Night terrors?

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DD1 is nearly four and a half. She started Reception three weeks ago.

Since she started school she has started having very distrubed sleep. She usually goes to sleep at 8pm. At 10pm (almost to the minute) she starts crying and moaning. I go to her but she is not properly awake and no amount of cuddling or singing will stop the crying. In fact it almost feels like the more I touch her or talk to her, the more she cries. This is so unlike her. Even as a baby she would stop crying as soon as I cuddled her.

I am not even sure she totally realises I am there when she wakes. She thrashes about in her bed and although her eyes open, her pupils look dilated. However, she will respond to simple questions if really pressed (e.g. last night I kept asking her name and after I had repeated the question many times she answered) so she is not totally unaware of my presence or totally unresponsive.

The first episode usually lasts about 30 mins. Some nights that is all that happens. Other nights she starts crying again at about midnight.

Last night I bought her into bed with me and was horrified to see that even when who wasn't crying loudly she was thrashing and moaning on an off until about 4am. She then slept peacefully until 8am.

She never remembers having bad dreams in the morning.

Are these night terrors. She does not look terrified. Just very sad and unsettled. If they are night terrors does anyone have any tips on how to stop them?

It does sound like night terrors. They are neither asleep or awake, sort of half way. My son had them around the same age, mainly when he was overtired, and then that would set a pattern for them for the next few nights.
I don't think there is any way of preventing them. They will grow out of it, although mine didn't until he was around 7!

My youngest has them. He has just turned four, but his were particularly bad when he was around three and a half.

I found his diet made a difference. He always had them if he ate cheese in the evening.

The only way I can deal with them, is to bring him downstairs, so he wakes up slowly, and then put him back to bed. That does always work in his case - I can't cuddle him back to sleep, as he just thrashes around and moans.

Thank you both. I am going to try and get DD1 into bed early to see if more sleep helps. It is so distressing watching her cry and not being able to comfort her.