[jeannem]

My son is just about 15 months old. The other night, he began screaming and crying uncontrollably. I went to his room and picked him up but he continued to scream and hit out as if to shove me away. This went on for a good ten minutes with me trying to soothe him somehow, but at no time did he actually wake up (open eyes) or indicate in any way that he knew I was there. Evenutually the crying subsided, he calmed down and he went back to sleep for the rest of the night. It was like he was having a nightmare that he couldn't wake up from.

The next morning I looked in my "What to expect" book and it seems like, according to the symptoms, he had what is called a night terror. It says they can happen if the child is overtired. He had had a pretty eventful day and little sleep so it seems possible.

It was the scariest thing so far for me. He hasn't been sick at all - even a real fever - and the feeling of helplessness that I had was one that I know I'll have many times again but wow!

Has anyone else been through these?

[StorkWatcher]

I think we have several times. I think our son is a vivid dreamer. Since he was 2 or 3 months old, he would laugh and giggle in his sleep - before he ever did it awake. He talks in his sleep a lot now still (almost 11 months).

And there have been MANY times where he's awakened at night the same as your child. I hate them. I thought at different times it might be teething related, but something tells me it's not that. The way he acts....

Sometimes it will go on for several minutes, and he doesn't wake up, but I have to hold him. And it can take a much longer time before I can put him back down without screaming. Many times I've gone ahead and given him a small bottle plus a squirt of our Camilia teething drops, not knowing what else to do. That hasn't started any problems or bad habits of needing to take a bottle at night, and it seems to help.

I hate these episodes. They're almost scary - I keep thinking something's wrong with him, that he might be sick. And it's hard to console him. They don't seem to happen as often right now, so I've also wondered if it might not be related to growth spurts.

[Linny]

We've had them in our home too. Quite scarey, I must admit...and it can make a parent feel completely helpless!

A lot of kids grow out of it, I"m told (and this happened with us as well); but if you happened to have a child that had gone through a lot of previous abuse, then this can be more common too. (Lots of recurring memories....)

Sincerely,

Linny

[NJNative]

Thank goodness! My son, who is now almost 16, had them when he was about your son's age. He would scream loudly, but never really wake up. I would jump out of bed and run down the hall, only to find he had often fallen right back to sleep before I even got there. Or would shortly after I got there.

Fortunately, the child never even remembers the night terror and they do seem to outgrow them as they approach age 2 or so. Some kids are just very active sleepers. Once mine outgrew the night terrors, we had a new thing -- sleepwalking! He also talked in his sleep, even before he could talk and still does to this day. Not to mention that he tears a neatly-made bed to pieces by morning. Pillows on the floor, sheets in a tangle. No one ever wanted to sleep with him!

Don't worry about the night terrors. Some kids just have them and there's nothing wrong with the child. And they will outgrow them.

Robin

[dmca]

very common with children. It happens. Children don't understand the difference between reality and dreams. To them, it's real. How's THAT for scary.
If it continues, then worry. If it continues, it could be a sign of a sleep disorder and should be seen to, BUT, don't get panicy. May be a thing that happens commonly to children. i.e. nightmares.
dmca

[kidmd2b]

Hello,
Here is a little different perspective. I have had night terrors ever since I can remember. I am now 29 yrs old and although it has subsided a bit, my husband is always on alert. Sometimes it is just walking and talking and sometimes I end up hitting my husband in the middle of the night or jumping on the bed while screaming. As a teenager, my bed was against the window and I ended up punching out the whole window. My parents ran in and turned on the light and I had no idea what had happened and why they were waking me up. The doctor says to avoid any stimulation before bed so that your brain is ready to sleep, but it doesn't always work. Hopefully your children outgrow this, but if they don't be very cautious of placement of the bed next to breakable items and if they are walkers, be careful of stairs and such. I can only imagine what our neighbors think with my loud shrieking in the middle of the night. It is a little bit of a worry for me too, with an adoption around the corner. The baby is supposed to wake us up, not vice versa.
Good luck,
Cindy

