Night terrors:HELP PLEASE

Lucas is having night terrors now. He screams at the top of his lungs and his eyes are wide open and he is crying but he is still asleep. He usually throws his arms around and it is like he is trying to get something away from him or he is brushing his tummy or arms like he is trying to get something off of him. This lasts for about 15 minutes and just when I think he is awake I will touch his back or lean down closer to ask if he is ok and then he does it again. What do I do? I've read some info online but it is just traumatizing for me to watch him go through this. Does anyone else have any similar problems? He also sleep walks some. The other night he was crying and I went downstairs to check on him and he was standing in the middle of his room screaming and going potty on a little drawing table that is in their room. Are these two things related; sleepwalking and night terrors? HELP PLEASE

Trish-Single Mommy to Micah & Lucas 01/08/03

 

Lucas is having night terrors now. He screams at the top of his lungs and his eyes are wide open and he is crying but he is still asleep. He usually throws his arms around and it is like he is trying to get something away from him or he is brushing his tummy or arms like he is trying to get something off of him. This lasts for about 15 minutes and just when I think he is awake I will touch his back or lean down closer to ask if he is ok and then he does it again. What do I do? I've read some info online but it is just traumatizing for me to watch him go through this. Does anyone else have any similar problems? He also sleep walks some. The other night he was crying and I went downstairs to check on him and he was standing in the middle of his room screaming and going potty on a little drawing table that is in their room. Are these two things related; sleepwalking and night terrors? HELP PLEASE

Trish-Single Mommy to Micah & Lucas 01/08/03

 

So sorry to hear. I would check it out with my peditrician.

 

My 3 yr. old son suffers from night terrors and he also sleep walks. We took our son to the pedi who referred us to a neurologist. They tested him for seizure activity and it was negative. Some children just develop these and it tends to be a vicious cycle. The neuro told us that less sleep increases night terrors and sleep walking. Well when having night terrors they aren't sleeping so good so there is an increase in them and then less sleep occurs. In my experience heat plays a part in night terrors. If my sons room is overly hot or he has on extra warm jammies he is likely to have a night terror. Busy stress filled days also cause more night terrors. The neuro asked us to try an OTC medication Melatonin. We tried this and saw little effect. Others have claimed better success. He then wanted to prescribe medications that typically treat depression and we just weren't comfortable with that. We aren't comfortable with a lot of medications it isn't just those. At any rate, we make adjustments and have learned to deal. We make sure he sticks to a regular bed and nap schedule. We limit all high intensity activity before bed by about 1/2 hour, we make sure the room is cool, we provide a fan for noise, and whenthey were at their worst, we woke him up before they were likely to occur. They will eventually outgrow them. It is also familial. My husband had night terrors and slept walk. They are frightening but at least they don't remember them. Hope you find what you need to give you peace.

If you have any questions feel free to PM me!

Reagan

 

My dd did a little of this between age 2 and 3... we don't let her watch much tv...but when she started this we were even more vigilant... it doesn't have to be "scary" to give them a scary impression... we also made sure that we didn't play scary type games before bed... (dad chasing her around or grabbing her...rough-housing type of games..which she loves, but could make her scared at night)... we put a nightlight in her room, and would leave the door open if she wanted us to. She outgrew it and hasn't done anything like that for a long time. Quiet time before bed... a story, not scary at all of course, we also read the bible to her, and pray and I know that this helps.. (She has a toddler bible that she loves.)

 

I read alot about night terrors when I thought Kyle might be experiencing them. One thing that I thought was intriguing was that night terrors often happen at the same time of night so one way that was recommended to prevent them was to slightly disturb the child's sleep pattern prior to the terror in hopes of preventing them. Do they tend to happen at the same time for Lucas? If yes, you might try just slightly disturbing his pattern (readjusting a blanket, kissing him, something that will slightly cause him to readjust) and see if that helps.

I definitely found the part what Reagan said held true for us too, the heat and the over tiredness definitely played a detrimental role in his sleep pattern.

