Night Terrors? - Elk Grove, CA

Hi,

My daughter experierienced Night Terrors at the age of 3, I mentioned this to her peditrician and he offered what he knew to be something that had worked with other patients. Before I tell you what it was, I must explain that I had a 5 month old with severe colic, my husband worked 3 jobs and I also worked full time. After 1 month of these night terrors 3-4 times a week, I would have tried anything. He had my daughter take liquid Valuim for 7 straight nights, just enough for her age and weight to make her get into a heavy sleep pattern to break the cycle she was in. To this day, she's never had another. I know some mother's out there will cringe, but I was at my wits end. Good luck to you!

My 28 a year old suffered from night terrors as a child. It lasted for about a year. They tend to outgrow it. It can be frightening but one of the things I did would be to pick him up and take him into another room. I have put a warm wet washcloth on his face and that tended to help some. You are not doing anything wrong...Sometimes it has to do with stress or something the child has seen on TV. This is mild to the things that happen in teenage years.

The son of a good friend of ours had night terrors. He's grown out of them now (age 11) so this won't go on forever. They had to wake him up fully in the middle of the night. About the time they went to bed one would go in and fully wake him up to break the sleep cycle. If they did that he didn't get them.

Hi HS,

My 5-year-old daughter seems to have some similar characteristics to your son. What about those middle-of-the-night screams of holy terror? What a way to get the andrenalin going! I think she's anxious not to pee in bed so she screams to wake herself up. She has a very sensitive and socially oriented personality as well; with a strong ability for leadership. I kind of suspect that's why she is more prone to those screaming fits in the middle of the night.

I suggest some music that he likes that he can dance exuberantly to. It could help him to feel himself as an empowered individual with strengths of his own. That way he won't feel that he needs to "check-in" with you about his anxieties. As a single mom myself to two boistrous, elementary-school age children, I know that they can pick up on our anxieties, so it's important for you to get out a little and enjoy yourself too. If your feeling stressed get out and do something for yourself that's nurturing and fun. That way you can be an empowered role-model for him.

All the Best,
M.

I had the same thing happen to me at the age of 7. They were never really for sure what was causing them, but they put me through some testing and finally said that it was caused by a new medication I was put on for my asthma. All I know is I still remember being afraid to go to sleep. The dreams really scared my mom and my best advice for you is to make sure he feels comforted by you and knows you are there. Best of luck!
K. V.

My friend has night terrors, she has recently seen a Naturepath doctor, Dr. Young in Los Gatos. One common trigger is food allergies. It's an easy blood test. Make sure the blood test test's 2 blood proteins not just one. Another is hormones and fluids (I don't remember the right term) in the brain ie... seratonin and Gaba. In my friends case here Cortisol is very high and the Gaba is always trying to put the brakes on. Since she has been on the supplements or medicine she hasn't had a night terror
Candy

My daughter had night terrors from the time she was 2 - she's 12 now and it's been maybe 1-2 years since she's had any. I found the best results with her when she would "wake up" screaming or crying was to just get her up and walk her to the bathroom and sit her on the toilet. I would turn on the light and if she was jumpy or kind of freaking I would wet a cloth and gently wipe it on her face and talk gently to her. I think the getting her up seemed to be the most successful thing for stirring her to a conscious state and she always went potty when we sat her on the toilet. She often "saw" things that we had no idea what they were so we prayed alot too ;) She never seemed to remember these episodes. Our pediatrician gave us a great handout on night terrors which was very helpful too.

Do you have a night light on in his room at night? I found that the night light was doing it for my son. He need the night light for comfort to feel safe when he would go to sleep. However, in the middle of the night he would wake up, scared, whimpering, screaming, and I realized that the light was helping in that department. Once I started turning the night light off after he was fast asleep, he stopped waking up in the middle of the night.

When you are talking to him make sure he is fully awake like he is after he goes potty. If you don't he is still in that semi-dream state and won't realize it. With my son I immediatley say Preston, wake up. Mommy is right here, wake up. He does and settles down within 5-10min.

