Sleep Disorder? Baby gets stuck in sleep stage

[Iz91]

Hi
Not sure if this is the right thread but was wondering if anyone’s had something similar happen or if they know if this is some sort of condition/ disorder or just typical.

My baby is currently 7m and since she has been about 3m old she’s had a few incidents (4-5x) where it appears she (has a nightmare?) starts crying in her sleep uncontrollably, and despite any attempt to settle her down (gently pat or rub her back, offer pacifier, eventually pick her up and cuddle her) it seems to just escalate how upset she is and she cries like she’s really hurt whilst still asleep the entire time. I’m talking her eyes remain closed throughout the bout of crying and even when we try to stand up with her or switch on the lights to wake her eventually after nonstop crying 3-5min it just seems like she is stuck in one of the sleep stages and can’t make her way back to full consciousness without considerable effort. There is nothing wrong physically with her except for tonight it happened and she has a little bit of a cold, but all previous times she was healthy and okay.

I wasn’t too concerned when it happened 2-3x and figured she’s consolidating quite a lot in her sleep and might be a harmless thing, but the more often it has happened, the more concerned I have become about this being ‘normal’ development side effect. I’m concerned about how long and forceful her cries are when this happens and about her inability to wake up without us making considerable effort to get her back into an awake state which appears to be the only way to stop her crying. We never force her to wake roughly, we just keep talking and calling her name gently and walk with her in our arms or cuddle and try and soothe her until she wakes up eventually but it often feels like an eternity before she becomes cognisant again to recognise she’s safe with her mommy and daddy and it breaks my heart each time.

My main worries are that I may be missing something and frankly also her alarming cries as she rarely ever cries that forcefully and upset during her normal wake hours.

Anyone have something like this happen or is this worthy of a GP visit?

My 7month old does this occasionally. I always just assumed it was teething pain!(because lying down makes it worse and there's nothing to distract you from the pain when you're in bed).

I usually just wander around with him playing some music and singing along until he stops. If it lasts a long time or if he opens his eyes (rare) and keeps screaming I take him outside, fresh air always works well to settle him down. Sometimes if he's awake and clearly still struggling I give him a dose of calpol before putting him back down.

You've got me wondering if this is right though! X

Night terrors. Different to nightmares. They suck.

Yep. My brother (a happy little chappy when awake) would have full blown tantrums in his sleep. My son does it now and then, too. He has done some ferocious crying in that state, much louder and angrier than when he's awake. Takes a little while to wake him up, and when we manage it he just smiles at us like, "Hey guys, what's up?" 😂

Yes as someone has said - night terrors. My DS had them and worried me so much at the start. We got used to them and he's grown out of it, but I used to hate it happening. He'd get inconsolable and hysterical. Would last 20 mins and then he was ok. Couldn't remember it the next day and has no recollection now.

Used to happen just about 40 mins after he fell asleep and more regularly when he was hot.

Read up on it and get some coping strategies (for you!).

The advice given to me was not to wake him, I used to gently try and comfort him and sing him a little song. But yes the sound! Nothing like his usually crying - so loud and angry. God the first time it happened I was close to calling an ambulance!!

Night terrors. My son used to have them. They're horrid to watch, but they don't remember them in the morning. There's very little you can do but sit with them and wait for it to pass.

Agreed this sounds like night terrors. My DC1 was particularly prone to them, she was having them infrequently until she was about 5.

You're not meant to wake them from it as it can prolong the distress and confusion. Just have to ride them out and try and provide gentle comfort during.

My DC1 is 6.5 now and as I say I don't think they've had any since they were about 5.

Joining the throng of people saying night terrors. Happened to my son too.

As was said above, waking was discouraged.

Thanks so much for the responses! I was honestly wracking my brain about what this could be and was afraid it was something to that effect but kept wondering what they could possibly be dreaming or experiencing that could even trigger tiny little minds to go that far in a sleep state! By the sounds of the overall experiences from the comments section we can only support her during these sporadic incidents and navigate things if they do continue.

I might pop a message to our GP just to see if they recommend anything else, now that I can pinpoint this as something more tangible rather than just ‘mommy worry’. Might also see if maybe there is a baby sleep study or something on the subject, as would be incredibly helpful to know what causes this in babies so young! Night terrors in adults appears more explainable just hard to understand why babies can have these. She’s a healthy and happy baby otherwise, just awful that our little ones have to go through something like this 😓.

So glad I posted this and helpful to hear everyone’s responses and experiences with this! Will be forever grateful for a community board such as this!

Thanks a bunch! xx

Is there a history of sleep disturbances in the family, like sleep walking or night terrors? It’s much more likely to occur when there’s a family history of it.

There is a technique of waking the child every night to reset their sleep/brain pattern to help stop the night terrors. If they occur at a particular time each night or after being put to bed, you gently wake them about 15-20 mins before that. Just enough for them to open their eyes and react to you, and then back to sleep. Doing that for a week should help stop them for a while. Google it and you should be able to find the proper info about it.

I went against the advice of not waking the child. My DD was so utterly distressed and covered in sweat from thrashing and screaming. It was distressing for DH and me, and could have upset neighbours. She couldn’t hear us, or feel us, but she would wake almost instantly from a tiny smear of teething gel in her mouth. The taste got through to her. She’d wake up and be confused as to why we were awake and holding her, and would settle pretty easily with a nappy change, pj change if needed, cooling off in front of a fan, and a bottle of milk or drink of water. That teething gel was like gold. We discovered its ability to wake her by accident. She had a horrible time with teething so a few times we thought she had woken screaming from teething pain. Teething gel would be our first step to helping her with that, so teething gel was a familiar and comforting taste for her. The screaming would pretty much instantly stop so we realised it wasn’t teething. GP diagnosed it as night terrors.