Does your kid have night terrors?

[Shainie]

I just came to the conclusion that Shane gets night terrors, and has since he was an infant.

Here's the discription:

Children who have night terrors are usually described as 'bolting upright' with their eyes wide open, with a look of fear and panic, and letting out a 'blood curdling scream'. These kids will usually also be sweating, breathing fast and have a rapid heart rate (autonomic signs). And although it will seem like they are awake, during a night terror, children will appear confused, will not be consolable and won't recognize you.

Within a couple hours of Shane falling asleep, he'll start screaming and crying. I would always pick him up and try to rock him, but now I see why he fights me when I do this. Sometimes he'll get quiet, but as soon as I start talking to him he'll start screaming again. Tonight he had 2 episodes. The second time he kept looking toward the door. The first time I picked him up and carried him to the living room rocking chair and he looked like he wanted to hop off my lap and run away! But his eyes were closed the whole time.

He's always sweating, so often I would think he wasn't feeling well, but now I see sweating is common.

I hope he grows out of them! Even when he was a baby he would do this. He would just start screaming and we couldn't console him. After about 5 minutes he'd just fall back asleep.

Now I know to just sit silently by his bed and wait it out. It says they don't even know you're there, and if you try talking to them you could scare them more because they're really out of it.

It's hard though when he doesn't even seem to know me! Normally he's a big mommy cuddler. But at least I know exactly what he's going through now, and what to do (or not to do).

Anyone deal with this before?

[luvmetender]

My son used to have them but has grown out of them (he's almost 16 now). He would appear to be awake, sometimes actually sleepwalking, but totally disoriented, making strange noises, and really really scared. You are not supposed to try to wake them up when they are in that state, because it totally freaks them out. I used to just soothe him, get him back in bed if necessary, and wait until he went back to "real sleep." Hang in there, Shainie, they do grow out of it.

[GR8GIRLS]

My daughter doesn't scream, but she actually wakes up and is totally in a panic over some dream (usually spiders). Half of the time she doesn't even remember waking up and crawling into my bed until morning. Her doctor said this is a normal occurance and she'll grow out of it. She is 8.

[Brenda2000]

When my oldest was little (2-3), she got them all of the time. It always happened about 1 1/2 hours after she fell asleep. She would wake up screaming/crying, and nothing would console her...then eventually she would just go back to sleep. It was really nerve wracking, and upsetting becasue there was nothing we could do.

And yes, they do outgrow them....my DD is 13 now.

[Shainie]

Thanks all! Luv - they did say some kids actually get out of bed and run around. Glad he doesn't do that though! Guess we'll just have to wait it out. When it happens hubby goes "Here we go again!" I should keep a journal to see how often it happen, how long after he goes to sleep, and if anything would have stressed him out during the day.

[Mouse7088]

Oh how scary!!! None of my kids have gone through this...at some point they have walked in their sleep, but nothing as frightening seeming as night terrors, heck the name alone is enough to scare an adult.

[kells3]

Of my 3 children only my oldest ever had them. He was under the age of five and they didn't last very long.

[bestmidwest]

All of my kids have had them and it's so scary to hear that scream. I also had a sleepwalker...that was scary because we have the stair landing that's open to the floor below. Those kids have scared me out of a deep sleep so many times that I'm sure I've lost years off my life.

Funny story...when DH was deployed overseas, he had to share a room with 3 other guys and one of them had night terrors/sleepwalking episodes. He would sit bolt upright in bed and start screaming or jump up like he was going to fight the "invisible" guys. I guess they got used to him after a while. I just can't imagine!