Strangly enough I have had a few night terrors myself and they can be very confusing. In my case it was due to stress and lack of sleep. Perhaps having more calming evenings together and earlier bed time might help. Good luck...They call them night TERRORS for a reason they are scary, so I hope you find a solution soon. God Bless

Hi H S

I was reading a few of your responses, and it seems as though some of our moms believe that Night Terrors and Nightmares are similar....they are not! It's hard to tell the difference between the two, actually. A few things to help determine if it IS, in fact, Night Terrors your son is having:

Wakes up screaming as though something horrifying is happening
Wakes up at the exact same time each night.
Wakes up with his eyes open, yet doesn't see you, or thinks you're dangerous.

Your son DOES sound like he's having Night Terrors! I have experience with them, as my son used to suffer. It's so awful because even though they look like they're awake....they are not!

The best advice I got....was to "take note" of the time he wakes up. If it's Night Terros, then the times should be within 30 minutes each night, almost the exact same time. If this is the case, then you need to set your alarm for 15 minutes BEFORE he will wake up. WAKE HIM UP lovingly to ask how he sleeping, or whatever... be loving, be quiet, just wake him up. After he goes back to sleep, he should "skip" his Night Terror Episode.

You should do this for a couple of weeks, then stop. Hopefully, they will go away.

I'd be curious if it works for you, like it did for me. Keep my email, and let me know in a week or so

Good Luck! Sleep tight!

:o) N.

Hi,

My daughter has had night terrors since she was about 1 and a half and she is now 9. I never let her watch inappropriate tv shows, she didn't start playing video games until she was 7. So as a baby and toddler i couldn't figure out what was scaring her so bad. She does the exact same thing your son does, 1.5 years old crouched in the corner of her room, arms trying to cover her face, screaming, trembling, crying yelling stop stop stop....I hear ya, it is terrifying for the parent also. I was a single mom, 18 yrs old, lived alone with her and no idea of what to do....so i went to the dr. They said anything can set it off, even something not scary. I wouldn't even let her watch disney cartoon movies like the lion king, or Aladdin because of the scary parts. The doctor said trying to wake them wont’ work, they can’t wake up. It just makes the situation worse and more intense and agitates them more, just try to comfort them and keep them safe. with the flailing around they can hurt themselves. i was told it was hereditary...(i sleep walk and her dad sleep talks) Also, the dr said, try not to watch tv before bed but read a calm story. regardless, if they are prone to them, anything can set it off. my daughter had one one time where she was screaming at the people in the photos on the wall of her aunt’s house because they were coming out of the frames and attacking her???? When she wakes up the next morning she never remembers a thing. That is usually how you can tell it is a terror not a nightmare. Try talking to him when it is happening, saying something to resolve the situation…when the pictures were attacking her, I told her to rip up the pictures and they would stop attacking her. As a general rule, as they get older the terrors happen less. So lucky for us, they have tapered off, but will never go away completely. I have however heard of others who still have them regularly as an adult. Hang in there...hopefully it will get better...

Good luck

My son, now 5, gets both bad dreams and/or night terrors, more often when he: Goes to bed late; has too much overstimulation - like a loud long movie, birthday party, etc.; eats something heavy too close to bedtime; is too hot or too cold while sleeping; and most definitely when having a growth spurt. Right now, he is having a growth spurt and I think the night terrors are worse when he gets leg pains. Bananas and more fluids seem to help, as well as extra leg massage (always part of his bedtime routine). I'm worried about further dehydration with the hot weather!

I don't know if someone has already said this but..My son is almost 8 and has experienced night terrors for the last 5 years. It dosen't happen often, but he has even gotten out of bed and done things. Here's what I've learned:
Do not wake them up. If my son is sitting up or has gotten out of bed, I lay him down again and sit with him and smooth his head and say mama's here and you are ok, most of the time he goes back to sleep in seconds or wakes up and asks for water or goes pee pee.
Don't worry about them unless they are still having them after 12 years old.
Most of the time they are dreaming of something they have to escape. If your child gets out of bed and opens doors or ends up in other rooms it is advised that you lock doors and windows.
They happen most often when the child's normal sleep pattern is interupted or they are overly tired.
It can be a genetic trait.
Anyways,
I know it's scary, but it's also normal.
A.

