Can someone please explain Night Terrors to me. (long sorry)

[JODIEhadtoomanymincepies]

DS1 (2.4) has been having (what I think are)night terrors all week. First one Thursday, then Friday and the last one was Tuesday night. They scare the bejesus out of me.

Thursday, he was screaming for me, and yelling and thrashing about so much he fell out of bed he was screaming 'Muuummy, Man, NOOOOO' But wouldn't let me hold him or touch him, went on for about 10 mins, we couldn't seem to wake him, finally DH picked him up and that seemed to calm him.

Friday, same as above, just shorter as we didn't try to touch him I just whispered calmly, as touching seemed to make him worse the night before.

Tuesday night really scared me, he was litrally sprinting round the upsatairs rooms looking for me, when I was right there, luckily I caught him just in time before he went hell for leather into small ledge..

Does anyone know what causes them or what to do about them??????

Taken from wikipedia....

Children from age two to six are most prone to night terrors, and they affect about fifteen percent of all children,[1] although people of any age may experience them. Episodes may recur for a couple of weeks then suddenly disappear.[citation needed] The symptoms also tend to be different, like the child being able to recall the experience, and while nearly arisen, hallucinate.[citation needed] Strong evidence has shown that a predisposition to night terrors and other parasomniac disorders can be passed genetically.[citation needed] Though there are a multitude of triggers, emotional stress during the previous day and a high fever are thought to precipitate most episodes.[citation needed] Ensuring the right amount of sleep is an important factor. Night terrors may also be caused by constipation and other irregular bowel movements or lack thereof.[citation needed] Special consideration must be used when the subject suffers from narcolepsy, as there may be a link.

Hope they stop soon for your sake x

Thanks for that. it seems as if there are lots of reasons, and no real explanation. I suppose i'll just have to 'ride them out'

I had them as a child and I can vaguely remember the feelings that I had. I had them on and off for quite a few years, Mum took me to the GP and no explanation was really given, this was 30 years ago. I can remember feelings of real intense fear, nothing like I have ever experienced again. They used to terrify my Mum and she still talks about them now, my dad worked shifts and she found it really hard to cope when he worked nights. As I got older she said she found it really hard to contain me and stop me doing something dangerous, at one time she got to me just as I was opening the cutlery drawer. My Mum was told to ensure that she waked me gently, not suddenly, not sure why. By the time I was 8 I had grown out of them but I can still remember the feeling of fear that I had with them.
I now have 2 dd's and so far they havent experienced any.

Oh thats horrible. Well he hasn't had any for a couple of days now, so fingers crossed it was just a brief spell. They are not very nice

Dd1 had these for a phase (her first term of nursery - don't know if it was connected).

The one thing I found that really helped was to pick her up and sit her on the loo - even though she was still 'asleep' - and let her do a wee. This seemed to 'wake' her enough to let her sleep properly when she went back to bed.

I've no idea if there's any reason why this worked or if it would work for you - but anything is worth a try, isn't it? My sympathies - I found these really scary and I'm relieved she's through them now .

The semi waking thing works (I think) because DS's seem to stop when DH picks him up, he realises it's not me and it when he does get to me then it calms him. Does that make sense?

We had this with DS2 when he was about 2 (I think). He used to cry and cry, inconsolably. We tried cuddling, offering milk, but nothing worked, and he was clearly not really awake, even though his eyes were open.

In the end, what worked for us was bringing him downstairs and putting one of the music channels on the TV. The music seemed to calm him immediately, then we had a cuddle for about 10 minutes till it was clearly over, and then put him back to bed where he would go straight to sleep.

He never remembered these events, as far as I know.

My ds had these, but it seemed to happen when he was really really tired.

They were horrible, but suddenly stopped for no apparent reason!