Almost 3 Year Old Cries in Her Sleep

My daughter would wake up crying from time to time at that age...in a trance like state...I figured out...that she had to pee. Every single time, thats what it was. However, around the age of 3 my little brother had night terrors. About an hour after he fell asleep on the button...he would start whining...then yelling as if he was horrified. He never remembered it in the morning. It was heart breaking!!

My 3.5 year old has night terrors where his eyes are open, and he screams, but he's not aware of anything. His pupils are dilated, and he doesn't see us. I pick him up and carry him around and try to wake him up gently, usually by looking at lights on the DVD player or microwave. That seems to rouse him for some reason.

My daughter (5yrs old) does this on occassion...mostly when she's overly tired. I believe they're night terrors. She'll just act like she's very unsettled and uncomfortable. You know, whimpering, tossing/turning, kicking, etc. I try to leave her alone b/c that's what I've been told to do based on advice from friends, books, doctors, etc. I've been told it's not good to wake someone having a night terror...however...if it's bad enough, I'll actually pick her up and carry her around for a minute or two. That seems to help b/c it distracts her and gets her out of it.

Her terrors have gotten much better with age. They've never actually been really really bad, but, there have been times where I had to interfere. Around age 4yrs, they were at their peak with terrors around 4 nights a week. Now that she's older, they've gotten better unless, like I stated earlier, she's overly tired.

My 4 year old does this. He's had a few night terrors too, but it's mostly the quiet whimpering. I don't think there is much you can do to stop it other than to make sure they go to bed on time and to not let them get overly tired. I do the same as you. I go in and sometimes lift the covers off of him, turn over his pillow to the cool side, and help him into another position. That seems to help. It is heartbreaking to know they're dreaming about sad or scary things.

The other night he yelled sadly that he just wanted his popcorn back. I think we're in for a rough ride. :)

We have the same issue with my just-turned-3 year-old and we finally realized that it was when she needed to pee at night that this would happen. Now each time we take her out of bed, sit her on the potty and have her pee and every time she goes right back to sleep and stays asleep. Not sure if it will be the same in your scenario but I thought it was worth mentioning :) Good luck mama, I had many nights with that waking up to the whimpering/crying every hour or so and it is horrible.

My 6 yo still does it and always has since she was little. She did have night terrors when she was very little, but the whimpering, usually in the early hours of the morning seem to be a bit of a constant for her. She wakes up and doesn't remember doing it. Her older brother does it too, but in a louder, more obnoxious way. He says it's because he has a hard time breathing through his nose when he lies down. Drs haven't found a cause though. I definitely wouldn't wake her up though. That's a lot more disruptive than her crying in her sleep. (In all kindness, you are really trying to comfort yourself when you do that. But I completely understand it!) Cutting out a lot of over-stimulating activity (tv, video games, etc) will help. At least, it does with my dd. Good luck!