Does he have any recollection in the morning of these dreams? You might try removing the lava lamp and baseball and changing the sheets. Also, try getting him something to protect him while he sleeps. I give my 4 year old my teddy bear (a very old bear, great protector) when he has scary nights, but only on those nights, he has his own bear the rest of the time. We also have told him that his bear (and mine) are there to watch over him and keep him safe at night.

Another thing we did was take a bottle of Febreeze, pour it into another spray bottle and wrote SCARE-A-WAY on it. This is sprayed around his room at night (when needed) to keep all the scary things away. Works great and smells good too :).

Keep an eye out for TV shows, books, movies, etc that might be creating the ideas in his dreams. Frequently these are things that you or I would not link to the dreams, but children are very creative.

Last, remember, this too shall pass.

M.

My son did the same thing. He woke up in the middle of the night one day screaming because he thought there were crocodiles all around him. We read to him a bedtime story every night and we had just read a story about crocodiles that day. From that time on we chose to read calm soothing stories. We do not buy books or toys that has anything to do with violence and we do not allow kids to watch cartoons (they are the worst kind of violence).

Who does your son play with? What do they talk about? How do they interact with each other? What games do they play? These are questions you might check into.

If your son is up and staring into space until he falls asleep it could be that he is afraid to sleep because he is afraid of his dreams that terrify him.

Monitor his meals. What is he eating? When is his supper? Late evening meals can cause nighmares in anyone. Evening meals should be light (no meat and no sweets). Bedtime preferably 4 hours after the meal if the meal is heavy.

This is our program and it's made a difference.

As a mother of a 2 1/2 year old who gets severe night terrors I feel for you and congratulate for not taking extreme measures (im assuming you havent because you are seeking advice). My son gets them often. He started @ 18 months and was fine for awhile until recently. Now they have returned--he kicks, screams, and most recently started banging his head on the wall. If you come near him he screams and pushes or hits you away (naturally, the tests your patience levels). All I can really do is wait it out and watch to make sure he doesnt hurt himself. After about 20 min or more he wakes up as if nothing ever happened (his eyes are open during the rants but you can tell hes not all there and that hes still asleep) I've done quite a bit of research on these and learned about some while taking some psychology classes and a few things about them are that:
1. if he remembers them, they are a nightmare, not a night terror
2. difference being that nightmares occur in REM sleep, night terrors happen in nREM sleep
3. unfortunately the best thing you can do is to wait it out and make sure he is safe
4. getting enough sleep and having a steady bedtime routine helps

nightmares--which he will remember--could happen because something is scaring him. since you realize what is giving the nightmares maybe try replacing them...maybe plain sheets or something? I havent had experience with nightmares so Im just going off of what I would do for my son. Routines and getting enough sleep help significantly though. I would start there if you dont do that already. here's a website that was really good for me:
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/night_terrors/article_em.htm

and

http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/sleep/terrors.html

i hope those help a little bit :)

My youngest daughter (who is 3) has this issue as well. I think it is basically sleepwalking, because she doesn't remember any of it in the morning. She is always coming to my bed in the middle of the night and crying that there are grasshoppers in her bed (?!). So I go to her room with her and show her that there are clearly no grasshoppers in her bed. But she will stand there insisting that the grasshopper is RIGHT THERE (pointing to the middle of the obviously empty sheet) and saying "Mama, I scared!" Until I smash the non-existent grasshopper, she won't get back in bed.

I was telling my mom about this, and she said that her younger brother did this for YEARS - only for him, it was a man with a baseball bat. He would wake his parents up, convinced that a man with a baseball bat was under his bed (or in his closet, or outside his window). He could not be convinced otherwise because he was basically asleep the whole time. So my grandfather would have to get up and go run off "the man with the baseball bat."

