Night Terrors

*Louise* · 15 April 2008 at 2:53PM

OP - how old is your son?

My DS2 is nearly 3 and has been having night terrors for the past few months. They have slowed down a bit - maybe once or twice a week now, but at one point it was a couple of times a night, every night. (Usually between midnight and 4am) I put it down to us moving house, because they started not long after the move.

Not much we could do for him really, we just held him and stroked his hair and that seemed to calm him down.

Torry_Quine · 15 April 2008 at 3:20PM

My husband has them and although he never remembers them he is always very tired the next day so realises what has happened.

His usual is thinking that a lorry is about to run him over and he has to get quickly out of the way so he has been known to throw me out of bed and on one occassion thought I was attacking me and had his hands round my neck trying to strangle me which was very scary!

All I can do is reassure him and try to calm him down which usually works. His mother says that when he was a child she was often woken by his screaming and he also walked in his sleep but nothing was ever done.

Doctor hasn't been any help at all, only advice sleep in seperate beds which we are not willing to do. :eek:

suzukibabe · 16 April 2008 at 2:00PM

I feel better knowing i'm not on my own.

Louise- DS1 is 4 1/2, have managed to keep him in his own bed for the past 2 nights but still waking up a lot, last night/early hours of this morning he was awake for well over an hour nad just as he settled back off DS2 started stirring but thankfully went back off.

DS1 is kind of fine with his lamp on and the bathroom light on and feels more settled when i stay in his room with him while he falls asleep when first going to bed.
I think he is slightly frightened of going to sleep because of the night terrors, even though he doesn't rememeber having bad dreams.
He's also started sleep walking again and that's when these night terrors started.

Cornishpixie_2 · 16 April 2008 at 2:15PM

Hi , sorry to hear about your son's night terrors. Suggest calm bedtime routine. Bath, story and bed. Leaving a drink beside his bed is a good idea. Also if poss. fade out you being in the same room till he goes to sleep. Tell him you'll be outside the door once you've tucked him into bed. I know it sounds cruel, but when he realises he has stayed in the room couple of mins and nothing bad has happened, this should reassure him. If he starts getting really upset you can go into him reassure and leave again. Also when he wakes in the night offer him a drink, reassure and leave the light on. If he really won't go to sleep, he may like to read a bedtime story to his teddies/toys by him self till he goes to sleep. It works for my DS3 and DD. Good luck

stas4949 · 16 April 2008 at 5:21PM

I had these when I was a child, I used to sleep walk aswell and once I threw all my toys/dolls down the stairs. The thing that sometimes set me off was our 70's style lampshade in the hallway, I could see faces in it and sometimes they would come towards me lol and because I stared at the light so much I could even see the faces when I closed my eyes!!!!!

My youngest is 9 and he started suffering 2 years ago, the thing that helped him was having the hall light on (although he can't see it as he faces the other way) and having a tv/video combo playing something nice and gentle like finding nemo. I know its not the best thing for kids to have a tv in their room but when you see them screaming you will try anything to help! He usually falls asleep watching said video then before I go to bed I get it set up for another one (incase he wakes)...... the sooner they realise they are in the safety of their own bedroom the better.

It has been a while since my DS woke me in the night, if he wakes now he just flicks the tv on and presses play and soon drifts off back to sleep.
It may not work for everyone, but it works for us.

Helen819 · 16 April 2008 at 6:45PM

shykins wrote: »

i had these as a child, so much so that i was taken to the Drs... to this day i can still remember the terror but still cant really explain what i was scared of

gernerally speaking they arent really related to something its just u are terrified. my parents used to talk to me to try and calm me but nothing really worked.. in the end they just sat with me til they passed and i stopped screaming.... apparently the dr said its the sign of an intelligent child with a good imagination so look on the bright side (not sure he was right about me tho lol)

sorry i realise none of the above is particularly helpful but i have also just spent majority of last night awake with my son having terrors so know how u feel.. lets hope we get more sleep tonight

This person is so spot on.My lad 6yrs has them almost everynight.And i do exactly the same as above,nothing else you can do really,nearly exactly to the hour of going to bed he has them,but he also never ever remembers anything in the morn.They will stop in their own time,prob grow out of them.None of my others had them though so when he started i wondered wot the hell was happening to him,doc was helpful,but no remedy.

wheelies_3 · 16 April 2008 at 7:38PM

Our eldest Son has suffered from night terrors since he was about 3, he is now 11. At its worst it was every night and you could time it (an hour after he went to sleep), when it was like this we used to gently disturb him after 50 minutes but not actually wake him up and that meant he slept through peacefully. He still has them but about once a month or so. Not sure what the answer is to stop them totally but I've learnt to live with it.

