Seeking Thoughts on "Night Terrors"

Both my boys experience these from time to time. Sometimes just talking calmly and patting their little bottoms helps to calm them down. Other times I have had to pick him out of his crib and calm him down for a few seconds. Then I put him back in and he's fine. Only takes a few seconds.

I had night terrors as a little girl and one day my Grandma said someting to me that explained it all.. she said having a night terror is more of a feeling than a bad dream. That is so right.. I still remember the feeling I had when I was having a night terror and I still get that same feeling when I am upset or super stressed out

Years ago, I had a mom in my sunday school class who described what you are describing. I talked with her about night terrors, as much as I knew. She went back to her doctor, who found that the child had pneumonia!

Hi There,
My name is H. and I have two boys 5 and 8. My 8 year old had night terrors when he was younger and what we found was if he had a stressful day or something through him off the he would have them. We found the best thing to do was just to go lay with him. We did not touch or talk to him because that seemed to agrivate him even more. Trust me it will pass and there is nothing wrong with your child. You would be surprised how many kids go through this. If I can help you in any way please let me know. My email is ____@____.com Care H.

My oldest (now 4) had terrible night terror and as I found that the more stressful and big the day was the worse the night terrors were. If we missed nap time night terrors would happen also... It really isn't fun, but the best suggestion I could give is a daily nap/rest and very consistent days for awhile. If you know it is going to be a big day or a stressful day make sure you plan for down time.

If it is happening within two to three hours after she is falling asleep then it would be night terror not nightmares... Night terrors they will not even remember the next day unless you make a big deal about them. Nightmares children will generally wake up from, not night terror and no dreaming is involved in night terrors... That's what the books say that I read.

Good Luck. By the time my son turn three night terrors were gone. It was stressful and I always felt helpless during the episodes.

My oldest daughter would have them when she was 3 and 4 years old. She would absolutely freak out. I couldn't get her to wake up to "snap out of it". My mom mentioned that maybe she needed to go potty and couldn't wake up, so when she would scream I would walk her to the potty (it was a bit of a fight, but we would get her there). She would scream for a bit on the potty, not making any sense as to what she was saying and not responding to anything I would say or do. Eventually she would go potty and immediately calm down and snap out of it. I could then walk her back to bed and the next morning she wouldn't remember any of it.

Is she potty trained? I wonder if she has to poop and has pains in her tummy that are affecting her sleep? I was assured by my doctor that night terrors are normal.

My son had night terrors when her was around 2 as well. It seemed as though it would always happen when he went to bed especially exhausted or had a long day. It also seemed to happen at about the same time every night. Our Dr. told us to wake him up about 2 hours after he fell asleep which would reset his sleep cycle and break his current one in which he was having the terrors. This seemed to work pretty well. I would just go in and pick him up and kiss on him and rub his back until he could respond to a question. Then because he was still drowsy, I would lay him back down and he would just fall back to sleep. I did this for about a week and it seemed to break the cycle.
Good Luck!

my youngest ( 3 1/2) has had night terrors for 1 1/2 years now. our dr suggested giving her melatonin right before bed to help her sleep through the night. she only has them about 1 a week now.
gl and I hope you find the solution that fits you best.

C.~ My son has had night terrors since he was two and still does, he is now 8. What I have found to work the best is to go in and try to calm them (even though they are asleep it just makes ME feel better to try and calm) I hug him then try to get him to lay down IN A DIFFERENT POSITION and usually he just goes back to sleep and doesn't remember anything in the morning. (boy the rest of us do!)

Oprah just did a whole show on this, it was very informative.
http://www.oprah.com/health/oz/slide/20080401/oz_20080401...

I have noticed that the terror usually comes on about 45 minutes to an hour after he has gone to sleep and it happens more frequently when he is over tired.

Hang in there!

K.