I don't think any of the usual tricks for childhood fears will work here (for my older daughter, I sprinkled "fairy dust" on her head before bedtime to get rid of bad dreams, etc.). This is not a childhood fear, it's actually sleepwalking. As far as I know there is no cure for it, other than that they will outgrow it at some point. As such, I have babyproofed all our exterior doors so she doesn't go outside at night (she hasn't tried, but you never know). Also I have noticed that the issue is a lot worse on nights when she has gone to bed late. It's like the late bedtime messes with her internal clock, and somehow she does not sleep as well? I have been trying to put her to bed early and it seems like that helps reduce these episodes. (We went to the coast over the weekend, and she got up 7 TIMES one night with the Grasshopper thing - she'd gone to bed super late though...)

I'm curious to see what the other responses are to this question!

Hi, I don't know if it will help, When my daughter started with her terrors, at about the same age. We took her to our doctor, had all kinds of test,including MRI. Nothing was wrong that the doctor could find. We decided to try giving her a high protein snack before bed and a quiet story time. It worked for her. I found that it happened more if she got overly tired. Her daddy's voice also seemed to calm her. Good luck, I hope that you find something that will help your son.

My daughter wasn't always fearful during these episodes, but she walked in her sleep with regularity and sounded a lot like your son when she'd come talking to me. I'm responding to you because I discovered that the way to wake her up enough so she could go back to "real" sleep, was to take her to the bathroom. Talking to her and touching her didn't seem to work, but the bathroom worked every time. Since I saw that going to the bathroom worked for your son, I wanted to suggest that you try that right away after he begins experiencing his terrors. Good luck!

It sounds alot like night terrors only my daughter wouldn't talk at all. I took her to a psychologist for just one visit and she never had another one. For her she was just putting too much stress on herself to be perfect in her school work. Sometimes just talking to someone they don't know works. Remove the things that you know scare him.

Hi!

I had them as a child and still have them to this day. They are worse when I have to take antibiotics for some reason. Everything becomes infinitely more realistic. I can NOT watch anything remotely scary or gruesome or else it comes back to me in my dreams. I made the mistake of seeing I Am Legend in December and to this day when the sun goes down I notice I get a little more panicked. I close the windows and blinds and when I go to bed the visions start. If I don't talk myself down then I wake up screaming and in a puddle of sweat. Night Terrors are nightmares to the extreme. Even once the person wakes up they still feel like they are in the middle of that dream and can't get out of it. I can't tell you how many times I've woken up and FLOWN out of my bed convinced that i was covered with bugs, snakes, etc. or thought there was someone outside my window and I hid in the bathroom.
The one thing that I have noticed in my undergrad studies of Psychology... the more intelligent the person the more likely they are to have night terrors. Now this comment is only based on a couple of studies that i have read on the topic, but it helped me to understand why I have them. I mean, I'm 30 for cryin out loud! I should be able to handle an R rated movie, but most of the time i can't.
He HAS to learn to talk to himself when he's going through these things. He HAS to wake up. If you have to wake him up then do so.
What I have found to help me is a product called 5-HTP and Acidophilus. I do NOT know about a child that young taking 5-HTP so please consult a chiroprator in your area that can tell you. If you talk to your pediatrician, he/she will SURELY tell you that it's a no and there is nothing to do but drug your son. 5-HTP is the precursor to Tryptophan (found in Turkey and bananas for example) and works WITH the body to help it manufacture the correct amount of serotonin and to utilize it properly. Acidophilus is merely the good bacteria (which has also been shown to help with strengthening your immune system).
Good luck!

Put him to bed earlier. My son used to get these all the time because he was overtired. They got really bad around the time that he was trying to wean himself off his nap. The doctor said to make sure he was getting enough sleep, so we moved his bedtime earlier, and they stopped right away. He still gets them occasionally now, but always when he is exhausted. They can be really disturbing, especially when they last a long time. Even if he was doing fine before on the amount of sleep he was getting, he may be going through a growth spurt and require more right now.