17 mo - screaming in sleep / inconsolable for hours - how do we stop this becoming the norm?

[rubybambini]

Help! (Always good to start with.)

Our generally delightful DD is a few days from 17 months. She's been a bit of an up and down sleeper on the whole. I'd sum it up by saying that we're never sure if we'll get a decent night's sleep. I'd say she wakes us (me) up at least five times a week, and I need to go in to see her two to three times.

In the last five to six weeks, she's been disturbing us with screams, whoops and wails, which, when we go in, we find her asleep - and she's making the noises in her sleep. They tend to be early, so up to an hour after she's gone to bed at 7pm, or from 1am-ish. They don't seem to obviously disturb her, but certainly disturb us.

And in the last week, we've had three episodes of inconsolable crying, wailing, kicking, writing, won't-go-in-cot, won't be in the dark, won't be in the light, want milk - don't want milk etc etc. Last Wednesday this was from 11pm - 3am, on Monday night it was 9.30pm - 12am and tonight, 7pm - 11pm.

She's in a wonder-week, and teething a bit (but we give her Calpol, so she's unlikely to be in pain).

How can we help her?

Addendum: she's at nursery four days a week. Generally naps 1.5 - 2 hours a day, from 11.30/12ish. Bed and asleep by 7pm, give or take 15 mins either side, wake up between 6.30am - 7.30am depending.

The night-time screams sound very much like night terrors - unlike a nightmare they occur in deep sleep, so there is no memory of the event the next morning.

They generally occur an hour or two after going to sleep, so the timing sounds right.

Don't try to wake her, just try to quieten/calm.

DS had them, although at an older age, and he would run around the house sweating and screaming for up to 20 minutes. Scary at first, but OK once we knew what we were dealing with. He never remembered a thing the next day.

The recent sleep disturbance might be related, or just a phase she's going through. Just be calm and consistent, and hopefully it will pass.

Sounds like night terrors to me too. The developmental stage could be affecting the wakings too and the teething. I'd give ibruprofen for teething as it is more effective for dental pain than paracetamol.

There is an article on night terrors here which you might find useful.

Useful article, Julie.

DS didn't start having them until he was 9, so above the usual age range. He is nearly 13 now, and hasn't had one for six months or so, so hopefully it has run its course. There was never any obvious rhyme or reason to when they occurred, but it did tend to happen a few nights on the trot, then not for a while.

Hi ruby, my LO is 17months and a bit. We had a bad sleep week around the wonder week too - I've always been skeptical about them but cannot deny that there hasn't been a correlation with sleep. We haven't had quite the same as you but she was def more disturbed, shouted out "mummy mummy" or SCREAMED til I ran in about once a night, but settled again extremely quickly after I'd gone in. Also seemed a bit upset at being put in the dark (she has just learned about light and dark).

You will be pleased to know all is now fine, back to normal. I am pretty sure it was developmental, she has just made a huge leap with her speaking, and her jigsaw puzzle skills have come on a pace too.

Hope you get the same - good luck!

Thanks for the words of reassurance, and sorry for the belated reply. We were on holiday - thought the change of air (or something) might do DD the world of good (that wasn't the actual reason for the holiday btw!). Think we had 2-3 days of good sleeping, then various forms of wakefulness in the night - so she woke 5 nights out of 8, we took her into our bed on 3 of those, just too tired to faff with anything else.

She's popping a tooth by the looks, so maybe it's as simple a reason as that - we switched to trying Nurofen, and it certainly seems to help.

Fififrog - interesting you say that - the number of words she says has risen dramatically over the last week. Tomorrow, she gets a lemon-fresh jigsaw puzzle to try.

So it's 8.30, I'm glancing at the clock and thinking 9pm bedtime. At least that way I should get 7 hours kip, if she does a 4am-er again!

Ha! Ruby, I spoke to soon, we had a night much more like yours last night with me being unable to leave her when she woke at 10.30 and didn't sleep again for 3 hours. I just started a new thread - am wondering if sleep disturbance like this is quite common at this age or whether we're just unlucky :(
I am supposed to be doing some work, but am procrastinating the evening away... Good luck for tonight!