My daughter had night terrors since 1 year old. I have them too. The good news, is they get less as they reach three or so. They are worse when tired, over stimulated, nervous (like starting school), or when there is anyidstruption in normal schedule. They are less when I keep a pretty tight schedule with lots of rest (if not napping anymore, still do one hour quiet time a lone in room in afternoon). Our episodes are typically at 11. This was when I was nursing my son, so I would have to get him finished and put back to bed to tend to my daughter...and by that time, he needed to nurse again! So, I uderstand the lack of sleep. If your other children are older, talk about it with them. Let them know that this is going on and to not be scared. A night terror is a nightmare, but it happens when the body is not all the way in the sleep stage. So the body can move and eyes even be open, yet they are asleep. Don't touch them, rather sit near them and wisper. Your name is..., I am your mommy, you are safe. Something like that. They hear it and it becomes their dream. So when they do wake, it isn't scary anymore...even if they cry. When you try to wake them, that is in the dream too and it can be very scary to wake with your parent (or in my case, husband, sitting over you. I often, when it was really bad and she was very little, carefully picked her up, wrapped her in a blnaket or my robe and took her out to the porch. This woke her more easily and became our thing to sit and rock a minute outside and talk about the stars. As she was older, two years old, we talked about it too, at another time of day. I'd ask if she remembers waking up. I would tell her that it was not real. That every night, she is sae in our house. Every night, mom and dad are right there to help her....etc. We also talk about the best things that happened each day right before bed. We sometimes would visualize that fun time and replay it as the last thought. Basically, whatever works to get her brain in a totally safe and happy place. Visuallization helped a lot. also, giving her time to talk out worries earlier in the day. Especially when preschool started, she was worried about making frineds and being left out. Getting that all out in the afternoon helped a lot! Good luck, and try very hard to center yourself before you go in to her. Focus on positive emotions as they pick up on that. If you are tense about it...it takes longer for them to go to bed. Now, nearly four, if she wakes, it is ten minutes tops to get her back to full, comfortable sleep.

My daughter had night terrors when she was about 3. After about 2 months of trying everything under the sun, we found the root of the problem. She was half awake half asleep and I asked her in a very calm voice (for the millionth time) what she wanted. She yelled at me, I want my binky!! She hadn't had it for over a year. In the morning we talked about it and she was shocked she asked for it. From that night forward they seemed to stop. She would wake up but go right back down. See if there is some new thing missing from her life, and good luck.!!!

I get night terrors if the room is to warm.

My kids(3) have all gone through a phase of "night terrors" between 2-4 years old. All it took for us was a little patience and simply reassuring them to sleep again. It does seem concerning at first, but I found it to be quite common with my other mom friends and their children.

The best thing to do when your child is having night terrors is to wake them up so they can "reset". This is really hard to do. My mother-in-law, who has 12 children and has dealt with night terrors a lot found that taking them outside will usually wake them up, particularly if it's cold outside. Also, night terrors are more frequent when your child is over tired. Make sure he is getting his naps and getting to bed early enough.

Unfortunately, with Night Terrors, there isn't much you can do. I think it is best if someone goes in to be with her to make sure she doesn't hurt herself, but it can be difficult to console someone who is, technically, still asleep.

My cousin has had these since he was about a year old...he is now eleven. They get better, grow out of them, but it can take a while. Now, he only has 1-3 each year, whereas he used to get several a night. Be patient and loving as much as possible and take lots of naps to keep up on your sleep. Good luck.

Hi C.- A couple of suggestions because we went through this with our now almost 3 year old for several months. Our pediatrician had some recommendations: #1-make sure that she is completely full before you put her to bed. #2-play some soothing music (like the baby einstein's lullabies or something) in the background for her through the night. #3- (the one we were most opposed to) if it gets really bad and she is not sleeping at all, try a does of benadryl before bed. We have had to use the benadryl a couple of times, but the other two worked most of the time. Good luck.

My son who is 13 months has night terrors as well as my neice who is 6 yrs. Both my sister and I have discovered the only thing that will help control them down is to keep them on strict schedule. My son goes to bed at that the same time every night, sleeps in his bed, and gets up at the same time. He has a nap around the same time everyday. When we go out of town and we can't keep everything constant, we do whatever we can to make it like home. We bring his blanket from his bed, we bring his toys, we keep him on the same schedule. With both our kids.... nothing will calm them down. They are upset, screaming, and pretty much out of control. My son, screams and won't calm down he throws his head back. Dr. have told my sister not to wake them up it would make things harder. Good luck, it is so hard to watch your child really upset and know there is nothing you can do. Hang in there, I've been told they will grow out of them at an early age.

Hi C.
I had the exact problem with Gabriela. She slept through the night since 6 weeks then all of a sudden was up screaming, but asleep, several times a night. I´d try to wake her up and ask her if she had a bad dream. Since they can talk now she actually told "lion" or "doggie" or something like that. I realized that we had started showing her Disney movies. She´s all about princesses and mermaids etc. But these movies can actually be scarey and have "bad guys" in them. Well I stopped all Disney movies and any movie with animals and started with Strawberry shortcake and Mickey Mouse Club House and Cayou. Anything that doesn´t have good guy bad guy theme or scarey animals (I even took out Lion King). Well almost immediately the night mares stopped and now she´s back to all night long. But if you hear her crying, never avoid going in to see her. It´s not like she´s learning to sleep through the night and you don´t want something to actually be wrong and you don´t check on her.
Good Luck
S. h

If you are not a faith believing family, then I would just play soothing music as she goes to sleep. You older one will learn to sleep right through her sister. They adjust really well. If you are a faith believing family then just either read Psalm 91 every night until the nightmares stop (thats what I did when my daughter was waking up in the middle of the night, she was 2 1/2 at the time) &/or sing Jesus Loves Me before she goes to sleep. I hope this helps. K

It might not be night terrors. I recommend the book Solving Your Child's Sleep problems by Dr. Ferber. It explains these types of problems. I know it helped our family reduce the number of these wakings by knowing how to avoid them in the first place. I hope this helps.

