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Original poster

5 year old with night terrors - ADHD??

2 replies

Jadey31 · 18/01/2026 18:01

Hi all
My daughter has just turned 5 and has always suffered with night terrors - strangely similar nightmare to what I have and I have NEVER told her about these .. spiders falling from the ceiling and crawling on me in bed. Even when I wake up my husband is trying to convince me they are not there but I can still see them! My daughter has the exact same dreams. In the last few months they have got extremely worse for her to the point she is now petrified to go to sleep.
I breast fed her til she was 4 which is also playing a big part of my mind as when she would wake up in the night before I breast fed I would feed her to sleep whereas I can’t now so when she wakes up this is her up for the day and then making her whole day at school miserable as she’s so tired. Some days she’s awake from 2am and we are exhausted!
we have recently started giving her child friendly multivitamins and I’m not sure if these are side effects of the night terrors? I have taken her off the as of today.
when she has the night terrors she is shaking and I assume this was in fear however last night when they happened she asked me what is happening to her body. I do a little google (sometimes this can make things worse!) but mini seizures are common with night terrors and also night terrors can form part of ADHD which I have slightly suspected but it’s never effected day to day life til now so I’ve never pushed for diagnosis.
I have read magnesium is good for sleep but I want to know real life similar situations? I will be calling the doctor tomorrow to just try and get a professional opinion but my poor little girl is scared to go to sleep and it’s draining us all.
any advice or similar experiences welcomed!!

OP posts:
flara · 18/01/2026 18:24

Hello. Sorry to hear your little one is having night terrors, my DS(8) has them and they are absolutely horrid. DS is autistic and has always struggled with sleep, but we noticed a while back that he would have night terrors when he got too hot. He likes to wrap himself up in the duvet like a little burrito, but he over heats and that seems to trigger them. Hes always been a warm person, so we’ve put a thinner duvet on for him and just use a sheet in the summer. This has helped a lot and he’s having far fewer. Not sure if that’s a universal thing for night terrors, but might worth looking at.

Original poster
Jadey31 · 18/01/2026 18:34

flara · 18/01/2026 18:24

Hello. Sorry to hear your little one is having night terrors, my DS(8) has them and they are absolutely horrid. DS is autistic and has always struggled with sleep, but we noticed a while back that he would have night terrors when he got too hot. He likes to wrap himself up in the duvet like a little burrito, but he over heats and that seems to trigger them. Hes always been a warm person, so we’ve put a thinner duvet on for him and just use a sheet in the summer. This has helped a lot and he’s having far fewer. Not sure if that’s a universal thing for night terrors, but might worth looking at.

Thank you so much for responding.

yes my daughter has always been warm blooded and sweats most nights! I will be trying this.

Thanks again xx

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