Does anyone know what causes night terrors?

Answer 1

What causes night terrors?

* The cause of night terrors is not known, but having night terrors runs in families (it seems to be inherited). Usually there are other people in the family who have had night terrors, or sleepwalking or sleep talking.
* Night terrors usually start happening when a child is around 4 to 7 years old (sometimes younger) and may happen off and on until the child reaches puberty. It is unusual for them to happen in older teenagers or adults.
* Night terrors seem to happen more often when there is a stressful event such as starting school, but often there is no obvious stress in the child's life.
* Sometimes they occur on nights when a child is unwell.
* They often seem to happen when a child is not getting enough sleep.
* Some people have linked night terrors to developmental stages in children's lives, such as toilet training, but many others do not think these are linked.
* Having night terrors is not linked to having psychological problems later in life. They seem to be a temporary 'phase' which children grow out of.




Alternative names
Pavor nocturnus; Sleep terror disorder

Definition
Night terrors are a sleep disorder involving abrupt awakening from sleep in a terrified state.


Night Terrors
People who have night terrors are often misdiagnosed. The most common one is a simple nightmare. Any of you who have had a night terror can say they aren't even close! Another common misdiagnosis (especially among veterans) is PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. For this reason I have included a description of the difference between nightmares and night terrors.

Night Terrors Symptoms:
Sudden awakening from sleep, persistent fear or terror that occurs at night, screaming, sweating, confusion, rapid heart rate, inability to explain what happened, usually no recall of "bad dreams" or nightmares, may have a vague sense of frightening images. Many people see spiders, snakes, animals or people in the room, are unable to fully awake, difficult to comfort, with no memory of the event on awakening the next day.

What to do about night terrors

Even though he may not let you comfort him, you need to go to your child, make sure that he is safe, and stay with him until he can relax back into sleep.

* Talking gently and touching or cuddling him may help him become calm, but if this causes him to be more distressed, just sit nearby.
* If he is doing something unsafe, such as climbing onto furniture, you do need to stop him, even if he fights you.
* You do not have to make him wake up, or shout at him. Trying to wake a child may make him more agitated. Just let him go back to sleep when he calms down.
* Don't talk with him about the night terrors the next day. He will not remember then, but may be very embarrassed and worried about them.
* Some people have suggested trying planned waking for about a week.
o Since the night terrors tend to start around the same time each night, go to him about 10 to 15 minutes before then.
o Rouse him a little so that he is almost awake, talk to him, perhaps take him to the toilet or give him a small drink of water.
o After about 5 minutes, let him go back to sleep.
o This might change his sleep pattern enough so that he does not have the partial wakening later in the night.
* Think about what is happening in his life and see if there is anything that might be stressful and could be changed. This may not have an effect, but it is worth thinking about.
* If your child is not getting enough sleep, try to get him into a better sleep routine. Our topic Sleep - 6 months to 3 years has ideas about how to do this.
* Work out how to take care of yourself. It is very distressing being woken by a child whom you cannot comfort.
o Remember that night terrors are much more upsetting to watch than they are to experience. Children do not have any memory of what has happened, and do not suffer any psychological harm from them.
o Remember also that night terrors are not a sign of mental health problems.
o Talk to other people in your family and see if there is a family pattern.
o Talk to your neighbours about what is happening, so that you do not have to worry about what they may think about your child screaming during the night.

Night terrors usually go away within a week or so, but if they persist, talk to your doctor. It is common for them to come back several times until your child is older.

first link is for forums for people who experience night terrors...
the others speak for themselves...

Answer 2

I don't know, but this site seems to know what it is http://www.nightterrors.org/

it says "Sleep labs across the United States and Canada have shown through sleep studies, that Night Terrors happen due to increased brain activity. The common thought among researchers is that a chemical trigger in the brain causes your brain to "misfire" and cause a Night Terror. These misfires can be caused by many factors such as stress and various other medical ailments. Please check out the Additional NT Information page to find out more."

you might want to read the page for yourself.

