Help. Night terrors.

[carrieon23]

Hi. I think my son is having night terrors. Last night we had the worst night so far and I just don't know what to do about it. I'm trying to get a doctors app this morning but just wondered if anyone has any pearls of wisdom.

Last night he 'woke up'every hour and screamed inconsolably for up to 40 mins at a time. He thrashes about in the bed sitting up occasionally and looking at me but seems not really focused on me. He says things but makes no sence & wont respond to me its like I can't seem to wake him up. He then seems to get a bit more with it and will answer questions & then settles. He is 3 and a half yrs.

Does this sound like night terrors?

Is there anything I can do to get him to sleep better?

Sorry if I'm making no sence am very sleep deprived!

Thanks. X

[alieh]

That does sound very extreme with that number of wakings, but we have had periods of these types of wakenings. In our case it would be more like 1 or 2 per night but very, very upset and take ages to calm him down. My son is the same age. We haven't had them in a while though - thankfully.

Not sure if my son ever had the proper night terrors but rather just very bad dreams and unsettled sleep where it was very difficult to wake him up.

Key triggers for us seem to be overtiredness. Is he recently dropping a nap or going to bed a bit later than usual? My son is very prone to these kind of night terrors if he starts to get a bit overtired.

Chocolate? I used to work at a summer camp with children and one of the little girls would have severe night terrors if she had chocolate late in the day (she managed to get some hot chocolate without us seeing, so I witnessed the night terror later...it was awful!).

Tiny point but could he suddenly be afraid of the dark? My son went from sleeping in a pitch dark room until a few months ago when now he insists on having a fairly bright light on all night. He won't even go into his room in the daytime if the lights are off!

Waking up every hour is really awful though. Could there be anything else going on like pain of earache or something? Delayed teething of his 2-year molars??

[Saffron]

Yes, you really need to see the GP. Nightmares and night terrors are not the same thing, and you might also want to rule out nocturnal epilepsy (very rare, but needs specific medical treatment).

Nightmares occur during normal REM dream cycles, but they involve dreams which are frightening to the child.

NTs are a disfunction of sleep cycles. Children with NTs are usually unaware of the event and difficult to wake up. Indeed, it's generally considered best if you don't wake them up from NTs. Just comfort them until they return to regular sleep.

For regular, frequent NTs you might consider using the wake-to-sleep technique to "reset" the pattern of sleep cycles before the NT occurs. Note the approximate time the NTs occur. Depending on what research you read, and the child's age, you need to wake him/her 30 to 60 minutes before the NT occurs. You only need to wake the child minimally, just enough to barely rouse him/her, so that the child falls immediately back to sleep resetting the sleep cycles at that point in the night.

Another rare night time event which is sometimes confused with NTs and nightmares can be nocturnal panic attacks. This happens when children have panic attacks in their sleep, leading them to wake in agitated states. Wake-to-sleep could possible help this too, but you'd really need to identify the source of anxiety to tackle this problem, such as night time separation anxiety or day time stressors.

If your GP is unsure, press to be seen by a specialist. xx

[mima08]

Hiya,

I don't have direct experience of night terrors but a friend of mine still gets them (she is 31) and she says it tends to be brought on by trigger points of stress and overtiredness. I guess with little children, there is so much going on that could stress them (not even bad things, just excitement, change of routine etc). There is someone on here who posts under childsleepsolutions - I don't know them personally but maybe you want to PM to ask advice?

I really hope you get a better night today, and some more help soon

mx

[Carbonara]

It sounds exactly like Night Terrors, and as Alieh said, overtiredness can be a trigger and they are common during times of fever or a virus.

It is very unnerving, but we found that the more we tried to wake our child, or soothe, re-assure or respond, the longer it went on, as each of our interventions was trigger for more screaming 'NO, NO, No' etc. They never remembered it in the morning. So we sat quietly to make sure they didn't hurt themselve, and kept the light low or off. Each phase lasted 2 or 3 nights.

[carrieon23]

Thanks everyone for your responses. We have just got back from holiday so he is very out of routine and overtired, & had a temp on sat too.

Hopefully it will be better tonight, we have grandma here if its not as not sure either of us could do another night like last night!

Couldn't get a gp app at 9 am this morning so will get on to them tomorrow early.

Will look at whats happening with him to see if theres any pattern & try and implement some suggestions.

Thanks again

[alieh]

If it's partly that he's out of routine and not well could one of you sleep in with him on a cushion or mattress for a night or two? This sometimes works for us because we can shush/reassure as soon as he stirs before he gets too upset. The only thing that works for us for overtiredness these days is super early bedtimes. My 3.5 year old was asleep by 5:45 pm one day last week!

Hope it's just a blip and that the GP can help if necessary.

[SBot]

Hi, sounds like a tough time. My friends little boy has them and she was advised to not wake him. Just hold them until they calm down. Best wishes.

[hpsaucey]

Actually - we couldn't hold our son - this can increase their distress...... Its such a hard thing to watch them going through this and know that the 'best' thing is to just be there but not interfere.

[GinaG3]

I had really bad sleep terrors until I was about 12. Then I just had nightmares after that, but could deal with them much better. I used to be a very severe sleepwalker too but never spoke in my sleep and was completely unaware of everything I did. My parents used to wake me up and try taking me back to bed, or if I didn't seem to be having a terror just walking then they would just allow me to follow through the action then return to bed. I wouldn't be able to return to sleep at some points during sleep walking if I didn't follow through the full walk. It's all very weird.

One family holiday I was sharing a room with 2 of my sisters. I started sleep walking. I was screaming that my dad told me I needed to get to the other side of the room to touch the wall. They wouldn't let me and insisted I get back to bed. I started to get very restless. After upto 7 attempts to reach the other side of the room to touch the wall they finally allowed me to do it, once I had played it out I walked back to bed and collapsed back into my sleep. So the story goes. I don't remember a thing. From any of times. I've poured salt and pepper on the dog. Stacked fruit against the bathroom door. To name a few.

When in the midst of sleep terrors the Bly person I wanted was my dad. I slept in the same room with him almost every night until I turned 12 when I finally decided to have my own room. It was the only way I felt safe. Sleep walking never coincided with the terrors though, we know that much. Walking was happy, terrors were not. The both alternated and we noticed a pattern to them in myself. I was never diagnosed with any conditions regarding my sleep.

I agree with a lot of people though, over tiredness seems to be a big thing in people that suffer with terrors. It can also be a phase in some children. Stress is also a contributing factor.