Night Terrors - Kannapolis, NC

D. F.

Night terrors are typical for 3 - 8 year olds, but the percentage of 21 mos having these are really small. That really brings a RED FLAG that would send me writing daily documentation of what has been happening in and outside the household since these started. Now, the case studies over the years have documented that they are typically inherited. Plus, a good way to confirm they are night terrors is to ask the 3 1/2 year old if they remember anything from the episode. That is the main difference between a terror and a nightmare. Nightmares are remembered, as night terrors are not. Although, not to throw confusion into the circle, but there are some small percentage reports that have been remembered and classified as night terrors. Most of them are not, so asking might leaned a helping hand in figuring out if it is one or the other. A nightmare is usually caused by episodes that day. Something in the environment upset the little ones. Unfortunately, there is no documented study that has a good explanation for why some children suffer from terrors while others sleep soundly through the night.

Here is my thought on the matter....and this is a simple theory of my own...
These are above average children, their brains are stimulated more so than other children, they might even be introverted children or children that do not speak to others about things that bother them, highly sensitive children, to the point of having a sixth sense about them, feeding off of others emotions. Maybe when the children go to sleep, this is the time when their brains awaken for some reason, start processing this unspoken language of events/concerns/emotions/images/etc., and the outward screams and cries and yells and walking is their brains way of processing and expelling this information.
The moms have good ideas of praying with the children before they go to bed, letting them know that love surrounds their little souls, letting them know that mommy and daddy are by their side always, but most importantly, not speaking to them during the episodes, and if they will let you, touch in a soft way (whatever soothes that particular child), holding hand, back pat, back rub, breathing next to them, etc., or just simply making certain the path or environment is completely safe during the episode.

One thought would be to place something special in their room. Letting them know that it is a symbol of their families bond between one another, the keeper of all good things, and the watcher of all bad things. Whatever the parents want to tell them...but, make it a special item...something the children will be able to relate to and look up to for strength and courage.

Good Luck!

I hope this helps you; it is a response I sent to some else a while back. Our son had night terrors also. The doctor told us it was probably from being over excited/stimulated or over tired. The doctor said often when kids are over tired or over stimulated the over produce adrenaline to compsensate and they don't sleep peacefully. Regualr scheduled/structured bedtimes are very important and quiet or settle down time was important. Our doctor told us that he should be on a schedule where he sleeps 9-13 hours a night. I have a one or two page piece of literature he gave me on it. I could fax or email it to you if you like; it is very informative.

Our son started them when he was about a year old. They were very intense and very frequent sometimes more than one a night. Sometimes he would get up and run through the apartment frantically terrified. He would tremble very intensly, tears would run down his face and he would often scream over and over again saying "No! No!". They were very scary for us.

We have found that I am better at consoling our son than his Daddy is. The one thing I ask him when he is in that state is always...do you want to hold Mama's hand..usually I have to ask several times and he usually responds with a very strange yes (a pitiful tone of voice)and I just tell him over and over again that he is ok and safe, that Mama and Daddy are right here and everything is ok. My husband instinctively tries to talk to him; but just doesn't seem to get the fact that he really is not awake in the "right now" sense even though he looks right at us. But I can tell, because even though it appears that he is looking right at us, he doesn't really see us...then suddenly it is over and he is back to sleeping peacefully.They usually last 20- 40 minutes. On a rare occasion, he will have a 2nd one with-in 30-40 minutes. Some are worse than others, some are fairly minor. The scariest thing for me is; that he tried to open the window above his bed as if to try to get out(we are on 2nd floor). I make sure doors and windows are locked securely and I block our sliding glass door with large objects before we go to bed.

He is 5 now; and has them very seldom now, but aparentlly they can have them up to age 12. Now it seems if he is in a deep sleep and has to peepee and can't seem to wake up; it will often trigger a night terror, but they are less intense for now and last only a few minutes. We hope he is growing out of them.

If you decide you want the literature, let me know, I would be happy to forward it to you in which ever way you like: email, fax, regular mail.

Best Wishes,
C.
Nashville

That sounds a little familiar. Are they eating right before bed? My kids always have bad dreams on the nights where they eat something before bed.
When it does happen again, I suggest you pray with them. We ask God to protect them from all the bad dreams and ask him to send us only happy thoughts so we can sleep peacefully and get our rest. We ask for his blessings and for him to watch over us. The kids need to know there's something or someone bigger and more powerful than anything out there. They need to know that He is on their side, taking care of them. I hope this helps!

