Night terrors and Bad dreams

[propercheesed]

My DS 6.11 yrs has been having these for a while, we had looked at everything at home e.g what he was watching,eating,talking about before bed. went through his room removed anything he found frightening(which cast shadows during the night etc).

When I started doing a diary (mentioned in other threads) we noticed a pattern emerge which was 2-3 times a week on school nights never at a weekend or when he was on holiday so needless to say we put it down to something bothering him at school and mentioned it to the EP. They stopped for a short time at the end of feb but have recently started again. He had 2 last week 1 night terror 2 hrs after he went to bed and 1 nightmare during the night, and he had one last night 3 hrs after he went to bed he was screaming for me at the top of the stairs shaking,stiff,sweat pouring off him. His eyes where like saucers darting from the landing to his bedroom so I did what I always do...gently took his hand whispered it was ok I'm here now and guided him back to his room. where he kept staring into the corner of the room and screaming then he grimaced and went into a fit of laughter waking shortly after.

He woke this morning said he had a good sleep and couldn't remember what had happened. We have read quite a bit of conflicting information on the tinternet some saying its down to stimulation before bed, some saying its genetic, then other saying its due to something upsetting happening during the day.

After waffling on I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this with their DC because I can not seem to pin point the problem, nothing has changed since feb the school have implemented new strategies which in theory should make things better for him and to be truthful it scares the pants off me when he has the terrors!! Just seeing the fear in his eyes awfull just awfull!

With my ds they are always worse when he is very tired, that is the only link I have ever been able to make.

I was reading an article about night terrors the other day, darned if I can remember where though. If I remember I'll try and link.

Actually, it was an article about sleep disorders in general and it said that latest research suggests that night terrors are caused by the body not being able to shut down it's motor function during rem sleep. In most people, the body automatically sort of self-paralyses itself to stop us moving around in our sleep. There can be varying degrees of this not working properly, from more simple sleep walking up to night terrors and acting out nightmares.

So, it seems that night terrors aren't actually linked to anything bad happening during the day, they are just the child physically acting out what is going on in their head during rem sleep. Most children will have the same/similar dreams, not act them out physically and not remember them either, but children who have this motor function shut-down failure will get up, move around, call for help etc and then not remember a thing about it.

You have my sympathy, ds1 suffered from night-terrors for years and they are really frightening and heart-rending, as you can't do a thing to help. Ds is now 10 and has pretty much grown out of them, which I believe most children do. Some people do retain the problem into adulthood - but it's extremely rare.

As cwtch said, ds1 definitely seemed worse when he got overtired and I now I wonder if that was because he went into a deeper sleep and/or had more sleep cycles per night.

Other than that, the research seems to imply that it isn't down to routine changes or stress, just the amount and type of dreams he's having - although personally I would assume that if someone is stressed or anxious about something they are more likely to have nightmares than pleasant dreams, so I suppose there could be a link there.

Magnesium & zinc supplements have helped to reduce the incidence, by helping with anxiety levels.

I don't think there's much scientific evidence that reducing anxiety levels/low sensory environment helps but at least I feel I'm doing summat iykwim. I try to ensure DS's mind is as calm, understimulated & relaxed as possible at bedtime to reduce any lingering anxiety from the day.

Ds's bedroom is a boring white/magnolia low sensory enviroment & the night light is positioned in such a way that it throws no scary shadows etc (DS helped with this bit).

DS's sheets are lavender scented and his bedclothes and jim jams are nice & soft.

No stimulating activities after 6.30pm and any stories/ games/programes etc are rather bland and low on monsters/exitement but always have a happy, fuzzy ending etc. (We read fairytales etc in the mornings as DS is up at 6). Anyone who phones me for less than a dire emergency after 8pm will know never to do it again.

As the nightmares/terrors & bed wetting decreased though a new issue has emerged - sleep walking.

We are about to see if yoga can help reduce anxiety having tried all the "sensible options".

I went to a talk on sleep problems and they recommended gently waking the child before the night terrors tend to occur. We lift our child to go to the loo about 11o'clock. Our DS still gets night terrors sometimes but I think they have reduced a bit. It is very distressing to deal with them though. Hope things improve.