Night terrors

[deptfordgirl]

Not sure if night terrors are the issue but my 2 year old is having some serious issues with sleep at the moment and I don't know what to do.

He will go into his cot no problem at 7pm and fall asleep on his own almost instantly, however after usually 3 or 4 hours he will wake up seemingly terrified, thrashing about with his eyes closed and completely inconsolable. The only thing which seems to work is to lie him down and wait for him to come out of it and to wake up fully. He will then usually not settle in his cot so we bring him into our bed but he has still been having episodes throughout the night of this even when we are right beside him. He is also waking in the morning like this. He used to wake calmly but now he will wake screaming and only snap out of it when he has fully woken up, sometimes after 10 minutes or so.

Has anyone got an idea what this might be or what might be causing it? Or any experience of it?

Inconsolable, half asleep crying that is only calmed upon properly waking up is a typical symptom of overtired restlessness. So I wouldn't be so quick to assume anything more complex than that.

It is as a result of moving between sleep cycles at some point and being too restless (of the overtired 'wired' nature) to move into the next cycle easily. The crying is the busy saying "I desperately still want you sleep, help me go back to sleep"

Look at your toddlers overall sleep. Has daytime napping cut down when it is still needed? Maybe make bedtime earlier or change the daytime sleep routine.

Thank you so much for your advice. He is still napping during the day. I was waking him after an hour and a half as I thought it was affecting his night time sleep but recently I've been letting him wake when he likes so he has been sleeping for about 2 hours, sometimes more.

Interesting you say it could be over tiredness. It would be a relief to think it was just that rather than night terrors. He just seems so upset and scared, it's horrible.