 

I agree with disturbing the sleep pattern. My oldest has had night terrors since 6 months old. Every few weeks he'll have a week or two were he is up every night with them. The best thing we have found is to wake him up about 10-15 prior (his are almost always at the same time). We have to completely wake him up, have him talk to us, get a drink, etc. The ped. said that most kids outgrow it by 8. Good luck.

 

oh no, night terrors are so disturbing.

my 4yr olds have been having them off and on for over a year.

the night terrors have sort of changed as they aged. it used to be that they would wake up screaming about nemo! they never remembered it and it decreased after they stopped watching the movie.

lately it started again. don't know why but i noticed that they both would wake up 45minutes to an hour after they fell asleep with a night terror. BUT only when they went to bed early. they have given up naps and sometimes fall asleep around 6pm. now i try to keep them up till at least 7pm and it seems to be working. i've even resorted to offering them skittles when they start nodding off.

so basically my advice is to try to see if there's any kind of pattern change that they've started recently. the waking them up never worked for me but it was helpful to be in the room and start soothing them immediately (plus that's when i heard joey shout at to save nemo)...

good luck, i know how disturbing it can be.

 

My son has problems with night terrors too. At their worst, he was having them 2-3 times a night, 3-4 times a week, and each episode would have us up for an hour! Thankfully, he's gotten better as he gets older.

It helps to keep a diary of his day and evenings and see if you can identify triggers. Some triggers for us were if he had any kind of cold or cough, he'd have a night terror. So, at the first sign of something we give him medicine or put a vapor plug in thing in his room. It helped when he was younger to get him in bed by 7/7:30. Now, he can go a little later, but too late and we're risking it. We've had great success with melatonin. Also, be careful about trying to disturb the sleep schedule and waking him before the night terror. It may work for you, but one of my son's biggest triggers for the worst fits is someone trying to wake him out of a deep sleep. We tell everyone, if he happens to fall asleep during the day or early evening- do not wake him!! He seems to calm much faster- like 5-15min instead of 45-60min if we just ignore him. It's hard when they are having such terrible fits to not try to soothe your child, but touching, talking, restraining, trying to wake them up, etc, just escalates it and makes everything worse. We made his room as safe as possible and left the bed rail on his bed longer than most kids need it to try and keep him safe during a fit. Before he was fully potty trained, we used to lock him in his room at night so he wouldn't get hurt falling down the stairs or in the bathroom while he's flailing around and sleepwalking, and doing all the stuff that happens...Now, he's so much better but we still keep a baby gate locked on the stairs at night.

I hope your son's night terrors pass soon. I've read that kids tend to outgrow them and this is definitely true for us. We probably only see one bad one every 4-6 months now!

 

My youngest ds had these twice recently when he was using Albuterol for bronchiolitis. It was very scary and happened during his naps two days in a row. He would wake and lie there screaming with his eyes open. I removed him from his crib (I probably shouldn't have done this) becuase I didn't want him to wake his sister and he proceeded to flail about for 35-40 minutes and then snap, he woke up and was fine again. The second time he did this I took him to the pedi and he said it was simply night terrors, but to me it is SO SCARY! HOpe you don't have to go through this anymore....ours have stopped since we aren't on Albuterol anymore....Good luck!

 

We have had on again/off again issues with night terrors with Puck. My DH had them as a child also, and he also became a sleepwalker (so I think this is related).

My pediatrician gave us lots of reading material about handling them. First, the Doctor had us keep a journal for Puck (sleep times, naps, times of sleep terrors, busy activity during the day, etc). We found that Puck was getting the terrors mostly on days he was overtired, and we also found that the terrors usually happened around the same time of night.

The doctor explained that the terrors usually occur in the deepest level of sleep, so if a child is very tired, they will usually reach that deep level. He told us to wake up Puck about a half-hour before Puck usually had his terrors (the doctor told us to wake him up completely, but we were scared to do that so we just would stir Puck enough that he was somewhat awake).
I guess by waking the child before the terror starts, they are less likely to return to that deep level of sleep.

Puck stopped having them a few months ago. I don't know if he's outgrown them on his own or if our waking stratgey actually worked. Or maybe they'll come back at a later point...hope not, they are terrible to experience from a parents view!!

I would ask your doctor their advice, as it really helped to have a strategy. Good luck