DD has suddenly started to have really bad dreams and sleep walking, very soon after she has gone to sleep. Any advice gratefully received.

[MyCatIsABiggerBastardThanYours]

It started about 10 days ago. She had a nasty fever which made her very lethargic for about 2 days and left her with a bit of cough and cold.

All normal for a 6yr old so far, but on the first night of the illness she had what I thought was a fever dream about 2hrs after she had gone to sleep; eyes open but not seeing us (iyswim), crying for us, checking where her brother was, very hysterical and screaming, then after 5 mins or so, sort of came round and then went back to sleep.

We have now had this everynight (apart from 2 when we gave her some piriton to try and dry up her post nasal drip). I have noticed as well that when she is going to bed she is falling asleep far quicker than normal. She usually faffs around for 30 mins or so, playing with dolls and so on, but now she is going to bed, lights out and falling asleep pretty quickly.

The last two nights it has happened within an hr of her going to sleep, and both those times she has run downstairs.

Once she comes round she has no memory of it at all and seems perfectly normal.

As far as I can tell she is happy at school, hasn't fallen out with anyone. We do have arguments as a family but we haven't had any more than normal (and we don't have that many any way).

Is this night terrors? Could she still be ill (I am thinking of taking her to the GP)?

bump

My DS had these, and my DH remembers having them as a child. They seem to happen when he's hot, with a fever or just too wrapped up in bedclothes, or when he's very tired. Not long after going to sleep, too.

They seemed to happen for a good few months, but he's not had one for ages so hopefully it was just a phase. Very scary though!

I had night terrors as a child and even as a young adult. It usually happens to me when I am under extreme stress or have not had enough sleep.

I am wondering if she is feeling stressed. I have had to have a couple of nights away for work which could have unsettled her, along with being ill, having to deal with nits (evil little bastards), then half term, then ski lessons, then friends birthday and it was her brothers birthday today, and she can get over excited...

...probably no need for me to wonder if she is stressed when I read the above, quite a lot to deal with over a couple of weeks for a 6yr old!

I think I'll try to keep things calmer for a few weeks, no staying away for work (don't want to anyway), just keeping things on an even keel.

It's not nice to deal with (and strangely, she gets worse if I tell her she is dreaming, gets very very upset).

Thank you for your comments btw.

Sounds exactly like night terrors, not nightmares - she would be in the deep sleep phase, and won't actually remember any of it in the morning. They normally occur a couple of hours after going to sleep, which would be about right.

DS1 has them every now and then (he's 12), most recently when we moved house. He's a bit of a worrier, and I suppose that was his outlet. It was distressing at first - he would run around the house sobbing in terror, and it took ages to get him back to bed, but then he'd switch off like a light and go back to sleep. We deliberately stopped telling him about the episode the morning after, as we didn't want to worry him further, and eventually they stopped.

It's scary, but the perceived wisdom is that they are harmless, just make sure you keep them safe while they are wandering about!

She's just had another one! That is virtually every night for nearly 2 weeks now.

Starting to wonder if I should take her to the GP. Surely she shouldn't be going from a standing start to one every night?

What TV or computer games is she watching/ playing. My mother banned from watching Dr Who when I was about seven because of night terrors.

she doen't play computer games other than Mario on the Wii and that's not very often (as in maybe 6 times in the last 2 months). Re the TV, it' only kids programmes or the One Show (not too scary!) and nothing frightening at all (Phineas and Ferb, Tom and Jerry, Ben and Holly... none of them renowned for scariness).

She has a regular bed time and goes to sleep well, she eats well, all seems happy at school (will check with teacher though).

I'm a bit concerned.

Any other thoughts or comments from anyone would be great, but I've got to go to bed now (5:30am train to London tomorrow sadly), so I wont be able to answer or thank you immediately.

I would definitely talk to her to see if there is anything worrying her, but from what you've described there's a fair amount of stuff which could have unsettled her.

When my DS gets them, they do occur in a burst, then stop after a few nights.

Dd1 used to have these in the same sort of pattern. The only thing that stopped them would be to rouse her just before the normal time for her to have them. Just enough to maybe get her to have a wee. It broke the cycle but they did come back during bouts of illness or family stress.

The only other thing I can think of is upping the amount of physical excercise.
If she is stressed the excercise will help reduce the cortisol in her blood stream.

Thanks everyone. That is helpful. I have thought I would take her for an early evening walk with me (there is no doubt that I need the excercise anyway!) so I'll try that too.

Spoke to the Dr about it today and he has said what you all have - is something bothering her? is she hot? has something changed? His view really was that if it is still happening everynight in a month then to take her to see them, but just keep her calm, keep trying to check if anything is wrong and stick to a good routine. Oh and yes, his view was it's night terrors too.

Hopefully after a full week at school, more normality back and a good routine she'll be back to normal.

Thank you all for your help and comments.