Night visiony terror type things

[marymary1000]

My DS has always had night terrors and has a number of aspie traits but is not yet dx.

Not every night but we seem to have a run of them every few months. We take him to the loo and you can see him coming out of them, relax and then he takes himself off to bed and can;t remember a thing in the morning.

The last few nights however, these have taken a different slant.

He goes to bed but can't get to sleep. He gets up starts panicking running upstairs downstairs, crying, saying that the room is flashing and closing in on him.

The only way we can calm him down is for him to sit with his dad (who also got them when he was a kid) dh just literally hangs on to him, gives him water, maybe takes him outside and talks him down, just his dad not me (boo hoo)

Now he had a big meltdown with his dad yesterday and dh was very disappointed with his behaviour, I'm wondering whethers its a psychological thing.

Any thoughts anyone??

My ds1 (who is 9 and has Aspergers) has suffered from night terrors since he was tiny.

They are definitely worse if he is overtired or anxious and we think can also be triggered by specific anxieties. The one he had last night seemed to be related to a computer game he'd read about in his Nintendo magazine, but often they are totally inexplicable. We haven't really been able to stop or prevent them, but find that it helps him to have a slow, calm bedtime routine ending with him being allowed to read in bed - as long as he only reads gentle/safe books, iyswim.

I also get the flashing room thing, mainly when I am overtired and find it helps to have a dim light in the room - the darker the room, the worse the flashing. It doesn't help completely, because the flashing is still there when I close my eyes, but with a light on I can lie there with my eyes open until I am so exhausted I can't keep them open anymore. I suppose that could be why reading before going to sleep might helps ds1, as it keeps him focussed on something.

It's a very claustrophobic feeling, particularly when you have your eyes closed, because there's nothing you can do to get away from it and feels like its closing in around your head. You do feel like you want to try and run away from it, so I completely understand why your poor ds is running around panicking.

I've often wondered if its related to migraine in some way. I used to suffer from severe complex migraines, but was treated with Topomax/Topiramate a few years ago and no longer get them. The flashing also stopped for several years after the treatment, but I have started having it again in the last 12 months.

Not sure if any of that is helpful to you at all though.

My DS used to get night terrors every night for months on end, but seems to have grown out of them. I have read somewhere that over-heating brings them on. Could you try leaving the window open, or just give a blanket rather than a duvet and see if it makes a difference?

Thanks for your advice

Moosemama, def seems to make sense, he was over tired as we'd had a packed weekend, we also had just read the end of gangsta granny, where granny dies at the end, (took me a bit by surprise, if i'd known the ending i wouldn't have read it at bedtime...ps hope I have spoiled it for anyone!) so no doubt that wouldn't have helped.

mrsbaffled, he was really hot but I put that down to all the running around he was doing, tonight i will pay closer attention!

That's ok. Wasn't sure I said anything useful really, as we've never really managed to stop ds having them.

I have however since remembered that ds also tends to have a spate of bad ones if he's coming down with a bug. So basically anything that makes him feel physcially or emotionally unsettled or upset can act as a trigger - which is what makes it so hard to prevent them really. All we can do is try and keep everything as calm and peaceful as possible around bedtime and hope for the best.

two of my 3 dc have had night terrors, I guess the thrid will get there when she is older. They have always seemed to be stress related to me, my dd1 had them every school night from when she started in reception until the day I removed her from school, when they stopped! It was a horrid school. The link with ds was harder to find, but it was definitely stress related, rather than temperature (their rooms or bedding were not hot, although they were streaming in sweat), that could be my kids though. Singing and answering their screamed questions "yes mummy will take that away" "no you don't have to go" was the on ly thing that helped my dc, we have been dealing with them off and on, more on than off, for 6 years now.

are night terrors a recognised symptom of aspergers??

I don't know if they're a recognised symptom, but I believe they are pretty common - as a quick Google will easily demonstrate.

I presume its to do with the tendency towards raised stress and anxiety levels in children who have ASD.

ok, we have now had the visony things 4 nights in a row, which is completely unheard off, he is getting tireder and tireder as taking until aboutn 9.30 to get him to sleep (in my bed) even though he is in bed no later than 8.

I feel like we are getting in a cycle, any thoughts of breaking it?

dh thinks gp as his parents never did anything to help and thinks we should be doing something about it??

thoughts please

I took ds to gp today and he thinks something is playing on this mind, but is now almost waiting for the 'visions' to start and could now be bringing them on himself conciously.

He has prescribed phenergan, which I have got from the chemist but not yet given. Ds had playdate today and got in at 8, GP says to give 2 hours before sleep.

My head is saying that we don't need to give this to him and can work it through, I have spoken to him and he says that the only thing was his meltdown on sunday and a big write at school other than that all is well.

Thoughts anyone???

Sorry to hear your ds is struggling so much. Its horrible as a parent as well to see them going through night terrors.

I'm probably not much help, as we've never managed to stop ds's terrors. He often doesn't know what it is that he's stressed/anxious about and its so hard to unpick things that sometimes we never get to the bottom of it. Its a viscious cycle though, as disturbed sleep makes him overtired which then disturbs his sleep even more.

One thought that has just sprung to mind, based on the overtired thing. I wonder if a short nap in the afternoon might help - at least over the weekend. Just thinking it might help him to catch up and also change his sleep associations slightly. Of course it wouldn't help if he had a terror, but from what I've read, terrors tend to come from the shift from light to deep sleep and therefore a short light sleep, rather than getting into a really deep sleep state might just help?

Dh was given phenergan as a child when he developed anxiety based insomnia after a big house move. Apparently it did the trick, but that was for not sleeping rather than terrors. I suppose if it helps him to relax prior to going to sleep it might be worth a try, as perhaps it will break the cycle.