I need ways to stop night terrors in a 5 year old?

Question

My daughter is turning 6 in December. For the last week she has been waking up about an hour after she falls asleep. She cries, mumbles, shakes..acts like she is in a trance. Its really frustrating for her dad and I. There is nothing tramitic going on at home or at school. What can we do for her? Take her to a shrink? Let it pass?

Also in the morning she doesn't remember a thing.

We don't eat after 7 and she never gets to watch anything scary-SpongeBob is about it.

Answer 1

My daughter had night terrors when she was 3 (my fiance had just died, and this was her time for acting out her feelings). Anyway, once we figured out what was going on, I looked up some information on the internet. At one parenting site (sorry, can't remember what it was now) a suggestion was to wake her about 1/2 hour before she would normally wake up screaming. Get her up, go potty, get a drink, whatever... just get her up and awake. This worked!! The reason it did is because it breaks that natural sleep cycle. They don't get to the part where they fall into that deep sleep REM cycle, so it interupts the cycle. We did this for about a week, then it effectively broke the cycle, and she went back to sleeping like normal. It is important to do this BEFORE she starts in... not DURING. During the night terror, she no longer knows that you are there- they are in a kind of trance-like state. I know they are upsetting... my daughter would scream bloody murder, recoil in horror if you touched her or came near her, and it would last nearly an hour and a half each time. Every morning, she remembered nothing. Usually it is brought on by trauma, but not all the time. Once you get her to break the cycle by waking her, and it is all over with- watch this scary movie with your hubby- They (by Wes Craven, of Nightmare on Elm Street fame). It is a twist on children with night terrors (from a horror master mindframe). It will make you feel better about the small terrors you have had to deal with with your child- 'cause at least they don't have the problems like the characters in the movie! (It IS very scary- so if you don't like scary movies- don't watch this one!) It just freaked me out because the experience I had with my daughter seemed like she could be seeing the things in the movie. Wes Craven's real life child had night terrors, so he based this movie on his real life experiences with his own child (with a little movie magic, of course). So, in answer to your question- wake her up about 1/2 hour before she normally wakes in the night, and get her up and moving to break the sleep cycle. Good luck!

Answer 2

Our youngest daughter, who is now 10, suffered with night terrors from a little before turning 2 until she was about 5 1/2. They are extremely frightening to mom and dad and anyone else in the house. The blood-curdling screams are quite unnerving and bolt you out of a sound sleep like nothing else. First, don't try to wake her up. She won't and if she does she will just be overly agitated and fitful. Your best tactic is to go to her bedside, sit next to her, speak in a soothing tone (don't worry too much about the words and forget about asking her questions, she won't answer you), hold her or stroke her gently if she'll let you. With our daughter, at first she would flail and push us away when we tried to hold or touch her so we learned to wait for the signs that she was settling a bit then she would let us physically comfort her. Somewhere between 10-30 minutes would go by before she would be at the point where she would lay back down and settle again into a restful sleep. For us, we discovered that our daughter was quite sensitive to things that she saw and heard. We stopped watching the news when she was awake and we were careful about what we talked about in her presence. Even during TV shows that were appropriate for her, the commercials or ads for upcoming shows had images that troubled her. There doesn't seem to be a consensus as to what causes night terrors for some children. Our daughter also had nightmares throughout this time which are considerably different than a night terror. She seems to have outgrown the night terrors, but still sometimes has episodes of night mares. You can't make a night terror stop or be less severe, but you can stay with her and comfort her as much as she'll let you until the night terror has subsided. The good thing about night terrors is the child has no memory of having had them. It does make mom and dad lay awake for hours afterward though trying to calm fast beating hearts and waiting for the adrenaline rush to calm down.

Answer 3

1. my brother has a sleeping disorder sounds exactly what she has my bro is now an adult and it was still happening until they tried medication for seziures and it stopped the night terrors. But the side effects of the medication is unknown i am not a big fan on medication.

2. Pray over her few times a week while she is asleep and say outloud for her to release all the negitivity of any pasts into the white light and let her know she is safe with you and her. ( I know it sounds nuts but wont hurt to try right?) Talk to her while she is asleep her mind can still hear u and tell her she is safe in this life with her family.

3. Bring her to a doctor but pls dont be so quick to put her on medication. Try cat scan see if there is something going on inside her head. if she has some type of sezure like my brother did they will find it. I feel doctors these days are so quick to medicate our kids. Try some councling if it gets worse. They will show u ways to stop them without meds.
There are some books by Sylvia Browne that talks abt childern with night terrors and some of them are acting out and remember horrors past lives reason why most kids out grow them is because as we age we lose those memories. It might sound crazy but so does alot of the bible stories right and we still believe in God so give it a try!

