3 Year Old Waking up in Middle of Night Screaming

My mom was just talking to me about this the other day. I would do the SAME EXACT thing, around 3-4 years old. She almost took me to the emergency room the first time it happened, she thought there was something seriously wrong with me. I guess they are called night frights..I also started sleep walking around that age too. I would lock myself in the bathroom, try to leave the house, walk around in circles on my bed and have full on conversations with my mom to where she thought I was awake but she would eventually realize I was actually sleeping.

Sounds exactly like night terrors to me. My son had them off & on for a few years & he would talk sometimes, but mostly he would cower in a corner & look absolutely terrified if my husband or I went anywhere near him. The worst part for us was if it happened once in a night it was guaranteed to happen several more times that same night. He did eventually grow out of it thank goodness. Talk to her pediatrician about it & see what they say. Ours told us to just stay in the room with him while this was going on to make sure he didn't try to walk downstairs or do anything that could hurt himself, but not to touch him or try to wake him up.

I took my little one who, is now 3 and just growing out of this, to the doctor for the same thing. I was told he was having night terrors. He would talk sometimes but sometimes he would just look at the ceiling and scream. At times he would push us away and kick and hit too. We got his tonsils and adenoids checked to see if he was having sleep apnea. That may be something you want to check into just to be safe. I have a friend whose child had to have tonsils removed because they were so big they would block his air passage at night and cause him to wake up frantic. My son was fine with the tonsils so he was just diagnosed with nightterors. Every night was different with the terrors though. He would do it more than once some n ights too. I wish you luck because mine started this at Bout 2 and did it everynight for about 4 months. He stopped and now does it again but only every now and then. I have to make sure he takes a nap during the day. If he doesn't I already know he will have one.

T.

My daughters night terror between ages 2-3 were exactly like this. ALl I had to do was go in and just talk her back to sleep but dont pick her up or touch her. I really dont know what caused it and it went away after a year. She also could have gas, kids with gas pain can react the same way when woken suddenly from that pain. Has she ever had reflux issues? do you allow carbonated drinks or heavy dinners before bedtime or a snack? You be amazed how much food/drink can mess up your sleep

Is she awake when she is crying and screaming? My son who is almost 7 has night terrors. When he cries or screams, he is asleep, but his eyes are open. We can't wake him up at all. One time we brought him out to the dining room table and turned on all the lights, and he still didn't wake up. Now we just console him and he goes back to sleep. He doesn't remember anything in the morning. We have also found that he usually does it in his first part of sleep. Always before 10pm.

Good luck to you.

Night Frights. My son, when he was 3, had these crazy episodes. He would scream, cry, kick, yell at us to go away, yell at us to come here. It was awful. He would cry and scream until we could get him fully awake. He would then look at us wondering why we were in his room. He never remembered a thing. We found the quickest way to get through them was to wake him up as quickly as we could before it escalated too far. The best way we found was to turn on the lights in his room. He would snap out of the dream and typically went right back to sleep. Good luck. It's not fun!!

Yes - it sounds exactly like night terrors. My middle son had them starting at age 3 (he is 5 now and has had 4 in total). People differ as to whether to wake the child or not - what worked for us is tell him he needed to go to the bathroom and calmly walking him toward the bathroom - something about going to the bathroom wakes him up naturally and he doesn't remember the dream but rather falls back asleep peacefully. Each time the episode occurred after an exciting day (family wedding, trip to Disney etc.) and we learned that our little guys needs routine and needs to keep a standard bedtime. The first episode lasted about 10 minutes but since we have instilled the "bathroom routine" the night terrors only last about 30seconds to 1 minute and during the last one he took himself to the bathroom and woke up almost instantly. I know it is scary but it is completely normal - hang in there and this phase will pass soon.

This sounds exactly like a night terror. My son has them occasionally. He started having them at around 15 months old, which is a bit young. He would SCREAM and roll in the floor like he was posessed. It scared my husband and I really bad when it happened the first time. His eyes were open and he was looking around like he was searching for something. We couldn't hold him and he couldn't hear us. I spoke to our pediatrcian who told us watch him and make sure he doesn't hurt himself but don't wake him up. They usually lasted no more than 10-15 minutes at a time. He would wake up a little, roll over, and go back to sleep.
I hope this helps! Good luck and God bless!!

My son was very similar at that age. he would scream and cry but not seem to be completely awake. It would last about 15 minutes, then he would go back to sleep. When I would hold him when he cried or screamed, he really did seem to sort of still be asleep, even though he sometimes talked to me. After a lot of research, I decided it must be night terrors. It went away on its own after a while but it was very stressful!! - for me!

My son never seemed to remember it the next morning and it didn't really affect his sleep habits in the long term. I think it went on for about 6 months or so, off and on, not every night. Nothing specific that we tried to make them 'go away' comes to mind as really working. It seemed like something that went away on its own or he just sort of grew out of and it didn't happen all the time. I would say just study up on night terrors and use the techniques they say to. Hopefully it will just go away on its own like my son's did.
Good luck!

Night Mares?
This is different, from Night Terrors. But is could also be Night Terrors...
My son, who is very active in his sleep... when/if he has a night-mare... acts like that. He will actually TELL me, he had a night-mare.... then proceed to tell me about it.
I always explain to him, what a dream/nightmare is...

all the best,
Susan