My 3 year old daughter had night terrors over the Christmas holiday and they have since gone away. I have this book... Caring for Your Baby and Young Child, Revised Edition: Birth to Age 5 (Shelov, Caring for your Baby and Young Child, Birth to Age 5) - American Academy Of Pediatrics, and apparently these are normal at age 3. The book said it is usually due to them being overtired and it suggests putting them to bed a little earlier, creating a really calm experience before bed, not letting them watch TV before bed (because sometimes those images get stuck in their heads and they end up dreaming about them), and lastly to start to talk to them and read books to them about dreams. After reading this book, I began taking that extra time with my daughter at bedtime, talking and sitting with her and she actually began talking about things that were scary to her, which began our dialog about dreams. I also limited her TV watching right before bed and made sure she was getting to bed earlier for naps and bedtime so she wouldn't be overtired. They have gone away completely since. If you do not have the above book, I highly recommend it... it has really answered a lot of questions over the years.

Well my grandson had the same thing at a younger age 11 months. I prayrd to God in the Holy Spirit and his mother consulted the doctor. She hasn't talked about it in a while. But I feel that my prayers helped.

My son had them when he was little. Make sure that she is getting enough sleep and enough down time before bed. We discovered he was also having some stress in his dreams from some Disney movies that disturbed him. The hyenas in the Lion King were apparently chasing him in at least some of the dreams. It is hard for little ones to express what is going on in their dreams and when they sleep their brains are processing things they often don't understand. My sons s passed after a while.

Hi there DfF,
I kinda know what you are going thru, my grandaughter is 11 and she also has fears at night, but the only solution that I know of and it does work is just to anoint her room and the house and the children because i'ts only a tormenting spirit I don't know if you believe in prayer or if you are religious but honey I can tell you one thing this really works. These babies belong to God and he will take care of them , there is no reason on earth the these babies should be torminted. Get your pastor or any Good Preacher to anoint your children and your house. Don't get me wrong now there is nothing wrong with your house or your children i'ts just a torminting spirit and it will go away with prayer.........I can assure you of that.
Please let me know the outcome, I have been thru it with my grandbabies also..............J.

Im not a real boogidy woogidy person but maybe the room has a bad vibe in it. Things happen in houses that make people uneasy. You may not even be aware of what happened in it. Children are more sensitive of these things. I dont know what faith you are if any but maybe have a priest come bless the house and concentrate on the room. Also I would have your pastor pray with you and your family. I really believe if you ask God to protect and comfort them He will. Something is making them uneasy. Also the things we find not scarey can really scare the bejeeves out of a child. After my oldest daughter watched just 5 mins of a Disney show she was up and having nightmares for weeks. Scooby Doo used to freak her out. My 2 youngest watch it and it does not bother them. Each child is different.

I know you have probaly done this already ,but try taking a diffrent approach. Talk wit each child seprate as best as possibe. write each one's account down and review for similarites. Also look at the things the girls are playin with and watching on tv. pay CLOSE ATTENTION to what each one says about the terror there might be somthing else at the root of this.

God bless
A.

I have had the same thing happen to my son. I went back to work after being at home with him for over a year. He seemed not to need me during the day, but at night he would have terrors in his sleep. I put two and two together but was not sure that I was right so I consulted a psychologist. She told me that the change was too much for him and he needed some consistency with me. She suggested that I put him to sleep at night. That would provide an activity with me that he could look forward to on a constant basis and it would make him feel safe. Well I did it and to my amazement, it worked like a charm.
If there have been any major changes in their lives this could be the contributing factor or the main cause. Some times you pick up people's habits by proximity, for example, you and someone begin to hang out all the time at work or living space and your cycles begin to coordinate. That might be why the younger began after the older.
If you cannot find anything that has changed in there lives that may cause this, it might be because the child has not told you about it. I would say to consult a professional, child's doctor or psychologist depending on what you insurance allows. This is a time when a person is supposed to be happy with no worry. This is giving you the message that something is not right. Please do not just wait until it has passed. I still remember things from when I was three years old and I am now 31. My issues were not dealt with when it happened. They are still my issues. The ones that were dealt with, when I got old enough to go to a professional myself, are distant memories. Help your grand daughter, please.

God Bless,

I would like to recommend EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). It's a tapping technique on acupressure points. They recently did a study that showed acupressure worked just as well as acupuncture, so there is validity to this.

