Night terrors - any experience?

[sethstarkaddersmum]

DS1 (3.9) had been having these for a while, I've only just googled and sussed out what they are.

Has anyone got any experience of this? And has anyone tried the thing where you wake them up half an hour before it starts to interrupt the pattern? he has them pretty regularly at 10pm-ish, so we ought to be able to try it.

Had these, never woke them. Just used lavender oil, and relaxation before bed. Tried to get to the bottom of anxieties, and get them feeling good about themselves (I had a relaxation CD we used a bit).

Mine never did it everynight.

You could look at diet too, I have vivid dreams if I eat apples in the evening.

do you think emotional issues are part of it? Everything I've read says they're not related, and he's a very happy little boy.

He is super-fussy about food so if there was a diet link I would not be at all surprised at it means he eats lots of a few things. Maybe I should keep a food diary.

bump

DD used to have them but grew out of them. They're nothing to do with anxiety usually. DD is a sunny, happy, well-adjusted child and never remembered them afterwards.

She does have nightmares now (she's 3) but normal stuff like the farmer shaving her cat and mummy refusing to buy her a lollipop. But she can talk and laugh about them.

We did the waking thing and it did work most of the time.

DS had them for a while a year ago (aged 4). They were very upsetting and intense. We flapped about for a while, trying to talk him down and keep him in his room. In the end we decided to get him up, cuddle and a biscuit downstairs and then back to bed. His happened at around 10pm too, and after some reassurance and a change of environment he would happily fall asleep and sleep through.

He grew out of it after a few weeks. Not sure that our method had anything to do with that. I think he just grew out of it.

DS had these before he was 1 year old. I read at the time that they could be down to over-tiredness and that was the theory I went with, as it was always the days that he had a shorter daytime nap or went to bed later than usual, that he got them. He never really "woke up" during them, even though his eyes were open. I read that you shouldn't really wake a child whilst they are having one, just hold them, comfort them etc. I hope they stop soon for you.

Ds had night terrors for a long time which were very bad.

Since they are regular I would try to interrupt his sleep cycle a bit. We cetainly found that we had to break the cycle to get though the night (but he would have several a night).

Also try to look for triggers, there may not be any thing obvious or anything that you can easily sort out but it might help. Ds would have terros for a phase then they would go away and come back later. The worst stretch which went on for months was when dd was born so obvious cause but no solution! However, they were worse when he was tired so I became a slave to the nap for many months, making sure I was home by 12pm for him to nap at home. Eventually it passed. Now they are rare, I think the last time he had one was when he had a temperature.

Dealing with the actual terror is just trial and error. Usually you should not try to wake them, it is similar to sleep walking behaviour and they settle back down into sleep eventually. Some people say don't touch them as you can provoke it which I have certainly experienced with ds. Somethines things like rubbing his feet and legs has helped. YOu just hab=ve to find your own ways of getting through it really.

hello there, my oldest used to suffer them for no reason, i found, oddly enough, pointing her to the bathroom tended to do the trick.

she also used to sleep walk, again locked doors and pointed to the bathroom

thanks everyone. It's nice to know we're not alone!
We'll try waking him and see how we go....

My dd nearly 5 has them sporadically. It's so distressing - she runs around the house crying and shouting gibberish. Last night she kept screaming 'I want my mummy!' Looked straight through me and just kept running away . It's awful.

yes, it is awful.
The first time it happened I was on my own as dh was away and honestly, it felt like something in a horror film (even though I don't believe in anything supernatural) - he was running away from something I couldn't see and I couldn't help him

It's interesting what Justsuz says about pointing him to the bathroom. Last night I brought ds downstairs in an attempt to wake him up and dh suggested he might need a wee so he pulled down his pyjamas and started to do it on the kitchen floor . DH started to tell him off, which I was very about because he was so obviously asleep! He took him up and sat him on the toilet and he woke up then and was fine.

Ds used to point his way around the house, it is so strange isn't it! He would point from his bed to the hallway so we'd pick him up and take him out then he would point downstairs and just make us do a tour of the house then when he was done he'd point back up and to his bedroom then quite often that would be the end of the terror and he'd be back off into a settled sleep never having woken up at all.