Night Terrors?? - Saint Paul, MN

One of my sons had them at least once a month for about a year and a half, and then they just stopped.

Hi K.,
I feel your pain. My second child had night terrors almost nightly for 5 months at about 2 1/2 y/o. To answer your questions; yes, it sounds like your son is having night terrors, and no you cannot wake him up, nor do you want to,it will just frighten him more. Terrors are completely harmless to the child, he doesn't remember any of it in the morning (if he does then he is probably having nightmares). Terrors do not interfer with the childs rest either, because the brain is still asleep (Some may argue that the brain is trapped somewhere between sleep and being awake,however,there appears to be more evidence pointing to the brain remaining asleep).Night terrors happen during deep non-REM sleep. Unlike nightmares (which occur during REM sleep), a night terror is not technically a dream, but more like a sudden reaction of fear that happens during the transition from one sleep phase to another. They can range in occurrence from a single episode to nightly episodes,like our son, and they can last for days to months. Fortunately, children do outgrow them. As for our son, after those VERY long 5 months, he had nightmares at least 3-4 times a week, this was far worse for him then the terrors were. This lasted a couple of years.He is now 7 and still has the occasional nightmare, they are few and far between. I have no idea whether having night terrors predisposes children to having nightmares or not,that was our personal experience.Now, to address the fact that you yourself had terrors as a child: nightmares and terrors as well as sleepwalking/talking are all related sleep disturbances, all occurring during non-REM sleep,and YES they are hereditary. I would like to take a moment to try and help ease your mind a bit (or anyone else that may be reading this),in regards to other and/or future children, because I know it was a concern for us,since one of our kids has terrors, will others? To answer,its possible(hereditary!),however, I have 4 other kids and none of them have any of these issues. I know my answer was lengthy,I apologize, but I do hope it has helped to answer some questions and give you a little hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel!!
Best wishes,A.

K., if you are Christian pray for him. My daughter had bad dreams for a week until a friend of mine said to pray for her as I put her down to sleep. I layed her down, put my hands on her and asked God to take the bad dreams away. It worked. End of bad dreams to this day...it's worth a shot right? I think with all of lifes happenings people are forgetting about prayer.

His night terrors could be from a past life. When he falls asleep go talk to him. Talk to him as you would anyone else; not like a baby! Tell him to release any negativity from this life and past lives into the white light of the holy spirit. Give his fears to god. Tell him he is safe and loved and imaging him being surrounded by golden energy! I know it sound crazy but it can't hurt to try!

We had this. It won't last forever :). We just used it as one more opportunity to imprint our love on her little heart. I found that singing to her had amazing results--sometimes I could even do it from my bed if I was SOOOOOO tired (she sleeps right across the hall from me). We also have begun praying with her and her sister before they go to bed. It seems to have made a big difference. I wouldn't call her waking "terrors" anymore. Now it sounds like she is yelling at her siblings in her sleep to give back something they took (a very likely dream for her). I do think that there could be deeper causes and we could take care of this for good if we could find them (we're looking into cranial sacral therapy), but I don't really know how to do that and so we comfort her and wait it out.

We've been there too with our son. He did grow out of them after about a year and his were infrequest, but last sometimes 30 minutes. What we were told was to avoid feeding him 2-3 hours before bed. That helped. If they were really bad, we did wake him by turning on cartoons. That didn't always help, but he was so loud and kicked us. The white noise or bright light mesmerized him and calmed him down.

My son gets them too. My pediatrician told one cause is a lack of sleep, so I tried to get him to bed earlier. I had one friend tell me fish oil/omega 3 helped her son. I guess there is a version for small children. I haven't tried it yet. My son is two, so I do think I will try it. Maybe something to ask the pediatrician. I asked my own pediatrician about anything with diet, and she had no knowledge.

It does sound like night terrors. My now 5 year old started having them when he was about 2 or 3 years old. The first time he had one it scared the hell out of me. I had no idea what was going on. At one of his check ups I asked the dr. what I could do to help him, and he suggested playing music in his room. It doesn't have to be very loud, just enough that he can hear it. The noise keeps him from getting into the really, really deep sleep that triggers the terrors. When we started doing that, the terrors became few and far between, then they stopped. I also noticed he would have them when he was overly tired at night, so I tried to make sure he got a nap in the afternoon.

Our son is 16 mo and has been having NT's since he was 9mo. You described it exactly-it's like he doesn't know we are there. Here is what we usually do-it doesn't stop the NT and I don't know if it shortens the duration, but I think it might:

If he starts to make noise about 2-3 hours after we put him down it's almost always an NT. If we can get to him fast enough sometimes we can avoid the NT by shooshing him and rubbing his back.

If it develops into a full NT we bring him into our room, (usually my husband carries him because he's flaingly about), and either hold him or set him on the bed. we bring the lights up a bit and turn on the movie CARS. Seriously. After a few minutes of screaming it's like he connects with the sound of the movie, (the familiarity), and starts to settle down. Eventually he calms enough to watch for awhile and then we put him back into his crib and he goes right back to sleep.

