Anyone know about Night Terrors??

[dreamingoflamu]

Just been reading some stuff today and came across night terrors for the first time and am wondering if could be happening to my ds sometimes. Has anyone got more definate experience? My ds is just coming up to a year.

I think my just 3 year old has been having them lately. She'll wake up screaming and can't be comforted and doesn't seem aware of who we are and talks nonsense they can last upto an hour apparently but luckily for us 30 mins has been the longest. One night she was actually trembling and everything. The only thing to do is hold them close and make them feel safe till it passes and don't try to wake them as it makes them more frightened. They can be hereditary and my dp used to have them as a child.

apparently they happen within a couple of hours of going to sleep (nightmares are in the middle of the night).

They need to be woken up before they go back to sleep and it can take quite a while before they actually wake up and respond to you.

My DS1 has them - usually when he is overtired.

\link{http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/conditions/nightmare2.shtml\night terrors}

by waking up I mean keep talking to him until he is aware you are there and can respond to you - and above all stay calm so that you don't frighten them when they do wake up.

DS has had these on and off since he was about 2, especially when overtired or feverish.

Night terrors can be quite eerie and unnerving - DS appears to be quite posessed, talking, or more likely shuting, apparantly lucidly, but very repetitive. Eyes wide open, sitting up in bed, maybe pointing.

In line with most of the official advice, we find that any intervention only makes it more intense and prolongs it, and doesn't wake him, anyway. Much better to leave him well alone, whilst making sure he doesn't hurt himself.

He wakes happy as anything, with no memory of having been through it.

thanks for the link - its hard as he is so young he can't tell me whats going on - but he often wakes with a scream and when I get upstiars he is sitting in the corner of the cot looking bewildered and lost and upset. Often I don't think he's awake at all. I usually breastfeed him to calm him and this works - if I just hold him and rock him he can get really upset and thrash about. The link says the episodes can be quite short - this seems to have been going on for a while with ds...... poor wee thing...I hate to think of him being scared.

he just woke up before I got the chance to thank you on my last post. Some of this sounds very familiar, but he does wake alot and terrors certainly aren't the cause of all of them - but I think you've helped me understand some of them and how to deal with them.