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Original poster

DS (8) hallucinating in his sleep. Has anyone experience of this?

26 replies

MorocconOil · 28/01/2008 09:51

DS (8) has been off colour since saturday morning. He looks very pale and tired, and has had a temperature off and on. He is very lethargic and has little appetite.

On saturday night he woke 4 times screaming, with his eyes open. He was making no sense but complained the following day of having dreams he was going to be crushed. The same happened again last night.

We have been giving him Nurofen and Calpol(at appropriate intervals)

He used to have night terrors when he was younger, but these stopped 2 years ago.

I'm taking him to the GP later, but just wondered whether anybody else's DC has had had this.

Thanks

OP posts:
Twiglett · 28/01/2008 09:54

Sorry I'm rather unsure of why you think this is different from nightmares / night terrors .. am I missing something?

If it is nightmares / night terrors I wouldn't be surprised if he's been ill and running a fever it's probably his brain just reacting to it

Have you tried to do any form of meditative exercise with him? Deep breathing or visualisation might help (sound like a hippy dippy but I'm not) .. it is possible to do this with children

Vacua · 28/01/2008 09:57

is this 'hypnogogia' or something? cannot remember exact word, I get it too - think it is fairly common

will look for link

carmenelectra · 28/01/2008 09:58

MY DS has night terrors. In fact he had one last night.

It does sound like a terror, but the difference between them and nightmares is the child doesnt remember a terror the night day. As your ds has some recollection, id say it was a bad nightmare.

Vacua · 28/01/2008 09:59

he is actually asleep when it happens, just looks awake by the way

so they are not hallucinations but more a sort of 'waking' dream - that feeling of being smothered or crushed is definitely a 'night terror' thing

I get this quite often

Vacua · 28/01/2008 10:00

is that true about not remembering them carmenelectra? only can remember ALL mine from childhood and adulthood

Original poster
MorocconOil · 28/01/2008 10:03

I thought children grew out of night terrors. He hasn't had one for 2 years now.

I wondered whether anyone's DC has recently had a virus which caused similar symptoms.

Vacua- Do you mean hypnogogia is the term for night terrors?

OP posts:
Vacua · 28/01/2008 10:05

I just looked it up - I think this is the same sort of thing, it fits my experiences anyway:

sleep paralysis

seems that it is not uncommon among adults

Original poster
MorocconOil · 28/01/2008 10:09

I had hoped he'd grown out of the terrors.
Vacua- have you had periods of not having them?
Perhaps the high temperature has triggered them.
[sigh] He looks so distressed when he's having them. Last night he made little sense, although he did shout 'wake me up Mummy' a few times

OP posts:
Vacua · 28/01/2008 10:14

I just get them on and off, maybe a year or two sometimes between them? I think mine are linked to losing sleep and being stressed about things, in childhood I recall having ear infections or exam anxiety around the times they happened. Hopefully your son won't have them throughout his life - though I am more than confused by all the different names for what seems like the same thing, sleep paralysis, night terror, hypnagogia. Are they interchangeable do you think? Or different things?

TigerPants · 28/01/2008 10:15

DS1 becomes delirious in his sleep when he is going down with a cold.

Has done since he was tiny, and he's now 12.

When it happens we take all his clothes off and dab his forehead, wrists etc with a damp cloth (tepid water).

We give him ibuprofen and paracetamol at the same time.

Also find it useful to bring him downstairs and put something on the tv that he finds familiar.

Poor DH is always seen as evil during this episodes, and I'm his saviour! DS1 yells things like "get him away from me, he's carrying poisoned prawns!" etc

Now he's getting older, the occurrence of these delirious episodes are reducing.

But he's always been quite ineffective at regulating his temperature.

His father was the same apparently.

Original poster
MorocconOil · 28/01/2008 10:20

Thanks for the link Vacua. Do you remember the next day what happened? How often do you experience them?

How old's your DS Carmen?

It is very disturbing to watch. It was as though he could see somebody or something and was trying to push them away.

I hope it will just go away again when he's feeling better, as there's no way I would want him to have medication. Ritalin

OP posts:
Original poster
MorocconOil · 28/01/2008 10:21

x post while I was reading link

OP posts:
Original poster
MorocconOil · 28/01/2008 10:28

LOL Tigerpants at your DH carrying poisoned prawns!

He does quite stressed about things, so maybe it's partly his temprement. Also like Tiger's DS I think he's ineffective at regulating his temperature. He gets very cold in swimming pools, in the winter out walking etc.

Thank-you for all that information everyone

OP posts:
Vacua · 28/01/2008 10:32

I've been having LOADS lately, but I think the last spate before this was over a year ago.

