DD1 waking up at night crying, though not quite awake, inconsolable. Not sure how to deal with it.

[Bumperlicioso]

DD1 is nearly 4 and regularly (once a fortnight maybe) wakes up in the night crying but is incoherent and inconsolable. Sometimes she is upset over a (relatively) minor incident (e.g. this weekend we were camping and last night she was inconsolable, but mentioned something about a spade that she had lost that day). We have no idea how to prevent it or snap her out of it. Any one else have any experience with this?

Bump

my daughter (3 and a half) does this sometimes, and doesn't even seem to recognise us when she wakes up. I think its if she's been dreaming. I just hold her until she settles down, but it can take a good 20 to 30 minutes

could be night terrors - does it happen when she is particularly overtired?

Think they generally happen in the first few hours of the night.

Could be night terrors, I'd just associated them with screaming for some reason. I'd say it's usually before 2am.

DS used to do this on a regular basis. Not sure people advise it but we would bring him downstairs and read him a book. This seemed to make him snap out of it and then after 10 mins we would pop him back in bed and he would go back to sleep no problems.

If we didn't wake him he would get hysterical and try and fight us off etc

he doesn't do it anymore