Answer 4

Both of my children used to get night terrors. With my daughter it just passed on it's own. I know exactly what you're going through. But with my son, they went on much longer. He had difficulty breathing through his nose and would stop breathing for a second or two, then he would have these terrors, and usually wake up wet. His doctor took an xray of his adenoids. It was enlarged. We had them removed and our nights have been much easier since. Occasionally now he will cry at night, and have no memory of it. But nothing like it was.
Yes these terrors would happen early in the night, about the time I would just fall asleep. I would take the child and put him on the living room floor and put in one of his tapes quietly. I remember some time they would last for a couple of hours.
My concern about your daughter is her age. She is much older than my children were when they were going through this. If this continues much longer, maybe you should call the doctor and get her checked out.

Answer 5

I feel for you. My daughter suffered these for several years. The Dr/therapist finally told us to
1- make sure her bedroom is safe and free of things (sharp) that could hurt her)
2- DO NOT try to wake her, talk to her, or comfort her during a terror, it only makes things worse.
3- do not let her sleep in footed pj's or socks
4- do not tuck in sheets are blankets around the foot of the bed
5- leave a night light on for her
6- ask non-leading questions the next morning. If she remembers anything, it wasn't really a night terror, but just a night-mare.

I know it sounds crazy but the moment we stopped putting her to bed in socks & then untucked her bed linens, she almost completely stopped having terrors. It was hard not to try to comfort her during one but what the therapist said was true. If we left her alone, they didn't last nearly as long as when we tried to "wake" her or comfort her.
She hardly ever has them anymore.

You can try things like a food diary but that didn't work for us.

Good luck to you and your child. I know it's difficult. Our pediatrician thought she was too young to have night terrors but we video taped it. Then we went to a behavioral counselor. It may take several trips but make them listen to you and don't give up till you get help. Our child didn't need medication or anything. I think she's practically outgrown them now. Good luck!

Answer 6

I know it sounds crazy and you may not believe in this kind of stuff but try putting a piece of amythyst under her pillow. I was a nanny for a child with night terrors, and that is what her mom did and it helped the child. Amethysts are supposed to soak up the nightmares. Just make sure that you take the amethyst out from under her pillow and put it outside in the sun for a couple of hours to get rid of the negative energy everyday before she goes to sleep. I know it sounds crazy, but what do you have to lose, a lot of people believe in it. She may even want to help pick it out. I actually started putting an amethyst under my pillow and I havent had any nightmares in a long time, but when I forget to put it under my pillow then I do have some crazy wierd scary dreams. You can read all about stones and the special energies all over the internet. Just search it.

Answer 7

Night terrors are not uncommon. She will grow out of them, but I would highly advise checking with your doctor about, just to rule out a medical cause. Also, letting her do sleepovers would not be a good idea. It will totally scare the other kids.

And going out on a limb here, but since other people have brought spirituality/religion into this, so will I. Avoid anything occultic to try and solve this problem.

Answer 8

This goes contrary to the rest of the advice you are getting, but my daughter's pediatrician told us to do it for her, and it worked.
Let her have a small sweet snack just before bed. Yogurt, a popsicle, a couple of orange slices, anything with sugar. Then have her brush her teeth, and pop her into bed. The sugar does something to keep the level of dream state from getting too deep or something.
I passed this advice on to my sisters for their kids (Night terrors run in our family, I guess.), and it worked in almost every case.

Answer 9

CHILDREN USUALLY ACT OUT WHEN SOMETHING IS WRONG. WAKING UP FROM A SOUND SLEEP CONFIRMS IT'S NOT AN ACT.... SCARY MOVIES AT HOME , SOME ONE TOUCHING HER IMPROPERLY AT SCHOOL OR HOME . I WAS ONE OF THOSE KIDS WHO GOT TOUCHED . I WOKE UP SCREAMING EVERY NIGHT AS A CHILD ...... FEAR , AND ABANDONMENT OF NOT BEING PROTECTED BY THE ONES WHO YOU FEEL SHOULD BE..... THERAPY MAY HELP .....JUST A FEW THOUGHTS FROM OUTSIDE THE BOX LOOKING IN.... WATCH WHAT SHE EATS AT NIGHT AND WHAT TIME , NO TV AFTER CERTAIN TIME , MAYBE A GOOD STORY READ TO HER BY YOU ...GIVING HER A SECURE FEELING INSIDE WHILE SHE FALLS FAST ASLEEP...
I AM 51 AND STILL HAVE BAD MEMORIES .... THEY DON'T ALWAYS GO AWAY ....YOU LEARN TO JUST DEAL WITH THEM.....ALSO MAYBE WATCH WHAT SHE EATS AT NIGHT . WHAT TIME SHE EATS IS IMPORTANT , NO TV AFTER A CERTAIN HOUR ... MAYBE FIND A BOOK OF CHILD STORIES AND READ TO HER UNTILL SHE FALLS ASLEEP. GIVING HER A FEELING OF BEING SECURE WILL HELP.

Answer 10

i think your child needs medical attention cut out of her life all horror and violent TV leat her sleep with you and your husband when no ,night business' is occurring and don,t write Lacey,s answer off as being a nutty answer. it,s Ben tried and seems to work.it can,t do any harm her belief has ben around for centuries and refuses to die. there must be something to it..i hate to say so but this sounds like she has ben 'touched' to me too. i wish you and this child well.