My husband and I had our oldest granddaugther for 18 months and she suffered from "Night Terrors". We went to doctors and she was also seeing a psychologist who helped us. We went into her bed. Held her, re-assured her in a soothing voice. Do not try to wake her. Be there for her. She did out grow them. We were told that if she had been in foster care her chances of being abused for this was 98% due to misunderstanding of the night terrors. She is 13 now and a lovely girl. Be patience and loving with her. I would also suggest going on line regarding these. It is very frigthening for both of you.

Hi,
We deal with this too. I haven't been able to connect it to any one thing. We've been dealing with night terrors since my sone was 15 months old and he is almost 7. I have a cousin who has them and has had them since he was a toddler. He is 34 and he still has them. For him his trigger was/is stress. If the child is under stress (this can be anything from a long day to seeing something on tv that was scary) it can trigger one. My aunt says with my cousin she found sugar was another trigger for my cousin. We have learned from our son that his night terror will happen about 2 hours after he goes to sleep. Because he is in a regular bed he gets up and runs around the house at warp speed, screaming (we have to keep the doors to other rooms open or he really freaks). We have learned to just watch him to make she doesn't get hurt. They are still asleep so holding them or hugging them doesn't help, we think it makes it worse. We explain it like he is "acting out his nightmare" there is a look in their eyes that tells you they are not awake. My son talks with his and we can't understand him because he's so hysterical. The upside is that all this lasts about 3 mins. and he's goes back to his room and gets back in bed. He never remembers anything in the morning. As he has gotten into school we have seen a drop in them to less then one a month.

A little about me:
I am a SAHM. I have a son who will be 7 in May and a daughter who will be 5 in May. My hubby and I have been married for 13 years in May. We like May!!

In reading the other responses I am thinking that people need to realize there is a difference between night terrors and nightmares. We have experiences night terrors with one of our children. He would wakes up several times a night screaming. It would last for 5 minutes or so and then he would calm down. Usually nothing we did helped at all. It is very frustrating because they are not actually awake. Our pediatrician said that if you wake them up it will make it worse and longer. Rest assured that they will grow out of it. He is now 4 and hasn't had one for quite a while. We did find that if he watched a movie that had anything scary in it he would have night terrors that night. Keep in mind that things that we don't find scary might scare a child. Good luck, I know how hard it can be.

Hi Christine,
We have experienced this just recently as my 2 year old has been waking a few times with night terrors. It's terribly disturbing as there have been times I can't get him to calm down for almost an hour....and I mean he's SCREAMING. I've talked to several friends about this and all have told me the same....it's a phase. I've read up on this too to see if I can find any information and most of what I've read say the same thing...it's a phase and to be as consistent as you can when putting them back down. I wish I had more advice for you other than I know exactly how you feel.

Pray over her and through your house. Pray for God's peace and rest. Also, make sure she sees you and your husband hugging each other and talking to each other. Sometimes we kids are afraid Mommy and Daddy don't love each other anymore they wake up all night because they are afraid.

Three out of my four children have had varying degrees of night terrors. What I've learned is that when it's happening the best thing to do is to be there to make sure they don't hurt themselves, speak to them reassuringly but don't do a lot of touching. At least for my children, holding them or gently shaking them to wake them up seemed to just set them off worse. I also turn on their bedroom light and ask if they need to use the bathroom. They eventually wake up and/or settle back down to sleep.
I would agree with the comments of others that it occurs most often when the child has had a stressful or exciting day and getting overheated seems to trigger it. It definitely has something to do with having trouble transitioning between sleep states. This tends to run in families and is related to sleep walking and sleep paralysis (I have this sometimes--it's very frightening). At least with night terrors they usually don't remember anything at all the next morning.
My youngest had the worst terrors, screaming like he was being put to death and calling for mommy and yet mommy being there didn't help because he was asleep. I started doing just a few minutes of energy work (Healing Touch) on him every night at bedtime. Soon, he asked for it every night and it seemed to help. Over a few months he asked for it less and less and the night terrors have calmed down and rarely ever happen any more (just when he's sick which is not often).
Lots of good advice from everyone--wish I'd had this resource when my kids were smaller!

Night Terrors can be brutal. We went through this with our son. It started before he was a year old and lasted until after he was 2. Every night, every two hours, screaming and crying and thrashing around.

I don't suggest you let her 'cry it out'. She may be in an altered state (somewhere between sleep and awake), but she is afraid of something that she cannot tell you about. Leaving her on her own will only make the problem deeper and worse. Would you want someone to do that to you?

