Is my 12 m old having Night Terrors??

[Danani]

Hoping someone can provide some insight…

My freshly turned 12 month old has been waking up HYSTERICAL the past three nights!

Like crying, upset, throwing herself back, even though she sleeps with me at the moment and I’m literally next to her. She doesn’t calm down when I stroke her back or shush or talk to her; we then have to get up; I cuddle her- she is still in hysterics; she seems awake but it’s almost like she’s not registering that she’s in my arms and it’s okay. I have to take her to the sink and gently wash her face to get her to “snap out” of it enough to realize where she is and what’s happening and to calm down!

This happened for a third night/morning in a row today. It happens between 4 and 5.30 am.

She recently turned 1, is of course teething (aren’t they all?), and started full-time nursery 3 weeks ago. Loves nursery, btw, goes without crying and has the best time but sleeps a lot less than she used to when at home (2 30 min naps).
I know she’s tired when she comes home so we out her down earlier so she catches up on sleep.

She is totally fine and happy throughout the day; goes off to sleep super fast in the evening and sleeps peacefully and soundly until 4-5 am. Hence why I don’t think it’s anything to do with physical discomfort/pain.

I kept telling my husband it feels like she had a bad dream and it takes her ages to realize she’s awake and fine, so he read up on night terrors a bit and honestly it tracks!

To anyone who has gone through this - does this sound familiar? Is it in fact night terrors? Is this happening or has it happened to anyone else? Is it a developmental phase? I hate seeing her so upset and unable to have a nice and happy wake up at a more reasonable hour!

P.S. everything I’ve read online suggests these are very uncommon in a child as young as 12 months old, and that they do happen within the first couple of hours of going to sleep.
but I have no idea what else it could be!

Hi, my 21m has nights like this aswel and has done since around 12m..i also assumed must be night terrors as cant always blame on teething! I do now allow abit of light in her room just to see if that helps! Could it also be trapped wind? Even now my girl occasionally wakes after a couple of hours of sleeping due to wind but then will be fine once its passed x

DD had night terrors consistently (like 3 nights in a row every few weeks) from that age up to around 2 even 3 years old. They were intense and nothing we could do would snap her out of it, we just had to ride it out. One thing that sort of worked was that they tended to happen around 9-10pm and I read to go in and gently stir her (so she'd open her eyes/roll over) to reset her sleep cycle. It was mixed results but helped a bit!

They happened less and less as she got older and she's now 4 and she maybe wakes up crying hysterically (but is easily comforted now) maybe once every few months.

Oh and a red night light helped! She used to sleep in the pitch black and the night light offered enough light for her to get her bearings a lot quicker. Also meant less stumbling in the dark for us!