Babble

Has anyone else had experience with night terrors?  My 15 month old seems to be having them and it's just awful.  Any advice or experience much appreciated.

My son used to get these.  I read it was better not to try and wake them up because that can be more traumatic.  I stopped interfearing and it did seem he would work his way through it.  He outgrew this thankfully.  But now he sits up and sometimes crawls in his sleep.  If it isn't one thing its the other... lol  :)

One of my friend's has a daughter that was having night terrors just about every night.  She said it was so scary to watch.  I had read something somewhere about putting your child down to sleep a half hour earlier than usual and that should help.  I told her this and she said it worked!  It seems like it would be worth a try...

I agree with fortunecookies.  My cousin had these so badly that he would bang his head against the wall during the night terrors.  My aunt's ped suggested that it was normal and he would grow out of them.  He also included that it is not best to interfere with them, because to them you are just part of the dream, and in return are hurting them more than helping them. 

 

Refer to this link for further reference :  http://askdrsears.com/html/7/T071300.asp

I've never experienced them myself, but have spoken to people who have, or have kids who have had them and made me really interested in what they are all about.  I was doing a little research so I'll share what I found!

 

Here's what one woman who handles www.nightterrors.org said about handling them:

"Many people have written me to disagree, but I have found the best method of controlling someone during a night terror is to hug and reassure them and tell them that everything is all right. Agree with what they are saying and doing. Sometimes it is not possible to hug them. Don't try to force physical contact. DO NOT yell at them or tell them they are only dreaming as this seems to only upset them even more. Move objects that can injure the person out of the way. This method seems to work better in children rather than in adults. (Adults are a little more physical) The most important thing to remember is that someone having a night terror does not know what they are doing. Make sure that there is not anything nearby that they can hurt themselves or others with. It is perfectly safe to wake someone who is having a Night Terror. Please be gentle! "

 

Heres some more advice!

For children who get frequent night terrors, it might help to wake your child up before the time that he usually has a night terror. This is thought to interrupt or alter the sleep cycle and prevent night terrors from occuring (it also works for sleepwalking).

 

Hope this helps! 

Although I have never experienced these with my baby, I did stumble upon some great information about them here: http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/sleep/terrors.html

It seems that a lot of parents have had great success with uncovering their baby's feet before/while sleeping.  No socks, no feetie pajamas, no blankets over the feet.  It's worth a try?

My 11-year-old son has had them ever since witnessing fireworks at 7 months.  There's likely not a true correlation there but naturally the first time stands out.  They still occur at least once a month, and he talks in his sleep a good bi nightly.  I've learned to determine whether he's truly awake or not by asking him questions, but even that can be deceiving at times.  I can't really add to the other advice:  mostly these days he needs to be reassured somewhat and then he moves into a more regular sleep pattern.  I avoid touching him as that seems to provide agitation.  When he was quite small of course it was a different matter but since he turned about 3 or so this method has been working (prior to that he did want to be held).  He's a bright boy with a lot on his mind, always thinking and working things out in his head, so I imagine a lot of that activity translates into dreamtime as well.  Perhaps you've a genius on your hands!

 

Good luck; it's not easy to witness your child in such obvious pain/terror, but they NEVER seem to remember in the morning, so perhaps it's worse on you than on your child. 

My 2 year old just had one for the first time and it freaked us out. I did some reading about it and most folks say it lasts 30 min or so. We had 2 hours of it, he wouldn’t wake up, spent the time either screaming at the top of his lungs or moaning. He didn’t want to be touched at all, but as he was sick I was afraid his temp spiked, so kept trying to touch him to make sure he wasn’t burning up. Does your son get them all the time? Or is it random. I guess I am trying to figure out if he had it once is it a definite that he will have them again?

As a person who used to get them when I was 7-10 yrs old ( I am now 25 about to turn 26) I can honestly say that I still remember what they were about.  My parents actually took me to a child psychologist because these things weren't really discussed openly back then.  And he taught me a really good coping mechanism.  when I was about ready to go to bed at night he said to imagine something beautiful coming and taking those night terrors away.  I naturally thought of the Blue Fairy like in Pinochio .  And Before bed each night I would repeat to myself and imagine the Blue Fairy coming and whisking all of the bad terrors away.  And it honestly helped.  During my dreams sure enough it helped me fight them off.  And it might sound silly but to this day if I had a particularly stressful day for whatever reason and I can't settle down to get to sleep I still imagine the Blue Fairy coming and magically making my stresses disappear.

When I was a child for about 3 years straight I would get them for about 2 weeks each of the 3 years.   Read below for a good coping mechanism I was taught as a child.  I would sleep walk, try to run out of the house, scream, and when I was sleeping over at a very good friend I knocked a tooth out b y running into a door knob during one of my episodes.  I would honestly expect you child to have them again.  But I grw ew out of them as did every other kid I knew that had them.