My daughter has recently had a few night terrors (at bedtime and at nap time) i also believe that my 9 month old son may have has a few before. My daughter will be sitting up in bed screaming and yelling while holding out her hands saying "NO...NO" she seems to still be asleep. I know that you are not supposed to wake them but I still feel like I need to comfort her and calm her down. My son had once been asleep in his crib and started SCREAMING and CRYING uncontrollably but while he was still laying still asleep. Anyone have any advice on what to do in these situations?
The experts are right ... don't try to comfort. If they wake up, they'll just be more distraught (trust me, BTDT). We would just sit in our son's room to make sure he didn't get hurt but otherwise stayed away.
Night terrors, at least for us, were a very brief problem and then just went away.
Our son started having them at 10 months and had them pretty consistently-one or two a week until he was 15mo.
The only thing we could ever connect them to as a trigger was not good sleep during the day-but that didn't always prove 100% correct.
We would take our son out of the crib, bring him in our room, bring the lights up slowly and turn on the TV to one of his shows really loud, (since he was screaming there wasn't much choice). It would take a bit-20 minutes or so...longest ever was 2 hours-but slowly it was like the noise finally filtered in and he came back to reality. We also held him and rocked him or laid him on our bed and talked to him--but he thrashed so much we basically just made sure he didn't get hurt. Suddenly he would just be awake with a look on his face like-'how'd i get here'...and we'd take him back to bed and he'd go right back to sleep.
I know you aren't supposed to comfort them-since it doesn't really work anyway, but I like to think that what we did had some effect on shoretning the duration.
my now 9 yr old has had them since she was an infant.
The only thing you can do is hold on to them tightly so they don't hurt themselves until it subsides.
They happen more often when my daughter is over tired or stressed about something.
My daughter will have night terrors occasionally. The doctor said the best thing to do is to ignore it. Trying to soothe them and talk to them only makes it worse. You can be nearby to make sure they do not hurt themselves. I have founf that leaving my daughter alone when this happens actaully make it go away faster. The more I try to comfort her and get her to stop, the longer it lasts.
a friend of mine noticed if she fed her daughter after a certain time at night shed have a night terror. may want to play around with dinner/ bedtime?
My daughter started having night terrors at about 2. At first I thought she was just throwing a fit because she had to stay in bed in the middle of the night, but eventually I realized she was really unresponsive, kinda scary. I understand that they say not to comfort them, but in my experience she didn't wake up while I was comforting and eventually she'd calm down. I did not talk to her or turn on lights or anything, but I did turn on calm quiet music (already in her room) and hold her and say Shhhhhhh momma's got you. Eventually she would chill out. Sometimes though, picking her up would make it worse, in which case I just stayed in the room, next to her bed, and hummed along with the music. So hard to stay calm, but it passed pretty quickly. Only lasted a few weeks.
Well... Where to start? I have dealt with Night Terrors in my daughter and her father (when we were together). Both were because they fought sleep and were overtired when they finally did go to sleep. My daughter has had sleep walking episodes as well and my ex sil informed me that my ex did too. With my ex, I HAD to wake him up because he'd hurt himself or me in the process. I used to have to mule kick him to get him to stop having fits of swinging, screaming, turning lights on, yanking things off the walls, darned near knocking a 90gal fish tank over, wetting the bed, and whatever else you could think of. And yes... I said wetting the bed... From a 30yr old man.
As far as my daughter goes, I will go into her room and usually just sitting on the edge of her bed would wake her up and snap her out of her Night Terror. And as soon as she'd wake up, she'd stop screaming and sobbing, hug me, and we'd talk for a few minutes. She doesn't even know why she was crying.
The difference between a Night Terror and a Nightmare is the state of sleep that it occurs in. During REM is when we should be dreaming. Non-REM is when we should be completely at rest. That's when we have a neurotransmitter send out relaxants into our bodies to keep us immobile. In a person with Night terrors, that relaxant is never released and during non-REM is when they have this Night Terror (when it shouldn't be, but is). This is what makes people with Night Terrors so exhausted the following day. They never had the good restful Non-REM sleep they're supposed to get.
If you have any questions about sleep disorders, don't hesitate to ask. I've been through a sleep study, got diagnosed with Hypersomnia. My hubby has Apnea. My ex has night terrors (along with our daughter) and sleep walking. My aunt has RLS. I've learned A LOT about them. My sleep specialist was very surprised that I learned as much as I have. : )
Night terrors are not unusual in young children, but they can be very unnerving for parents. Remaining calm and being near the child to keep him safe is most important. Light touches and a gentle, soothing voice also provides reassurance so that as the child comes out of this state, he recognizes a familiar surrounding. This kind of atmosphere and comfortable space helps the child recuperate more quickly and move back into a more peaceful slumber.
D. Duval, PhD, LCSW
www.ChildTherapyChicago.com