Answer 3

as a mother who has an eleven year old that since he was born every night at about 2 am he would wake up crying and fighting he never woke up. at the age of three they diginosied it as night terrors ( which usually effects boys more) they gave him medicine to put him into the rim sleeping stage. he still has them and his teeth chatter, he is crying and fighting for help. it takes both myself and my husband to get him awake which takes about 20 to 30 minutes. if you have never witness a person who has night terrors you just do not understand how helpless and how frightening it is as the parent. the doctors will never give you a staight answer as to what causes them. I reasearched it and found there is a strong belief that when children have the night terrors they are reliving their death in a former life. we put dream catchers all over his room so that he could focus on them. i would hold him and tell him mommy would not let anything hurt him or take him from me. when you try and talk with them and they are still asleep sometimes they tell you certain things and you have to be the big bad person who is coming into the nightmare and kill what ever is threatening him, hold your child tight so that he feels you and listen then explain how the train did not run over them and you did not carry their body away that you stopped the train and you had his hand and you are now walking in a park say what ever you need to say to help them. the doctor does state that most children grow out of them. i am still waiting for josh to grow out of them. at eleven years old he fights quite strongly or will get up running and fighting to get out. we try to make sure of what games he playes and what he watches on tv. that does not seem to help. but since we make sure that he never watches any thing like a horror movie or a violient move before he goes to bed that would not be a fair assessment.

Answer 4

Our son suffered from night terrors (which we learned later affected my mother and grandmother). We took him to a therapist that gave us some techniques and suggestions instead of medications. He suggested no TV or anything exciting at least 30 minutes before bedtime, having him alternately tap his ears slowly and rhythmically with his index fingers, and during the night if he had a night terror, DO NOT wake him up. Rather, put yourself in his dream. On several nights we would go into his room, hold his hand without waking him, and begin talking to him assuring him we were there, and if he wanted to go get ice cream or go get a toy. Did he see the balloons "over there? Do you want one?" And then he would calm down, answer back, then go back to sleep. It helped tremendously.

Answer 5

Certain types of nocturnal seizures can produce night terrors as well as past traumatic experiences expressing themselves during sleep. There are other reasons as well seeing a doctor would be a wise idea in order to get a correct diagnosis

Answer 6

Pay attention to your dreams. Write them down. What is happening in your outer life? Is that chaotic? Is someone being too controlling in your life??Your dreams are trying to tell you something. You have to be creative in confronting or getting rid of unwelcome situations on the inner. Ask for protection. Confront them. Turn the tables sometimes and just be loving or nice to the situation at hand on the inner/dream. Sing Hu or listen to that before you go to bed. Sing Sugmad, or names that you are okay related with the Holy Spirit. Something that you feel comfortable with. It'll help pick you up.

One example, I knew a person whom always had a dream that he would be killed around the age of 30. He was a police officer. This bothered the hell out of him. This dream of death really meant that many okay changes for the better would happen to him at that age.
Many so called bad dreams can mean just the opposite may happen the next day or two. Up to you to write them down, so you can reflect on them, and find the ties.

A customer of mine was having some major work done on their house and it was pretty extensive. Major costs happening. She told me that she was having dreams about the house being on fire every night and she was very upset. The dream was telling her that the house was burning a hole in their pockets, due to the expenses.

Sometimes you will not see the ties for 6 months or a year down the road. This is a very vast subject but the writing and the mantras mentioned, if you are okay with them, will get you started. Start writing!!

Answer 7

reason is a robust be conscious in technological know-how, so i'll keep away from using it in my "answer." to look for help in a particular undertaking, i might wish that the guy in question (with evening terrors) seeks help from a nap health center. i presumed i might proportion that there are various populations that have greater evening terrors than others. case in point, toddlers with Bipolar disease and adults with Parkinson's often have evening terrors. Are those causal relationships? My vote is "in no way," even though it is mandatory understand that some issues could be warning signs of alternative issues. (you will even have Bipolar disease or Parkinson's and not have evening terrors. there's a intense, yet no longer acceptable, correlation.)

Answer 8

When my son has a bad day at school or is upset around bedtime he gets night terrors, right now he's seeing a doctor and is on meds but nothing seems to work. My sons only 8 years old, and it's hard to get him back to sleep when he does get them. I wish I knew how to stop them.

Answer 9

See a doctor. Night terrors are similar to panic attacks and can be controlled with medication.

Answer 10

Night terrors .
They can be triggered by a situation where something happened and threats were made to frighten the victim from talking about it.

Take care!

Answer 11

night terrors are caused by being nervous and genuinly from having a bad experiance with like i was sexually assulted by my own brother and seeing my mum getting her head smashed in by my father i am now 25 and still have them but have been subscribed diazipam and they have been a good part of my life i can now start to look forward instead of trying to keep myself awake scared stiff off sleeping