Does anyone have any experience with night terrors?

[Giddypants]

Brief history DS 5 has cp can't communicate effectively so can't tell us exactly what is going on.

He has never been a good sleeper he will go to bed and sleep with no argument in fact he quite likes it. But About 2-3 hours of being asleep he wakes up crying inconsolabley, he does have some melatonin but this rarely works.
It's awful to watch as while he is crying he also jerks its like the jerking you do when you are just falling to sleep, but he does it repeatably.
I think they are called myoclonic?
Anyway after about 30-45 minutes of him crying he will normally wake up enough to be put back to bed and he'll go back to sleep, a lot of the time he'll wake up again but doesn't usually cry, just huffs to be repositioned and is happy to sleep again.
This isn't a new thing so although he has gone into his own room lately it's not made it worse or better.
A few years ago his paed gave him phenargran (sp) which didn't touch him! Do we need to be looking at some kind of sleeping tablet on a night?
Are there any suggestions? I will also post this in childrens health just as there is more volume

Yes my Ds has had many in the past, only occassionally now. He wakes screaming and continues to scream past you as though you aren't there god only knows what he is seeing but it must be terrifying for him...it scares me to death to see it TBH but he never remembers them in the morning, he usually has them following a very active day or if he has been scared by something during the day e.g someone shouting at him looking like 'the devil'. I have found that since we have been spending sometime talking him through what is on his mind from earlier in the day he doesn't tend to have them as often (although not sure if this is coincidence or not though??). All we can do when he has them is to sit it out with him which can take up to 40 mins, I have had him sat on my knee before but he is just oblivious to me. Will be watching this thread....

My NT dd had night terrors from about the age of 4. They gradually decreased in frequency and the last time she had one was on her yr 6 French trip.
When she was younger she would get out of bed and run screaming up and down the stairs but be unaware of us talking to her. As she got older she would come out of them more quickly and ask for 'Noddy book' -even when she was much to old to read it usually. DH had to read it to her and eventually she would wake up properly and then be able to go back to bed and to sleep although she would sometimes wake screaming and sweating again.

Being overtired or in a strange place did seem to trigger it but sometimes we couldn't work out what it was.

Now she is 13 and I have just asked her what if anything she remembers about them. She says she often didn't remember having one but sometimes she was aware. She says it is different from a nightmare when you feel you are wholly in the dream. In a night terror half of your brain is in the terrifying thing you are seeing but the other half is aware of what you are doing in the real world. Which sounds quite frightening to me.

We never sought any advice about them and I think I can confidently say she has grown out of them now.

Wow how scary! I've had some good advice both here and on the other thread. So tonight I will leave him to come out of it by himself to see if it passes quicker.
The over tiredness could be a trigger for him, he is constantly tired but won't nap anymore in the day time, I think maybe he needs to be referred on to a sleep specialist to see what they think, I don't want to throw medication at him if he doesn't need it. Thank you for all your input x

My nt ds has terrors, always at the same time every night. We were advised to go in half an hour before the time he would start screaming and move him, tuck his quilt in, anything to slightly stir him. Theory being you slightly disturb the sleep cycle but not wake him stopping the terror from starting. It worked for us really well, we don't need to do this every night now, sometimes he starts having a few again and we follow the same routine for a couple of weeks again.

Tooloudhere - I've found that advice too when doing a search after seeing this thread. I thought my nt ds was having nightmares, but since reading this thread and having a google, it is apparent he is indeed having night terrors.

I'm pleased to read that it worked for you, I'm going to follow the same. Very scary experience to watch, let alone how scary it must be for ds.

Ds1 used to get them most nights between 3 and 6. Is is 9 now and I can't remember the last time he had one.
As said above you are supposed to gently disturb them just before the terrors normally start. Also I have heard over-heating can cause them, so make sure the room is cool and light bedding if possible.