Night terrors! Has anyone else dealt with this?

Question

My son has had night terrors for a couple of years. I have talked to his pediatrician, but I really just got the medical advice, not advice from a parent. He wakes up screaming and saying things that make no sense at all. He just came in here screaming "Moma, moma, please don't! Please let me go with you!" and he did it one time where he came in screaming and saying "I need two more!" (dont know what that was about) and even tried to run out the front door. Anyone else has a child that does this and to this extreme. He has these episodes about 1-2 times a month.

Sorry I didn't mean to post this question twice. My computer is posting questions really slow for some reason.

Answer 1

My 6 year old suffers from night terrors.

She will run around the house screaming things that make no sense like "no, not that one, the other bowl"
or "NO DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!"

She has at least 1 episode a month where she has some kind of freakish nightmare and comes in my room crying, asking me to lay with her.
One night she woke up about 1 and stayed up all night even though i was with her..

We also have put dream catchers up over the door leading into their room, and one in the window to keep them from entering that way as well.

Before bed I give her a cup of "sweet dreams tea"
It is just a plain fruit tea, she likes orange, so she has her dream tea, surrounds herself head to toe with an army of stuffed animals and drifts off.

Sometimes talking to them helps, if they can remember the dream.

If your son is sleepwalking, you might want to consider a night chain.
My son walked right outside and curled up on the porch one night, scared us half to death when we went to check on him and found him missing.

Sometimes all you have to do is know the child really well, and find a creative way to help.
Sometimes it can be a "NO NIGHTMARES ALLOWED!" sign,

maybe a nightlight, or a mist of "nightmare b gone spray"
Try making a colorful label from contruction paper then place it on an air freshner or lysol can, spray it before bed.
(this trick also works well for those who think a monster is hiding under the bed or in the closet)

If he does not remember them, don't make a big fuss over it.
Hopefully he will grow out of it.

If he does, try and set his mind at ease with some of the tricks mentioned above.

Maybe a CD of Mozart or Chopin or Beethoven would work while he is sleeping?
The brain is a remarkable thing, it can take the smallest sound and make it into a monsterous thing.
Perhaps his brain is saying it is smart and does not know how to direct the thought process?
I don't know, and to tell you true, I can not even pretend to understand the way the human mind works.

All I know, is sometimes mind over matter does work.

good luck,
if you need any support, you can email or IM me.

Answer 2

My son has had night terrors since birth. I think the problem with night terrors, as opposed to nightmares, is that they don't remember it very well. And they can be very closely related to sleepwalking. Like a sleepwalker, you're not supposed to wake them. I heard that touching them, trying to comfort them, or even just talking to them during an episode can make it worse. My son is only 18 months old, so I'm afraid I've never handled it in an older child.

But for my husband, who sleepwalked, they had to put locks on doors leading to dangerous areas out of his reach. I'd look up info on night terrors online. Some say that children will grow out of it as they get older, but sometimes some aspects of it stays behind. I'm not sure if I had night terrors, but I've had aweful, gory, dark nightmares since I was very little and they haven't stopped. I just had to learn to deal with them. I seriously can only remember a handful of good dreams compared to the hundreds of nightmares I've had. My husband still does some motions in his sleep and will sometimes talk a little, though he doesn't sleepwalk anymore.

Seeing a child therapist rather than the pediatrician may provide more answers. Also, if there is anything that tends to stress your child on a regular basis, trying to teach him to manage that stress may help a little. When things are tense or changing around the house (for instance, I was recently put on bedrest and cannot pick him up right now) our son is more likely to get night terrors. Scary movies once caused an episode of sleepwalking in my husband when he was a child, and they were sure that was the cause because he hid the tapes in a location as far from where he was sleeping as possible. So finding things that trigger night terror episodes will probably help a lot, if he has them.

Answer 3

My older daughter had night terrors for years. She grew out of them by the time she was about 10 or so.

They would get really bad. She would scream out, thrash in the bed, sleepwalk (very rarely) and wake up and not remember a thing. These were never like regular dreams. She would sometimes have regular dreams and be able to wake up and talk about them, if she remembered them. The night terrors she never remembered.

The only thing I could do for her was to hold her so she wouldn't hurt herself. Even when I tried, I just couldn't wake her from them. I never thought to bring it up with her doctor because I just didn't know I should have. To me, they were just very bad dreams. I didn't know there was anything a doctor could have done for her.

I would hold her when she would cry out and thrash in the bed. More than once I started mornings off with bruises because I'd moved wrong when she was thrashing about. I even had a nice shiner from the kid one night!

The only thing that made the nights with night terrors any different for her than any other night was that in the morning, she wasn't as well rested as other nights.

Answer 4

Bless your heart! I've been through this with my daughter & I really feel for parents who experience this.
It's ironic that someone said the cops were called on them - that's sad, but also something we worried about. We video taped several episodes of our child because we were fearful that the neighbors would one day call the cops on us. Come to find out, the video tapes were very helpful when we took her to a therapist to find out what to do (our pediatrician never was helpful throughout any of this).

Our daughter started having these at a very early age. She would punch & kick us and scream for up to 2 hours when she had these. She was wide awake during the terrors but would just all of a sudden lie back down & go to sleep, just like someone flipped a switch.It was very frightening to us but she never seemed to remember them the next day.