The worst time was once when we were staying in a family room at a B&B and he shot out of bed screaming that a mummy was at the window, now that spooked us all and we slept with the light on

I dread to think what the others staying there thought :eek:

kazmeister · 16 April 2008 at 9:25PM

HI

our daughter suffered night terrors as well. The main difference between a nightmare and a night terror is a nighmare is, a bad dream that will wake the child and they will remember it. A night terror is different in that they do not wake - and you should not try to wake them, before we understood them we used to try and wake our daughter and she would end up lashing out. The brain is in the same state of mind as when sleep walking so the best thing to do is just stay and make sure they are safe and not up and trying to wander. In the morning the child will not remember it at all. They have a tendancy to occur in the first 2 hours after bedtime and can sometimes be associated with overtiredness which our daughter often used to get because she refused to have an afternoon sleep. She grew out of htem by the time she was 5.

kscour · 16 April 2008 at 11:28PM

Our eldest daughter suffered too although at first we didn't know what it was. I suffered too as a child and even now occasionally if I'm honest - waking up terrified and yet not knowing why. I once woke up so scared when I tried to scream no sound came out and by the time I could scream I realised there was nothing to scream about aged about 9 I think and not nice at all.

We would find DD (a toddler then) at top of stairs from sobbing to hysterical and I think it was only gut instinct that made us aware after the first couple of times of desperately trying to find out what was wrong & the resulting in her waking up and wondering why parents had gone loopy and then getting even more hysterical, that she was not actually awake (that and being someone that can hold a conversation in her sleep gives you a bit of an insight!)
We used to just walk her downstairs talking soothingly - snuggle up and have cuddle on settee etc. and then somehow you could see it break and then "back to bed" "back to sleeps" all very soothing and simple.
Aged 12 she still has the occasional bout and i think it's to do with sleeping heavily - it's almost as if part of her wakes but the other part is too tired.

I can still remember being asleep and yet hearing every word in a conversation that my mother and brother was having and wanting to wake up and join in but i couldn't wake up properly - it wasn't scarey just annoying! My mother & brother found it pretty scarey when I repeated the conversation to them though!

A few years back I watched a program on tv and realised this is what was happening and that it tends to run in families (and funnily enough my dad used to get up and change his baby brothers nappy or feed him in his sleep and not remember anything the next day) Sounds stupid but it was nice to put a name to it. Made it seem more normal.

And it also varies in how it happens so there seems to be no simple answer I'm afraid. All I can say from experience (and it may not be relevant to what you're experiencing) is that the actually event is weird, briefly scary etc but waking up and finding the world in bits around you and people in your face demanding to know whats up is very very very frightening. So be very soothing in your voice and words because even though your son may appear asleep he may be able to hear you. And simple words seem to work best - even for me still:o Some times I jump up during the night and OH goes "back to sleeps now" same as he does to DD - but it works somehow, simple and soothing It somehow breaks the moment and I go back to sleep (gosh thinking about it he deserves a medal!)
Heck I don't know if that will help but please keep us updated I'm sure you'll get lots of advice on here.
And don't stop up all night watching him just in case - mums always wake up if there's a problem - some kind of instinct and you need your sleep as much as he does

themmackas · 17 April 2008 at 6:45AM

My ds is 11 and has been having night terrors for about 1.5 years, he wakes up screaming his head off and jumps down the stairs. Its like he is running away from something/one it is very scarey he doesnt know who me or my dh is. I just hold him and re-assure him until he goes back to sleep. When I took him to the doctors she suggested a night pattern, no dvds or tv or game station before bed and to get him to read for about 1/2 hour to settle him down for the night. I can say that this works really well but when he was on his easter hols and his pattern changed then the night terrors came back. Looking back Im sure the night terrors started when he was in year 5 and his teacher was a horrible bully to him, we had to complain to the head teacher and the bullying did ease a little. Now in year 6 the classes get swopped around and this teacher unfortunately moved back to year 6 so my ds had to have him for math and literacy. The night terrors did start again and so we had a word with his teacher who understood the problem and moved him to other teachers for his math and literacy.
Its very scarey when he has a night terror, but he doesnt remember a thing, the other night he wasnt very well and woke up with a terror and scratched and kicked my husband until we settled him down. He still doesnt know he has done this. My oldest ds is really good and doesnt mention the terrors to him as it does make him very anxious when he knows he has had one.

Night Terrors

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