I have recently read that talking to them and trying to 'snap' them out of it with motions and sounds doens't work and you should just stand by the crib, be sure they are safe and wait it out. Sounds reasonable, but who can imagine standing by for 10+ minutes watching your child seemingly in distress....so since the interaction isn't supposed to hurt I think we'll keep doing it.

yep, sounds like night terrors. My niece has them and NOTHING can wake her up from them. The research all suggestst that they are not in pain and will not have any recollection of them. My sisters pediatrician told her to try telling her at bed time that she would be okay and that mommy and daddy would be back to check on her and then waking her up approx. and hour after falling asleep and telling her mommy and daddy are here and you are fine and then letting her go back to sleep. She said that has actually helped, as crazy as it sounded, but the idea was to wake her up before she got into deep REM sleep.

Yes, it sounds like night terrors. During the night terror there is not much you can do except make sure he is safe. My son thrashes around during his terrors and I have to make sure he doesn't hit his head on his nightstand or something. I think every kid is different as to how long they will have them. Our son didn't even start to get his until about kindergarten age. He is now in 6th grade and had a spell where he didn't have any for at least a year, but now he's had 3-4 this school year. I try to prevent them by making sure he gets enough sleep and isn't over-scheduled. Fatigue and stress can bring them on and make them worse. I think our son is having them this year after not having them for a long time because it is his first year of middle school (new situations and challenges) and his bus comes 90 minutes earlier than his elementary school bus so he gets less sleep. Most kids eventually outgrow them, but some people continue to have them as adults. Make sure your son is getting enough sleep and think about his routine. Have there been any changes in his life that might have affected him? Other than that you probably can't do much about it. I know they aren't any fun.

you could ask your doctor, but really, in over 26 years, there is no new news about why kids get them or what to do. i had them as a child, and my son has had them. they are really not going to remember them in the morning, and they are not really awake either. just do your best!

basically, do what you are doing, sing to him, rock him, snuggleh him. some sources ive seen have now said to never pick them up and comfort them at all... this is HORRIBLE advice, do what you want to do - what you feel best helps all of you. its not like you are going to be able to relax with your child screaming, and on the off chance he does wake up he is going to scare the kajeebers out of himself if someone isnt there comforting him.

a few of the things i have heard is to try to keep naps and bedtimes regular, terrors can happen because of overtiredness. also, you can try figuring out how long after falling asleep he has a terror, and wake him up to get him a drink or something simple like that, ive heard that helps diffuse the terror. another very sweet thing i have heard and used with my son is that you just repeat the bedtime routine. snuggles, prayer, singing, whatever it is you do, do it again. you could extend bedtime rituals in general this way, so its more of a process... so that you repeat the process when they wake, and it puts them back into sleep mode.

they never last more than 10 minutes or so, and typically they wont wake up. never feel like you should ignore it, that wont help anything, and really, theres no way to make him stop having them, he will grow out of it on his own.

so, no worries, this sincerely sounds like night terrors, identical to what my son has, so im really happy to hear from someone else who has experienced them that they are really all the same. :D if you want to chat, just shoot me a message!
good luck, and keep doing what you are doing, no worries!

I know when I was little I would wake up the same way, kind of like I was sleep walking. My mother figured out that milk was the cause of me doing this. She stopped giving me milk after 6 pm and I slept through the night for the first time when I was 6 yrs old. I do not know if you are giving him milk before bed but if you are try giving him water, this might help.

My son had them and would scream for almost an hour. He didn't have them nearly so frequently as yours does, though. Everything I've read says to just leave them alone--stay close just to make sure he's ok (like in the unlikely chance he bangs into his crib) but that you shouldn't try to wake them and that even consoling them is pointless--they don't remember it in the morning (I'd have to agree--my son never seemed to be "different" the next day). That's easier said than done, though! We lived in WA State at the time and we would sometimes take him outside in an effort to wake him after about 45 minutes of screaming. It worked, but I don't know that it was the "right" thing to do.

For our son, the best thing was to rub his back and ask him things like, are you having a bad dream? What is happening in your dream? What would you like to dream about? And suggesting new things to dream about, like his favorite sports or pass-times, etc. I usually said something like, Do you want to dream about hockey? and if his response was yes, I'd get him started on a good thought and do some kind of like guided imagery things to get him started on a positive note. It is true that if they are terrors, they will not remember a thing in the morning, and I wouldn't bother trying to wake him, you may just end up with an evertired, confused child wondering why you woke him! Also, being overtired can trigger them.

Best wishes! ~S.

My daughter has night terrors, they started around 15 months and at 2.5 years old she still has them. At first I would try to wake her up and that never turned out well. If I did wake her up I would ask you want to go back to bed 'YESSSSSSS' among crying and the sleep rest of the night would be not so good. So now when I hear her screaming/crying I go in to make sure it is not for another reason and if she is still asleep I just rub her back and whisper mommy is here once. I then wait, usually about 10-15 mins, and she is back to a more restful/pleasant state of sleep.

Around 15 months my daughter would have night terrors 2-3 times a week, then around 2 years she had them about once a week, and now at 2.5 (3 in Aug) they seem every other week so the are becoming less frequent so hopefully they go away completely eventually.

My daughter had night terrors at around 18mos.-2years old or so. They were a problem for a short period of time and have never come back. My daughter is now 7 and she does talk, walk in her sleep but no night terrors.

It's truely a night terror if you can't snap them out of it or wake them up usually. They have no memory of it.

I've heard it's a sign of intelligence.

Night Terrors are typically outgrown by age12 so they can go on for years depends on the child. Very rarely they will continue into adulthood. My ex fiance had them too (not my child's dad) and they were off the wall, violent, crazy.