Long story short, the therapist recommended:
1-Make sure child has safe environement (our would throw herself off bed & into walls during night terrors)
2- Never talk to or touch child during terrors becuase it makes it worse (we had always done that and after we stopped the terrors were over in shorter periods of time)
3- Do not put child to sleep in footed pj's or sock and do not have blankets or sheets tucked in at the foot of the bed (she didn't know why this worked but said researched showed it it. We stopped socks & tucking of sheets & night terrors became shorter/less frequent)
4- Place childs feet in a tub of very cold water if night terror continues for a long period of time - supposedly will "wake" child from deep sleep state (we tried this twice but it never worked for our child).

Anyway, she started the terrors at 18 months and stopped by age 4. She hasn't had one in over 6 months now. When we started using the hints the therapist gave us, they instantly became fewer & shorter.

I hope some of these ideas will help you. Good luck!

Answer 5

My husband has this sleep disorder. It can be quite scary. However, he often does not remember the episodes if I can convince him to go back to bed.

But, there are times when he is genuinely freaked out. What works for him is to turn the light on, hold him still, and tell him "Jay, it's me. Look at the light honey, wake up." Over and over again I tell him to look at the light and wake up. It works within minutes. I have to be careful not to grab him in such a way that makes it worse because often the dreams are about him being chased by something. I usually can tell when it's ok to touch him. He can jump from a sleeping position out of bed to standing in almost an instant and will run away screaming if I don't get the light on soon enough. Sometimes waking him when the dream starts and he's just barely wimpering and moaning prevents the screaming. But then, we're married and I'm next to him all night long. Won't work with kids in another room.

He also sleepwalks. He has been known to watch Spanish TV (doesn't speak Spanish) or country music videos (hates country) on full blast, cooked an omelette, and wander around the house talking to people in his dream. He usually goes back to bed when told to without waking him up when this happens.

If my husband needs comforting and being held after a terror, I can only imagine your son would need Mom to hold him for a while until he calms down. The dreams are frighteningly real to him.

Just remember, he isn't aware he's waking you up or that you aren't aware of what's going on with him. So he'll talk to you as though you know what's going on. Just get some lights on, get him to wake up, and calm him down. Then get him back to bed.

My sister had night terrors occasionally, but mostly just sleep walked. We had to get the kind of deadbolts on the doors that you open with a key from either side to keep her in the house at night. When she'd have terrors she'd just scream in her bed. My mom would go in and hold her and talk to her until she woke up and calmed down and then went back to sleep. She never remembered any of it happening. She grew out of it.

Answer 6

Very normal for kids to go through--very scary for parent to go through. Alot of talking about what these dreams are about is what I think will help and getting to the root of the problem. You should also watch out for sleepwalking because it is totally scary if they could get hurt in or out of the house. Keeping a close eye on them, waking them up when you hear a lot of talking and just being there is my advice. If they dont cease at all, I would go back to the medical advice you got though. You dont want your kid turning into an insomniac because they are scared to sleep.

Answer 7

My daughter has had a few night terrors and they can be very scary for Mommy to watch. The reading that I've done on them says that they're normal. They are a result of the imagination beginning to expand.

Also everything I've read says that they do NOT remember them in the morning. So, unless you son says something to you that indicates that he does remember, don't bring it up. Just calm him as much as possible during the event and gently put him back to bed.

As far as the frequency, I don't know what "normal" is, but if your son's doctor isn't worried, I wouldn't be either.

Answer 8

Night Terrors or Nightmares...is there a difference? Just be sure to keep him physically safe during the night and if he sleep walks, do not wake him up unless he is going to hurt himself. Ask you doctor to run a food allergy test on him and make sure he stays away from junk food before bed time. Make it a habit to put him to bed every night and reasure him that you are close by and that you love him. Ask him if there is anything going on during the day that scares him, and let him know that you won't be mad at him if it is something that he is doing, and that you can keep secrets. Let him know that when his dreams get scary he can fight back and he won't get hurt. Your dreams are the best times to work out problems...even ones you are to afraid to work out in your waking hours.

Just keep him safe.
Cheers!

Answer 9

Get him to talk more in detail about his night terrors, and see if there's anything going on in his daily life (bad eating habits at night, scary movies with friends, bullies, etc.) that might be playing into his fears. Just try to be supportive and attentive, and seek professional help if he needs it.

For some reason, reminds me of the Sixth Sense movie, where the one kid could see dead people but his mother couldnt.....

Answer 10

Oh God Yes! My oldest is 22 now. From birth to 8 were really hard. The police once came to the house, because the neighbors thought we were abusing him because of the screaming.

Back then, I talked to pediatricians.......no help. We (my husband and I) would come into the room and even though my son (kind of) saw us, he was just out-of-control.

I DO believe it is a past life experience. Even now..........I look into my son's eyes and I see an old soul. I hope you do not think I am crazy.

One time(I hate to admit it), I kept slapping him, because I thought I could wake him. He was 4. He looked us straight in the eyes.

Recently, I saw Sylvia Browne answer this problem on Montel Williams. I believe he was re-living something horrible. Her answer was to talk to the child as his was going to asleep that he ask God to help him move on.

Just know my son is 22 now. It did go away. I feel because this life over-whelmed the past life.

I am really not crazy, but I know........this is nuts! The baby is looking at you, but you know they are not there! You hug them, comfort them, talk to them............yet they are so frightened.

Doctors say one thing, you sense another.

Back to the cops who responded to the neighbor's call...............they walked in and saw my son in full "Night Terrors" They left saying, "Take him to the doctors!"