[intladoptionblog]

My son will be four in November and still has these fairly often. Most times he will not wake all the way up, so it takes a while to calm him down.
He also talks in his sleep, and would probably walk in his sleep if he didn't sleep with us. There have been times when we've had to hold him to keep him from getting up and wandering.
Our 17-month old daughter sleeps like a log, in her own crib, so far.
My husband snores. I hog the sheets.
And that's all I'm going to tell you all. ;-)

[momofmykids]

We went through this for a while. I read the following technique somewhere (maybe here). My daughter was having the regularly. What I read said for several nights, wake the child up (completely awake) before you go to bed. Put the child back in bed and they go back to sleep. Something about that resets something in their sleep/dream center. My daughter hasn't had a night terror in months!

[kelceesmom]

My little one had those for a couple of weeks at about 12 months of age. There was no consoling her, she wouldn't wake up didn't recognize me or anything. She out grew them but they were scary. The episode lasted about 30 minutes.

[LibbyHawkins]

But I wanted to share, I too was thinking night terrors, turned out she had an ear infection. No fever along with it, didn't happen much at naptime, but definitely at nighttime. They are so painful, I feel dumb for being slow on the uptake here.

[DebCsMom]

We have experienced MANY MANY MANY night with Night Terrors! Basically this is what they are. It is a dream that becomes REAL. When you walk into thier room, you become part of that nightmare. Even though they are awake, their eyes open, they are still in the dream.

This is what you should do. Like momofmykids suggested, wake them quietly before they have been asleep for 2 hours. Generally Night terrors occur within the first couple or so hours of sleep. If a Night Terror occurs you should never turn the light on, keep the room dark. Move very very slowly in the room. Don't try to hold the child too close, it scares them more. Quietly try to soothe them. Assure them it is alright. Don't try to "wake" them, that will make it worse. If they get up & try to move around the room or run around, gently guide them back to bed. Try to keep them safe. When they finally do go back to sleep, comfort them until they are quietly asleep.

Our 18 year old use to have them EVERY NIGHT for weeks when she started 1st grade! SHe would talk about the things that happened in school that scared her & it became nightmares for her. Our 4 year old who has Bi-Polar & Autism has them a couple times a week.

They are VERY scarey!

Deb

[StorkWatcher]

All right, who jinxed us? We hadn't had a bad night in a long time, and last night I was up w/ babe for 2 hours. He's 11 mos old, and just woke up crying very hard, and wasn't easily consoled. We ended up doing bottles and 2 doses of teething drops, and eventually, I was able to put him back down.

I'm just frustrated that I can't tell for sure if they're nightmares or teeth or something else that makes him hurt..........!

[zalie]

Originally Posted by jeannem

My son is just about 15 months old. The other night, he began screaming and crying uncontrollably. I went to his room and picked him up but he continued to scream and hit out as if to shove me away. This went on for a good ten minutes with me trying to soothe him somehow, but at no time did he actually wake up (open eyes) or indicate in any way that he knew I was there. Evenutually the crying subsided, he calmed down and he went back to sleep for the rest of the night. It was like he was having a nightmare that he couldn't wake up from.

The next morning I looked in my "What to expect" book and it seems like, according to the symptoms, he had what is called a night terror. It says they can happen if the child is overtired. He had had a pretty eventful day and little sleep so it seems possible.

It was the scariest thing so far for me. He hasn't been sick at all - even a real fever - and the feeling of helplessness that I had was one that I know I'll have many times again but wow!

Has anyone else been through these?

