Waking up screaming at different times of the Night

One or both of my sons wakes up at a different time every night and screams for about 5 minutes straight like they are scared and then it turns into a whiny cry, more very loud screaming and it will abruptly stop and they go back to sleep. So far this week it has been around 8:30pm, 11:15pm, 5am and last night at 3:45am and again at 5:45am and up for the day since they normally do not sleep past 6:30am. We did put Crib tents on this past week but my son who wakes up more freqently and fell out of his crib last week loves it and these wake ups during the night have been happening before the tents but they seem to be getting more frequent. I do not go in the room my experience so far has been if I go in they will not go back to sleep by soothing or recovering etc. it actually makes matters worse. Is this a form of night terror and what do you moms do who have children who wake freqently?

 

My 4mo ds has the same issue, but I'm not sure if the cause would be the same as with your sons. My pedi told me that it's either teeth or gas. It only happens while he is sleeping though. Hope another member can give us more information, but I can empathize with you!

 

My son has night terrors and later, sleep walks … but we only had them between bed time and midnight, for some reason never after midnight… the first time it happen I almost called 911 as he looked awake and was acting VERY weird… I saw a friend do this when I was young but hers was do to a shock state she was going into due to her appendix rupturing (this was at a sleep over) so I thought this was happening to him… but he snapped out of it and I decided to just keep my eye on him (I slept with him for the rest of the night)…. He has everything from walking and trying to pee in his hamper (thinking it was a toilet) to crawled up in the corner of his room screaming for them to go away and not recognizing me… but I always went in and tried to sooth him back to sleep… not wake him just cuddle and calm… BUT I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing, the Dr. didn’t seem to be concerned and said he should grow out of it… which he hasn’t had one in about 9 months (he had them once every 2 months, sometimes a couple nights in a row). We couldn’t find out any rhyme or reason for them… But I just did what felt like the natural thing to do for him… I know its both scary and sad to watch/hear something you cant control… but I was told it was common and he will grow out of it… that is IF its night terrors they are having... it could just be a bad baby dream...

 

My DD had night terrors at about 2-3 years old. I found with her it made it worse to try to comfort her. She just would scream and if I tried to hold her she would kick and scream louder. Nothing ever really helped she just grew out of them (she will be 4 in January). I think they lasted about 6 months.
I read somewhere that if the next morning you are more upset about it than they are then it is night terrors and not just bad dreams.

Tiffaney

 

QUOTE(Tif3 @ Nov 17 2007, 01:10 PM) [snapback]500138[/snapback]
My DD had night terrors at about 2-3 years old. I found with her it made it worse to try to comfort her. She just would scream and if I tried to hold her she would kick and scream louder. Nothing ever really helped she just grew out of them (she will be 4 in January). I think they lasted about 6 months.
I read somewhere that if the next morning you are more upset about it than they are then it is night terrors and not just bad dreams.

Tiffaney


My son never remembers... and i have heard that alot, that comforting them is worse, but in our situation, he wrapped his little arms around my neck everytime... even if he was calling out for me still (he didnt realize it was my neck he had his arms around) so i had to go in... it worked for us (or maybe it worked for me???)
my son is 9 and i think he has grown out of them...

 

Might be night terrors. I have them along with sleep walking... still at age 32. Yeah, you are supposed to grow out of them, but tell my poor DH who has on more than one occasion been rudely woken up by me screaming and trying to jump over him out of the bed. I rarely remember them unless I wake up in the middle (usually in the middle of the floor or in another room). Several times in the past couple of months, Ana will scream in her sleep. She screams and cries with real tears. When we go in to check she is usually asleep (but sometimes her eyes are open). These crying/screaming episodes last only a minute and then she is back to sleep. One time it went on longer and I picked her up because I was scared. She struggled for a minute and then looked up at me and woke up.. and smiled at me and touched my face and then fell back asleep. Poor pumpkin. I can't imagine what a 7-8 month old is having a night terror about, but I know the feeling and it really s**ks.

When I was young my parents didn't do much for them. If I got out of bed screaming, they'd redirect me back to bed and didn't try to wake me up. If I got stuck in a closet screaming, they calmly got me out of the closet and put me back to bed. My mom did put jingle bells on all the outside doors because she was afraid I'd escape some night.

But it should be some comfort that most kids grow out of them...

 

My DH frequently scares the crap out of me when he sleeps just last week I was going to the bathroom and he jumped out of bed to grab me and said who's there, who are you?...I remember one time he actually pushed me out of bed because he said boxes were going to fall on me and the most scary was he woke me up screaming the baby is falling out of the carseat, hurry...the boys were a few weeks old and they would only sleep in their carriers in our room. My SD also sleepwalks and was in our room twice last week

I guess I answered my own question..hmmm...well, glad I bought the crib tents! Thanks for the replies

 

One of our 2 1/2 year olds has been having night terrors since he was 9 months old. He still has them but not as frequent. When he was little, he would wake up at the same time each night, about 8:30, screaming, thrashing, but looking you right in the eye. However he was not at all awake. It was very weird. I would get him sometimes and comfort him. He would have 2-3 more after that the same night.

The trick I read about online was to open the freezer and let the cold air wake him up. This would stop the night terror. Sometimes turning a light on helped too. Some experts suggest not waking them up, but he was so out of control and this was the only way to get him back to sleep.

Our doc said one trick she learned about was to log the time(s) the child awakens and then wake him up 30 minutes before the night terror starts. This is supposed to reset the sleep cycle and prevent the night terror.

I have also been told that children with a lot of separation anxiety problems or sensory processing disorder (which my son has) often have night terrors.

Hope this helps. You and the child can lose lots of sleep over this. My son is so tired the next day after a night terror episode. It will get better!