DD (5.4) having night terrors every night....help,ideas, advice needed :)

[mppaw]

We are going into our 4th week of DD having night terrors. They start approx 45mins after going to bed and then again 1.5 hrs later.
She screams, shakes and her eyes are wide open and they dart around the room as if she is hallucinating. Takes about 10 mins to bring her round and then she goes straight back to sleep. Feel like we are in a vicious circle as the night terrors are affecting her sleep quality, but have read, being overtired can be a cause/contributing factor.....

Any ideas, help or advice would be soooo welcome.

If have one boy with nightmares and one with terrors.

Probably already thought of this, but my DS (4 years) is really affected by his diet - if he has cheese at teatime, he always had night terrors.

Other than that, I sometimes try breaking their routines completely - night away, sleep in a different room etc. It seems to "reset" them somehow.

My ds(5.6) has been having terrors since he was about 3,very scary,brought me to tears several times.
He gets them when over tired,out of routine for few days or over stimulated before bed.
Hes got better but still has one at least once a week.also started sleep walking at one point.

Ive also started just sitting him on bed and sitting away from him,i think the more I try to cuddle or calm him the worse he is.he doesnt know its me most of time

I have no experience of this myself but I remember seeing a documentary about it a few years ago. This was a little girl of about 7 r 8 and she had terrors at the same time every night. They started waking her very gently and giving her a small glass of water about 10 minutes before she would normally start. This was enough to break the sleep pattern and, as far as I remember, after a week or two of waking her, they stopped and she never had one again.

I must stress this is just something I saw on TV but it Might be worth investigating??

It sounds to me as if she is overtired? Both my boys are prone to severe sleep disturbances (not exactly night terrors, but they will scream/seem very distressed) when overtired. From what I read about it overtiredness can be a major factor with night terrors (if DS2 is overtired he will, without fail, start screaming frantically at the end of his first 45 minute 'sleep cycle' and take a good few minutes to calm down).

My sister on the other hand suffered excruciating night terrors for weeks after we moved house as a family - she sleepwalked as well - but the terrors gradually disappeared once she settled, hers were definitely caused by circumstances rather than overtiredness IYSWIM.

So I guess there are a few questions....is there anything you can think of that might have triggered the night terrors? (anything that might be making her anxious etc?) or has she recently started a new activity or similar that might be making her very tired? It's possible that she could be experiencing that 'end of school year' kind of knackeredness that kids can be prone to and therefore things may calm down over the summer holidays...

In the meantime, it might be worth trying an earlier bedtime for her, perhaps a longer wind down in the evenings if possible? And as sittinginthesun says, have a look at her diet - DS1 is also very prone to night disturbances if he has cheese late in the day.