A friend of mine is looking for help with her 6 year old. He started having night terrors when he was 1, and is still having them 2-3 times/week. He wakes the rest of the house and doesn't remember anything in the morning. Does anyone have any experience with this? Thanks in advance for the help!
My daughter has night terrors and it was horrible! I feel for your friend. We also monitored what she watched on TV as well as what she ate before bed. We tried to stay away from acidy foods or foods with high sugar content. She did eventually stop having them. I wish your friend all the luck!
I have a friend who's son had night terrors and my 2 year old has started having them from time to time and she said what her doctor told her to do was wake her son up about an hour before the terror's typically would happen, just enough to bring him out of REM no fully awake, maybe getting a drink of water or something, and then put him back to bed. The terrors stopped. She did this for a short while, weeks maybe a month and the terrors stopped.
My son used to have night terrors. What we did was have him count backwards. I can't remember exactly how this worked - had something to do to making the brain function in a different way. But it did work. Maybe that will help.
My 4 year old son has night terrors and from all of the research I've done, they aren't like nightmares where they are related to something they've watched on TV or experienced during the day.
Everything says not to wake your child or talk to them, but my husband and I have found that the screaming continues for too long for us to handle (especially with other children in the house that get woken up) so we've started having him sit up and we do our best to wake him. And unlike nightmares, children who suffer from night terrors have no recollection of them in the morning. The one thing I read that has helped us lessen their occurrence is to put him to bed earlier...I think he was a bit overtired.
The good news for your friend is that they are supposed to end around 6-8 years old so perhaps they'll stop soon. I, on the other hand, suppose I have years to go. :)
I wish your friend the best of luck and improved nights sleeping!
My oldest had night terrors regularly when he was young. We've always been careful about what our children watch, but we shut the tv off completely for a month as a family challenge -- guess what, after a few days his night terrors went away. Now we only get one channel through antenna to watch the news after kids go to bed -- it's extreme, but it works for us. The kids still watch movies, but there aren't any scary commercials -- some of those commercials are the worst! He has had nightmares after going to his cousins and watching Scooby Doo and other shows on tv that my brother doesn't think are scary like cop shows, but they are-- monsters, guns, people getting killed and such. Anyway, that's my two cents.