You might talk to a doctor of homeopathy, there may be a remedy that could help her.

Good luck.

Blessings,

M.

Hi C., my son Dwight, suffered, or maybe I suffered because my son had night terrors. It's an awful feeling when you can't comfort your child. He would wake up screeming just like yours and I had troubel getting him to calm down. One time I questioned the doctor and they had a whole page on night terrors and what to do. My son is 14 yrs now and I don't remember everything on that page, but one thing I do remever is see if your daughter has the night terrors at the same time every night. If so, wake her up about 15 to 30 before. The way I understand it is night terrors are cause by deep sleep. My son sleeps deep. But if you wake them up a few minutes before they will not be in that deep sleep. Now my son had his about about midnight and I had trouble getting him up a few minutes before. So what I and my older son (who's room was closest to Dwight's) started doing was reasuring him that it was okay that we took care of "it". I still to this day don't know what it was but it seem to reasure him that it was okay and he would calm down and go to sleep. Try tell her, "it's okay, mommy took care of "it" you can go to sleep now." I wish you the best of luck!.

K.
mother of 4

I am going through the same thing. It has been almost a year now. I have tried some herbs that you rub on. they seem to lesson teh severity of the terror. but they still continue.. I am hating it. It makes for some really long nights. Email me I will tell you the name of the herbs...
UPDATE!!! My son has had only 2 night terrors since May and we use the herbs once a week. to rub on his chest. I think it is working.. YEAH!!!!

If it's pain causing this, Tylenol before bedtime might help. Otherwise, I would talk to the doctor if it continues. Hopefully she'll be able to tell you. Yes and no questions might give you a wealth of information. One that works well with our boys is "Did you see something scary in your sleep?" Then it doesn't matter what it was, we can explain it is make believe. If not, you can go from there with other thoughts, teeth, etc. I hope you get some good sleep tonight!

I do not have and good advice to give you about this but I truly sympetheize with you. My son who is 4 has been waking up for the past three weeks with Night Terrors. I am not sure what is causing them. If you hear anything we can try will you let me know. I hope your daughter does better this week. J.

Has she watched any movies that might give her these nightmares? Maybe at bed time say prayers for a nice sleep with nice dreams.

Is this happening every night? Has your family recently gone through a change of any kind? Have you tried talking to her about it? I know she is only 2, but maybe she can tell you what 's the matter.

Typically with night terrors they take a while to calm down and don't go back to sleep that easily. Also I have never heard of night terrors frequently through the night. Does she do this once or several times.
It very well could be two year molars, where it is causing her disturbed sleep. If she seems disoriented, very upset and takes a while to calm down, then it could be night terrors. Most of these are phases and pass quickly. My daughter had three, my son two.
I would make sure nothing else like reflux or teething are causing her discomfort and waking her up. If it several times a night then I would take her in to rule those things out, if it continues.

Hi C.,
I've been there. Don't just let her cry. You are right that she is not awake and in her distressed state she could end up hurting herself. There is a lot of info on night terrors on the internet and your pediatrician will have some as well. But what everyone seems to agree on is that true night terrors are caused by a disturbance in the sleep cycle. Somehow the brain gets out of whack when it is switching between the different stages of sleep. Some parts of the brain are trying to wake up while others won't allow that fully. So, waking her all the way up when she is screaming is important. Otherwise she can't get back to the regular cycle. I would turn on the lights, make my daughter sit up, and always took her to the bathroom. This seemed to work well and definately lessened the amount of times she would go through this each night. Another thing you may want to try, which ended up being the best for my daughter, is to put her to bed with your normal routine. Then, just before her first screaming spell usually starts (typically 30-45 minutes later) go and gently wake her up. Quietly sit her up, take her to the bathroom, and put her back to bed. This acts as a "reset" and it worked every time with my daughter.
My daughter was a little older than yours when she went through this so she could tell me that she wasn't having a nightmare and she didn't even remember the screaming at all.
Good Luck,
B.

Dear C.,
I often am amazed at what is on the TV, or in the movies we watch and how it can effect our children. They may be able, at the time, to tolerate violence in cartoons, or in drama, but the effects can manifest itself latter during their sleep.

My children really didn't start with nightmares until about 3, if at all. Over the years I have learned to be very careful about what they watch. Even the most innocent movie can have a message that is interpreted as frightening to a child.

My eight year old also gets upset with some of the children's movies. Narnia can be very frightening even to an older child. When they are younger they often can't distiguish between reality and make believe and as they get older, they still have a hard time with integrating what they have heard/seen with their day to day life.

I would suggest that you view what she is viewing critically, through her eyes and see if it could be giving her messages that are unsettling.

The advice giving about the physiological aspects of her health are also interesting to consider.

Best to you!
H. B.