You are not alone! My 3.8 y.o. had what appeared at first to be a series of awakenings at around the same time each night about a year and a half ago (she would have then been about 2.3).
It took me several episodes to realize that they were night terrors. She'd scream and have her eyes open and fight me like an animal, but never really woke up. I researched and asked questions and I kept running across the advice that I shouldn't wake her. Eventually, I started to question this. I learned that the advice not to wake the children up is actually not universally supported -- in fact, what I learned over the course of the next months was that she would have them when she was having a growth spurt or when she slept in a strange place. The first bunch happened right after we moved, and then she'd have them when we stayed in a new place (on vacation, for example).
I learned through trial and error that waking her up was the best thing to do. I would keep a cup of water with a straw in it in the bathroom and, when she had the night terror, I would go into her bed, sit her up and hold her firmly in my arms, and gently place the straw in her mouth, and she'd start drinking and wake up. Apparently, the drinking woke her, and I learned through trial and error that I'd be doused if I didn't use a straw.
She never would remember them in the morning, and she seems to have outgrown them since turning 3.

Good luck!
Bobbi

[Scarlett_A.]

Originally Posted by DebCsMom

We have experienced MANY MANY MANY night with Night Terrors! Basically this is what they are. It is a dream that becomes REAL. When you walk into thier room, you become part of that nightmare. Even though they are awake, their eyes open, they are still in the dream.

This is what you should do. Like momofmykids suggested, wake them quietly before they have been asleep for 2 hours. Generally Night terrors occur within the first couple or so hours of sleep. If a Night Terror occurs you should never turn the light on, keep the room dark. Move very very slowly in the room. Don't try to hold the child too close, it scares them more. Quietly try to soothe them. Assure them it is alright. Don't try to "wake" them, that will make it worse. If they get up & try to move around the room or run around, gently guide them back to bed. Try to keep them safe. When they finally do go back to sleep, comfort them until they are quietly asleep.

Our 18 year old use to have them EVERY NIGHT for weeks when she started 1st grade! SHe would talk about the things that happened in school that scared her & it became nightmares for her. Our 4 year old who has Bi-Polar & Autism has them a couple times a week.

They are VERY scarey!

Deb

Very, very good advice. I am a Registered Polysomnographic Technologist (I study and treat people with sleeping disorders), and you are absolutely right in your advice. The best thing you can do is to be nearby to make sure your child (and sometimes even adult) doesn't hurt him/herself, but consoling often doesn't help, trying to wake them up makes it worse, let them work through it, they will eventually go back to sleep.
VERY interesting advice I saw a couple of people here give about waking them up before you, yourself go to bed. I haven't heard that before, but I have had minimal experience with pediatrics (I mainly work with adults, and night terrors are pretty rare, or at least not usually replicated in the lab during one night's sleep w/adults), and I'm sure you're right, I'm very excited to read more about that since you've mentioned it. Cool.
My daughter had night terrors when she was a little over a year (she was already walking, and had begun speaking, also), this was before I started in sleep medicine and it *really* used to freak me out, because they are just hysterical, with her she had her eyes wide open and seemed to be taking in the scenery (including me) around her, she would hide under a quilt holder that I had, and just kick and scream and cry.......I thought there was something wrong with my parenting, it was horrible. It would usually take her wearing herself out and just falling back into a deep slumber for it to subside. It's so interesting that someone pointed out that they happen within the first couple of hours, because looking back they *did* always happen after I had put her to bed but before I went to bed myself. Very, very interesting. I wish more people knew about this, because it can be a very scary experience for a parent who has no idea what's going on, and thinks there might be something wrong with their child, or with themselves
Good thread.

[Untbunny]

Just like kidmd2b I suffer night terrors, sleepwalking, sleep talking, etc. I agree that the sleeping one does not remember the episode. Several members of my family suffer or have suffered night terrors and I have yet to hear any of them acknowledge the episode.

According to my husband it is best to not disturb the sleeper. He has tried a few times (thinking I am awake) and the results were terrible. My suggestion is to not disturb the sleeper, keep the room in the manner found, and wait the episode out. It is more difficult for the caregiver than it is for the sleeper.

Hang in there. Here's giving you strength to endure untbunny