Experience W/ Night Terrors

Hi D.. My daughter had night terrors when she was growing up. I remember one time when she had her eyes wide open, screaming at something, totally terrified. I went into the room and she didn't even recognize me. She was trying toget away from me. What I did, and continued to do, was call out her name over and over and hold her tight. She would eventually wake up and cling to me. The other thing to do if you haven't already is to put a night light in her room. She is able to see better when she does wake up. It can be scary, for both of you. But she will eventually grow out of it. It won't last forever! Good luck!

My son experienced night terrors, too, and I also posted here and got a ton of responses. So know that it is very, very common!

No reason to rush her to the doctor. While NTs are scary, there isn't anything your MD can do for you, except bill you for the office call. ;-)

When she wakes up screaming, flip on the lights and put a cold washcloth on her face, or step outside with her if need be. She has to wake-up in order for the NT to stop. She may have her eyes open and be looking at you, but she's NOT really awake, and the NTs will continue. The first time you get her to "snap out of it" you will realize it right away. The one thing that worked for my son was a cold washcloth on the face and hands.

To prevent night terrors, have some continual white noise in her room. This will prevent her from going into the deep sleep where NTs occur, but she will still get a good night's sleep. I just run a fan in my son's room (opposite from him and facing the wall), but others use white noise machines and or a continual-play CD. Since using a fan for white noise, if my memory serves me right, my son has not had any NTs, and he had been having them almost nightly.

To help with the teething pain, try Hyland's Teething Tablets BEFORE bedtime. They are available at Walgreens, Whole Foods, and co-ops. They help with the pain but also contain some calming herbs which help with rest. Good luck!

We dealt with a very similar thing when our ten year old was around the same age. I hate to say it but all that I found comforting was praying, singing, and rocking her. We had just gone through a big change in our lives, with a move and other things. I really contributed most of the night terrors to that. Children are such creatures of habbit. Have you had any major changes in your lives? I'm sorry that I don't have more to give you, but I will keep you and your precious little one in my thoughts...

My dd started having night terrors when she was about 15 months old, she is now almost 3. We were advised by out dr. and many other parents with night terror children NOT to try to wake her. We rub her back or comfort her however....My dd does not like to be picked up during a terror she will thrash around and cry/scream louder. From about 15 months to 24 months she had them regularly and often at the same time at night. I had a some success waking her up just before the time she would have the terrors (it disrupts the sleep pattern).. They also happen worse when she was tired, teething, sick.... She rarely has them now but they still get us some nights. They are not like nightmares or bad dreams really, and dd has no memory of them in the morning or if she does wake up during/after she does not know whats going on. They are harder on you than your child. Good Luck.

hi D. - my oldest son started experiencing night terrors when he was about 3 and now he is 6 and still gets them but not very often. our main pediatrician told us he will outgrow them and just to keep him from harm b/c you can not wake them. once time our doc was gone and we saw another in the office and i thought i would ask him about night terrors and he told us to gently wake him up after he has been in bed about 30 or 45 min and ask him a few simple questions to get his attn and then let him drift back to sleep. do this for about 5 nights in a row and this disturbs the cycle. this worked! after about 2 years of these freaky night terrors this did work.
my son goes to bed around 8 or 8:30 and he always has them about 1:30 hours after he falls asleep. i did not realize night terrors could last quite so long. his longest maybe lastest 10-15 minutes. lots of screaming, shaking, talking that does not make sense and running around the house. if you can call your docs office to describe what is going on and see if you can get suggestions. there is nothing they can physically do if it is indeed night terrors.
also google night terrors. they are some good descriptive articles out there and you will know by the descriptions if this is what your daughter is indeed having. they were right on for my son.
good luck!

My now 5 year old had night terrors when he was about 2. He would wake up screaming, flinging his arms, and run down the hallway. I noticed they were worse when he was over tired, so we tried to make sure he had a little nap in the afternoon. We asked our doctor whatelse we could do and he said play some music at night for him. We bought a baby einstein lullaby cd and played that at a low volume. It lets them sleep, but it keeps them from falling into the deep deep sleep where the terrors happen. We are now having the terrors with our 22 month old, so I've been playing music for him and it does help. Good luck.

I feel your pain both as a mother and as someone that is missing out on sleep. A suggestion that was given to me by a friend is if she is having them about the same time every night, wake her up about 30 minutes prior (not fully)just enough to take her out of REM sleep and then they should go away. Suggestion the friend made to me is to offer a drink or something like that. Hope this helps.

Hi,
My husband went through that when he was little. He would scream and be inconsolable for a few hours every night. Unfortunately, it lasted several years. He eventually grew out of it. Good luck!

i would take her in.
i had night terrors when i was a child, and my son has had a few. however, they never last more than 15-20 minutes, MAYBE 30 at most to get him back to sleep. the fact that they are lasting hours? i dont knwo if maybe it seems longer than it really is, or if oyu are exaggerating, or.... what, but night terrors shouldnt last for hours.

My son had night terrors when he was younger. The last one he had was when he was 3 years old. What I usually do is go in his room and turn on a very dim light and talk to him in a calm voice telling him it's okay. There's really nothing much you can do. With night terrors their mind is asleep while their body is awake. You just have to wait for them to wake up fully. My son would eventually wake up. Sometimes I could hold him and calm him down. Night terrors usually occur when they are overtired or have had a very busy day or their schedule is messed with. So we always knew to expect a night terror when these things happened. You said music calms her down, so I would try that first. We have also experienced night terrors with my daughter but they are not as frequent as they were with my son. You can certainly talk to a doctor about it and they can give you more insight on night terrors. Good luck.