I remember them in great detail, but then I do remember lots of 'normal' dreams too. It will sound utterly pathetic but at the time it feels like being under demonic attack and I don't think to myself at the time 'this is a night terror' and I'm not exactly religious. Often it feels like some invisible force is sliding the duvet up and over my head and pressing down on it to suffocate me, and I try to call out for help but my voice doesn't work properly. Sometimes there are scary disembodied red eyes above me, or music playing and a few times I have thought I've woken up from one only to find I am in another one, only to wake up once more to be in yet another.

Fascinated by the 'cultural references' bit of that wikipedia article though, if only I could think to myself at the time 'if I was Mexican this would be a dead person sitting on me' or 'if I was from New Guinea this would be a sacred tree feeding on me' !

Vacua · 28/01/2008 10:33

I didn't know you could take medication for it, don't think I'll be rushing off to the GP any time soon.

carmenelectra · 28/01/2008 10:36

VACUA, I have read up on this and i have read that if they remember then its a dream and a night terror if they have no recollection. Also there was a sleep clinic on The Wright Stuff last wk and they said the same thing.

Mimizan, my ds is 8 and has has them since he was little. At first we thought he was awake cos his eyes were wide open, but then we soon realised he wasnt. He doesnt remember a thing. Even if i mention he has a bad dream. He doesnt have many now, but he has had 2 in past wk. Being overtired is the trigger. If he has several late nights he often has one. iTS horrible, he runs up and down the landing shouting/crying and looking scared to death. He recognises us though and talks to us, which makes him seem awake.

last night he was crying and i gave him a muslin square to wipes his eyes(something he has always liked from a baby!) and this morning he asked why it was in his bed cos he couldnt remember the terror!

Vacua · 28/01/2008 11:46

I think I got sleep paralysis and hypnagogia muddled up with night terrors then, although night terror would be a much better name for it.

carmenelectra · 28/01/2008 11:48

O
oh i need to look up the other things vacua, dont know if they apply to my ds

Original poster
MorocconOil · 28/01/2008 12:48

Vacua- Your description of being suffocated is similar to DS's description of being crushed. He drew a picture of the 'crusher'

Last night DH was furious with me when I said it was as though DS was 'possessed'. We aren't religious or believe in spirits, but if you were that's what he looked like.
He's also just told me that he keeps waking up within the dream which is how you described it Vacua.

The GP said it was more than likely caused by the high temperature, and said many children and adults experience this. He said it's only dangerous if it causes fits. I'm going to make sure he gets lots of rest, and keep him dosed up with calpol.

OP posts:
LittleB · 28/01/2008 12:51

You can hallucinate with a high temperature, could it be this? My sister used to do this when she was a child and was ill, it would really scare my mum. If its only happened when he's ill this could be the cause, hope he gets better soon.

EzrasMummy · 28/01/2008 13:45

My son had the same thing id say between the ages of 4 and 5. it was absolutely terrifying. Once he was sitting up in his bed his room facing the wall after having an afternoon nap. His Dad comes in and says "do you want me to take you to the sitting room" and proceeds to pick him up

my son then screams as if he's just seen the Devil. I rush in and he looks at me like he doesnt know me and is screaming like mad. Its truly terrifying like he's been posessed. Other times he would scream and try to get away from something in his bed. hed be cowering in the corner.

I think children grow out of it. Also some cartoons are quite scary especially if your child has a vivid imagination. We stopped the cartoons, prayed (we're Christians) and it all stopped.
He was like that as a tiny baby too and it was scary then too!

Hopefully your child will grow out of it. Best of luck

summer111 · 28/01/2008 20:38

Like LittleB, I'd also suggest it is directly lnked to his fever.
As a child, whenever I had a temperature I always hallucinated - it was always the same nightmare, that I was in a room covered in spiders that were crawing everywhere... it seemed very real to me.
My dd also tends to hallucinate when she has a temperature which can be a bit unsetling - she doesn't recognise me as her mum and despite her eyes being open, needs alot of encouragement to wake her out of it.
If it appears to be linked to your ds being unwell, I'm sure that's all there is to it.
Good luck.

thelittleElf · 28/01/2008 20:52

My nephew did this when i was babysitting one evening. He'd been given an antihistamine, which he reacted badly to. It was very worrying at the time, so i can totally sympathise with you.
I hope you find some answers soon.

Original poster
MorocconOil · 28/01/2008 21:02

I'm sure it's because he's unwell and very tired. I'll keep him off school until he's completely back to normal. Poor little man.

Thanks for all your kind words

OP posts:
Vacua · 28/01/2008 21:59

hope he feels better soon mimizan, and that I haven't scared you!