wish you all the best. I know it's heart breaking and scary. Hang in there sweetie.

Hi D.,

I have read nothing on this subject but I had night terrors growing up. They lasted for a few years and then I grew out of them. I do remember my parents trying to wake me up and it was scary at the moment but then I could go back to sleep. They used to splash water on my face or even clap at me to try to get me out of it. Otherwise I would just be up crying. I still remember what it felt like. It was like part of your brain is awake but the part that can communicate is asleep. It was incredibly frustrating. But it had nothing to do with anything in my childhood. I had great parents and a very happy childhood so don't worry about that. The comment someone mentioned above about the not fully developed nervous system seems to make sense to me. It is a very strange feeling to be half asleep and half awake. In an case, my parents woke me out of them and I lived to tell about it. I'm not traumatized. So, go with our instincts. You know your child. Good Luck!

My 4yo has night terrors and I have to say the things i Have read on here in response to you are nothing from what i know. My son has had them since he was about 9 mopnths old at that stage he would wake up screaming and was squirming and all and we could not console him not matter what for at least a few minutes. we always thought it was colic or gas or an allergy to milk somthing like that.

Although he does have severe leg pain in the night these episodes do not coincide with the night terrors and they are not every night.

His night terrors are seriously scary, he does not watch anything violent only nickjr and sprout and noggin things like that, he will sit straight up in bed and scream and scream and scream with no end in sight he does not recognize us he does not know who we are so if we tried to console him he was scared of us backing into corners etc. We have come to know after 4 years of dealing with this that we have to shake him to get him to wake up once he is awake and realizes we are there we can rub his back and he's back to sleep fast.

However I have no idea when or what nights this will happen is is not associated with stress (he stays at home plays all day he has no stress) or with lack of sleep or with too much sleep, I am pretty sure it is not a pain issue he is just terrified of something.

Long ago we started to ask him what did you dream last night at first it was benign but scary to him things like falling and have progressed to more violent things like blood and gore. Again he does not see anythign violent and plays benign video games like dora and spongbob, if we watch action or horor films we watch them in the front of the house very late at night where we can see him or any of the boys for that matter coming around from the hall and pause it quickly so they see nothing.

None of my other children have this and we have a tenative or prediagnosis of bipolar disorder from the pediatrician. However there are far more things involved in that diagnosis that I won't go into here.

HTH

I had night terrors my whole childhood and young adulthood. I was beeing abused. No one thinks its happening, but it happens. Rule everything out, talk to her, question her alot. DO COMFORT HER! To her it is VERY real! DO wake her up and tell her she is safe and you are there for her! Love and time heals all wounds and whatever it is you will get through this together.

Hi. Night terrors can be a pain, that's for sure!! My daughter has been having them on and off since she was 2 and is now 8. The only thing that remotely helped her was turning on the lights. I know at 3 in the morning the last thing you want to do is turn on lights, but somehow it helped her calm down and "wake up" on her own. Hope this helps.

THIS IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT FROM YOUR PROBLEM,BUT MY BOYFRIEND HAS BAD DREAMS WHERE HE SLEEP TALKS, HITS, SITS UP HAVING TROUBLE BREATHING, ECT. NO SLEEP WALKING THOUGH. I SLOWLY STARTED TALKING GENTLY TO HIM IN HIS SLEEP, MORE OF ASKING QUESTIONS THAT WERE RELATED WHEN POSS. HE NEVER REMEMBERS THEM, NOR ME. LAST TIME, IN HIS SLEEP, HE THANKED ME FOR COMFORTING HIM. HE OF CORSE THOUGHT IT WAS IN HIS DREAM, BUT IT WORKED ANYWAYS. IF HE IS VIOLENT, I GENTLY, BUT CAREFULLY, WAKE HIM ENOUGH TO LET HIM KNOW HE IS HAVING A BAD DREAM. I ALWAYS REASURE HIM IT'S OK AND SOMETIMES TELL HIM ITS JUST A BAD DREAM AND IT IS TIME TO DREAM ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE. IT TOOK A WHILE TO BE ABLE TO GET HIM TO HEAR, UNDERSTAND, AND RESPOND WELL TO ME, BUT AFTER HE EXPLAINS, HE CALMS DOWN ALOT! I DO HAVE AN ADVANTAGE OF CATCHING IT EARLY BECAUSE I SLEEP WITH HIM THOUGH. GOOD LUCK AND BE CAREFUL, SOMETIMES THEY SWING FULL FORCE.