Night terrors - any advice?

[zippyb]

My sister's DD is 6 & has night terrors - not that often but are very upsetting for everyone when they do happen. She screams and no amount of comfort calms her until eventually she drifts back to sleep - she is visiting me & I just hoped some other mums may have some advice?

There is another thread on night terrors somewhere. Dr Ferber (US sleep expert) says that night terrors are misnamed as the child is not suffering or having a bad dream, they are just having a little episode of brainwaves going haywire during the transition between deep sleep and light sleep. It is normal and needs no treatment. They don't need comforting (as they are not suffering or upset no matter how awful they look), just stick around to make sure they don't harm themselves but don't wake them up. The reason why comforting doesn't work is that the child is essentially still asleep and oblivious to you. For more reading and suggestions on how to deal with and even perhaps prevent night terrors you can get the book Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Dr Richard Ferber. HTH

Thanks aloha - will pass this on to my sister - my problem is trying to get my DS to sleep in first place!

Ah, well, he has lots of (controversial) advice on that too. Worth a read IMO for the interesting scientific stuff about children's sleep, even if you don't follow his advice. Good luck with the visit.

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Zippyb, as you say your neice doesn't respond to comforting, I think it is safe to say she fits the 'classic' model of night terrors. Get the book if you like as I suspect you and your sister would find it rather comforting. Dr Ferber runs a huge sleep research facility in the US and has helped literally hundreds of families. I don't know about his personal circumstances, but I wouldn't slag off an oncologist just because they didn't happen to have cancer themselves.

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