Hi D.,
My daughter (age 5) has been having night terrors on and off most of her life. She has not been formally diagnosed but we have caught her sleep walking at times and have witnessed night terrors. What I have noticed is that most of the time her night terrors come in patterns - usually 3-4 nights in a row and every 2-3 months. I really should be documenting everything but by the time I'm completely fed up and frustrated (usually by the 3rd day), the night terrors and her other behaviors change or stop. I've noticed that it usually revolves around a "growth stage/period." Teething always seemed to be an issue at night with our kids too. That seems to be when the pain is the worse. I'm not sure if you're using Motrin but that does last longer than Tylenol. Ever since our daughter was a baby, we have been putting a calming music CD on repeat at night. It helped her sleep through the night and we haven't changed that. As far as the night terrors go, the best thing to do is to keep her safe and remind her that she is safe. Normally our daughter goes right back to sleep if we pick her up calmly/slowly and put her back to bed. I don't know what your routine is but I usually rub her back/arm a little bit before she goes to sleep so, that is what i do if she does wake up suddenly. Sometimes she'll have an episode 4-5 times a night (almost every 1-2 hours). I watched a show on Oprah about night terrors once, Dr Oz said that most of the time the people having the night terrors are totally asleep (even if their eyes are open) so, I would do the least amount possible so that you do not wake her up but only calm her enough to keep her sleeping and feeling loved/content. Whenever I asked my dtr about it in the morning, she did not recall the problems that occurred at night. I don't know if the dr's will do much with just telling them . . . documenting the length of time, the intensity, and quantity of night terrors will definitely help the dr determine the next step and help them understand your concerns better.

If your child has night terrors you would know it. They usually occur within the first two hours of sleep. The screaming usually presents with open eyes, they do not acknowledge you when you enter the room, in fact can act as though you are afraid of you. The screaming usually lasts about 20-40 minutes and then stops. If the child wakes up after the terror they will have no idea as to what happened. Do not try to wake her up. it is like waking up a sleep waker. Just make sure there is nothing around that will hurt her. Maybe offer something to drink. I found that our son was coming out of a terror if he acknowledged our offer for a drink.

Night terrors can be caused by over stimulation or lack of sleep, I am sure there are others but that was what was causing our son to have them. If it is going on for hours I am not sure if night terrors is the answer. Good luck!

My now 3 1/2 year old son has had those a couple times. He would wake up screaming and be inconsolable for a long time. I would take him down to my bed, turn on lights, turn on the tv, offer him drinks, everything I could think of that he may want. He would continue to cry and scream and even crawl around my bed. Nothing I could do would calm him. Eventually he would fall back asleep. I'm not really sure if it was just over, or if something worked. HE had them only occassionally, but I think I did notice that he would have a few in like the same timeframe, and then not have any for a while. It has been quite a while since he had one, I'm hoping they are over. Sorry to not be helpful, but I thought it might comfort you to know that he seems to have grown out of it.

This sounds like what my oldest son went through at about this age. It was like he wasn't really awake and nothing calmed him down. It usually only lasted about 15 minutes but it felt like hours. He would thrash and scream in terror - he didn't seem to realize we were there and nothing seemed to calm him. We just held him or sat with him, played music. It was very difficult to listen to him just scream but that was about all we could do. He usually didn't do it for more than 3 nights in a row but it continued on and off for months. I wish I could be of more help but we just had to be there for him until he grew out of it.

my oldest daughter had night terrors. they are scary for us but the children have no recollection of it happening. for us, my daughter woke up screaming exactly one hour after she went to bed. you can try waking your daughter up right at the time she normally wakes up and screams. just gently. maybe sit her up and talk to her. now that she is older we send her to the bathroom and to get a drink of water. it has gotten so much better though. they must just grow out of it. she started at about 9 months and is almost 9 now.

good luck!

Our story is similar to everyone elses. My son was a bit younger when he had them, but it was still scary. We never really tried to wake him. We usually just turned the light on and talked to him in a calm voice. He usually fell back to sleep fairly quickly (within 30 minutes). Just when I thought we couldn't take it anymore, they stopped just as abruptly as they started. We may have had a stretch of three days or so, but I'm sure that didn't happen more than once. I hope this passes quickly. Just know that there isn't any "right" answer and they WILL go away. As others have said, you aren't alone. More kids go through this than you might think!

D.,
our son had night terrors off and on for about a year, starting when he was about the same age as your daughter. They are very common. The were only two things that worked for us, to wake him. The first was what you did - popping in a cartoon (with the lights still off) - that immediately caught his attention and woke him and after about 10 minutes he would be able to go back to bed and sleep. The second was to take him outside (weather permitting!). That also would wake him and then he could go back to bed.
Good luck - this too will pass.
T.

Dear D., Both of my boys had night terrors at one point or another. What I found worked best was to take them out of the room. I would take my oldest outside. Usually the change made all the difference in the world to calm him almost immediately. I did this even in the winter. I would wrap a large, warm blanket around us both and walk outside. I often could come right back in. Only a few times did I walk around our back yard and that was more in the spring and summer. My oldest dealt with night terrors on and off for nearly a year, but our lives were in turmoil and there was ALOT of change going on. I thought that maybe the changes were affecting him more than we realized. Good luck, I know that it is very upsetting for everyone, as well as sleep depriving.

Hi D.,
My daughter had night terrors for awhile. It was very sad and scarry for all of us. I read in a book that if you pay attention you may find that she is having the terrors around the same time each night (this has something to do with the type of sleep they are in). If you waken your child gently prior to the time the night terror occurrs and let them fall back to sleep it will stop the terror from occurring. I know, sounds weird, but it worked for us.
On another note, my first daughter got an ear infection almost every time she cut a new tooth. You never know..that my be the problem..they were always worse at night.
Good luck,
C.