'Dream' waking in 5 year old

[earlyriser]

Just wondered if anyone else has or has had a similar problem.

For the last 3 weeks or so dd (5.5) has been 'waking up' almost exactly 45 mins after going to sleep. She is usually distressed, will often say mummy mummy mummy, sometimes she tries to tell me something eg one night it was 'wow wow wow' and i could tell she was excited about something or other.

I'm not totally convinced that she is awake, but her eyes are open and she is often sitting up. To start with she would also leap out of bed and try and find me (this is very unusual behaviour as she has always in the past waited til i've come to her)but now she is just lying there crying out.

Any ideas? What should i be doing? At the moment, i'm just saying to her that 'mummy is here' etc.

Just getting a bit fed up now with every evening being disturbed just as i'm starting to unwind!

Hi earlyriser - had a similar thing with my nearly-5 DS a few months ago - "woke up" (but he wasnt awake) an hour or so after going to sleep often screaming "No" and "why" would stand in the corner of his room in the dark or start coming downstairs or even come and stand next to me but was totally unresponsive to cuddling and inconsolable. Freaked us out - sounded like he was being abused or possessed or something. After about half an hour he would go back to sleep. Night after night.

searched the web - sounded like night terrors but I started to take his temperature and it was quite high - wasnt sure if it was the terror causing the temp or vice a versa but took him to the doctors, checked him out and prescirbed a course of antibiotics for an infection and the terrors stopped in a couple of days. Hasnt had one since.

Oddly, I mentioned it to my sister and she said her little boy had had almost the exact same thing a few months previously. So am wondering now if it was a viral or bacterial infection that affected his brain - seeemed too much of a coincidence tbh to just be "a phase".

Hope your daughters go away soon X

My little boy (3) has night terrors that sound just like this. They usually coincide with a "stressful" day though - he had one last night after his first full day at his new nursery, and one a couple of weeks ago following a bad stomach bug. He's also had them if he's gone to bed soon after a tantrum. I tend to sit with him, whisper to him, and if he seems to respond (sometimes he doesn't) I will offer him a drink or sit him on the loo.

Thank you for answering, good to know i'm not alone. it is interesting about the high temperature as she is always hot and sometimes wet with sweat when i go to her. Maybe I should get her checked out as it has been going on so long now.

Oh for a restful evening!

the only other thing I was advised was to try walking him up after he had been asleep for an hour because the timing of the terror is something to do with the REM sleep patterns which happens at that 1-2 hours of first going to sleep.

Good luck!

Thanks, still happening, usually before she has even been asleep an hour, would feel very odd trying to wake her after 30mins, but maybe i should give it a go..

Our 7 year old still does this about once a week. He is distressed and remembers nothing about it in morning. I toilet him and lead him back to bed and he soon back asleep. Seems when he not had long enough to unwind after a busy day it happens. I try get him to download what is on his mind when he ready to sleep and this has worked well to reduce the night terrors.