Night Terrors - Washington,DC

Hi W.,

"Night Terrors" have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with anxiety or stress, current past or future.

"Nightmares" are a completely different thing..... and you shouldn't confuse the 2. Nightmares can be tied to current situations, fears, stressors or psychological stimulia.

Night Terros are basically just the brain not shutting off. It's not even dreaming.

Any anxiety you see in an older child cannot be tied to having Night Terrors in the past. Night Terrors is a physical stimuli, not a psychological stimuli.
The child sleeping can't even tell they are screaming or up and about. They don't "remember" anything.

Night Terrors occur within about an hour after the person falls asleep and do not occur in the REM sleep cycle (REM, or the dream/nightmare cycle, happens about 90 minutes after falling asleep and is not as "deep" of a sleep).

Night Terrors are only bad for the people who are awke. Please don't "feel so deeply for him" because there is nothing to feel bad about. Your son isn't "going through anything" as you might think, so put that guilt or whatever right out of your mind...... And I know it's hard to do!!!!!!!

Feel deeply for YOU, who has to watch a Night Terror. "He" doesn't even know he has them.... unless you are telling him, which is a separate issue.

There were 2 things that our Dr had us do with my daughter (who had them for about a year when she was 2 1/2 ish).....
1. Absolutely strict bedtime routine and consistent time.... her "brain" had to wind down and the physical stimuli had to shut off. Calm, no noise, no computer or TV an hour before bed.

2. Then we woke her up about 45 minutes after she went to sleep. not enough to get her fully awake.... but enough to "jolt" her out of her natural sleep cylce.

We did find some success after doing both of those.

She had them about a year. Then they went away. You will hear lots of people say they will have them again when they go through puberty..... hormonal shift in the brain..... She's almost 12 and so far we have not had a recurrance.

Good Luck.

I am wondering if your son is actually having night terrors. Only one of my four did and it had nothing to do with stress.

Now my oldest when under stress or sleep deprived will talk/yell in his sleep. That is not a night terror and he still does it from time to time and he is 24. Who Tommy is causes his sleep issues not the other way around. I hope that makes sense.

Andy was my son with the night terrors. Two huge differences. One you cannot wake a child up having a night terror you can wake them up when they are talking in their sleep. Once awake Andy would have no idea what he was dreaming because he wasn't dreaming where Tommy could tell you what he was dreaming.

Hope this helps.

Interesting that you mention all the stressors in his life... I have a 7 year old who has been having night terrors for about 6 months now. **NO** major changes or stressors in his life. We are an intact family, stable home life, reasonable (modest) standard of living... he just started with these middle of the night terrors. Scared me to pieces initially. Now I understand them and don't freak out myself, but it is disturbing to see him in that state, then not have any recollection in the morning. I understand they usually grow out of it after a while. I will say, however, that he is a very sensitive boy. He internalizes situations and his emotions are usually obvious. I empathize completely... hoping our guys come out of this stage unscathed!

I don't know the answer to your questions, W.. I'm truly sorry, though, that all of you are going through this.

Just in case this might be helpful in any way, though, I want to tell you what several moms here have said about night terrors. They have found success in mitigating them by going in around 11:00 or 12:00 at night and waking the child enough (maybe giving them a cup of water or getting them to go to the potty) so that their sleep is interrupted. I cannot remember the scientific reason why it works, but these moms found that it prevents the night terrors.

Try that and see if it helps your son.

Hugs!
Dawn

the best way to avoid them is to put him to bed before he's over tired.
I've found my daughter has had them more frequantly when she was over tired.
My husband had them when he was a child and my daughter had them from the time she was about 6 months old. Triggered I believe by her dad leaving for a year. She is now 10 still has the occasionally. But for the most part she has grown out of them. My son has not had them.

My husband is fairly well balanced, no anxiety at all.
My daughter has other issues that cause her to have anxiety , and well she's 10.

It would help to know how old he is.