There is a free downloadable manual and plenty of articles at www.emofree.com

There is a free cheatsheet available at www.tapping.com

I googled for night terrors and EFT and found testimonies saying it worked.

Check out the children's articles on www.emofree.com and you will find how they recommend using it at night right before they go to sleep. You can either do it for them or have them do it. Then you could also do it while they are screaming (possibly still asleep) and in the middle of their night terrors. If they want hugged instead, then of course do not try the EFT until they feel calm enough to disengage from being hugged.

I was wondering if a weighted blanket might be soothing also, or sounds from the womb (there are cds out there, I believe, with those sounds).

Good luck and I feel for your family.

One of 's and one of my cousins had these. tragic as it is to witness, they do outgrow them. Thank goodness my son didn't get them very often. It was heartbreaking to watch and listen too, but not much can be done, as far as I know, would be great if someone has the answer! just watch that they don't hurt themselves or anyone else. Usually attempts to wake them or restrain them put them into even more of a panicked state. but sometimes gentle redirecting works, other times they just have to wear down.

Hello,

My oldest daughter was 6 week premature. She began having night terrors at about 3 months old. She would scream a terrified cry and you could look at her and know that although her eyes where open, she wasn't "seeing" us. The would last for 5-20 minutes.

We would turn on the light when we went into her room, talk very gently to her, rub her feet with our finger nails trying to gently wake her up, we also used a cool damp wash cloth and would rub her check gently. Anything like that to slowly and gently bring her out of it.

I do not know if this is a fact for all kids who have sleep terrors, but from this forum I have seen other parents also mention that their kids who had sleep terrors also have had sleep walking, bed wetting, etc. My daughter had these as she grew up. She had a sleep APNEA monitor because she would stop breathing in her sleep. If you get additional comments or see a theme like that in your responses taking them to a neurologist may be necessary.

My daughter is now 12 years old. No more night terrors, no more sleep walking, no more APNEA occured after she was 7 years old.

Hi D.,

Most night terrors are out grown; however, there is usually a stimulus that causes them. At 3 1/2, I doubt there is any stress (which can cause them in older children) so environmental toxins can be a primary culprit. Cleaning supplies and bath and body products can cause neurological damage and can cause things like night terrors, nightmares, child behavioral disorders like ADD and ADHD and even memory problems. The main problem with your average product at Wal-Mart or the grocery store is that it has an "allowed" limit of toxin. When used in combination of other things with "allowed" limits, the limit has increased. This is not to mention the combination of toxins that outgas and contraindicate just like pharmaceutical do.

The other issue that usually causes night terrors is lack of sleep. So you have a vicious cycle here with night terrors keeping her awake and causing lack of sleep. Some doctors will tell you it is caused by overstimulation. That can be true. This leads to either behavioral issues and habits or back to environmental toxins. Both stimulate the neurological system. However, behavioral stimulation will eventually settle as the child does.

I think detoxing will help a lot, ESPECIALLY by changing to a laundry detergent that is considered non-toxic to humans. (There are a lot of things labeled non-toxic that are only considered non-toxic to the environment.) If this is not the culprit, then no harm has been done. Detoxing CAN be simple and it can be inexpensive to. If you want to give it a try, I'll be glad to help.

God bless,
M.

Bless their little hearts
My husband has had night terrors for many years and until a couple of years ago we had no idea what caused them or how to get rid of them.
The doctor he saw said that a low level of ceritonin in his brain may have been causing them and suggested that he take a prescirption to help increase that .
he took it fir a while but it is similar to an antidepressant and he did not like the side effects.
now he has a routine before bed where he winds down takes a warm bath reads a magazine or something just anything to help his brain kind of calm down

if the 2 girls are sharing a room the smaller one may be feeding off of what she sees big sister doing at bedtime but if it is caused by something in her brain the young one may very well have the same problem
ask your pediatrician and in the end a sleep study may be exactly what eveyrone needs
Good Luck

I have had this with my now 5yr old. I can tell you from what I have read and experienced only. first of all DONT talk to them. Interrupting them makes it worse and with true night TERRORs not night MARES, apparently they have to get it thru it. In other words you cant help them. We just go in to her room and sit there with no words and try to console without fighting her flailing around. It shouldnt last very long and she will eventuall wake up. She may open her eyes but she really doesnt see you. It is almost like sleep walking. It seems to work and is very difficult to sit by and let someone so little try to figure it out but this was the advice given to me. Good Luck. She should outgrow it. This lasted a year or so off and on but she apparently is not having them now.