night terrors?

Question

A bad dream? whats the differince? My daughter has been having these. She woke crying about wanting a green car!(meaning she is dreaming of fighting with her older brother over toys?!)why have Night terrors about that? Doc says it's Night Terrors.....Over what? I don't get it.

Answer 1

The difference between night terrors and a nightmare:
- if they can't remember the dream in the morning
- if you are more upset about the dream than they are
- if you can't seem to wake them, or they recoil from you in horror
- if they seem to "look through you" when you come to help
- if they scream bloody murder and nothing you do can calm them down
These are night terrors.
What you can do:
- Try breaking the sleep cycle by waking your child about 1/2 hour before they typically wake screaming. Get them up and moving, get a drink of water, go potty, etc to wake them for a short while so that it breaks the REM cycle. This worked for our daughter, who at 3 1/2 had horrible night terrors that went on for more than an hour a night for weeks. Good luck!

Answer 2

I would question your doctor again. He's not listening to you... Don't think that is "night terrors" but perhaps a little bit of jealousy over her brother, and she knows how to get to mom...

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.

Night Terror or Nightmare?: Nightmares occur during the dream phase of sleep known as REM sleep. Most people enter the REM stage of sleep sometime after 90 minutes of sleep. The circumstances of the nightmare will frighten the sleeper, who usually will wake up with a vivid memory of a long movie-like dream. Night terrors, on the other hand, occur during a phase of deep non-REM sleep usually within an hour after the subject goes to bed. This is also known as stage 4. (A link to a sleep stages chart can be found on the navigation bar to the left) During a night terror, which may last anywhere from five to twenty minutes, the person is still asleep, although the sleepers eyes may be open. When the subject does wake up, they usually have no recollection of the episode other than a sense of fear. This, however, is not always the case. Quite a few people interviewed can remember portions of the night terror, and some remember the whole thing.

Answer 3

My middle child had night terrors when he was little, about 4 or 5. He would wake up just CRYING, but I could NOT console him or get him to talk to me or anything. His eyes would be open, but he wouldn't respond, just scream and cry. Then, he would suddenly just stop and be back to "sleeping". It was awful. Fortunately they were not real frequent and only happened for about 6 months. I was told being overtired can trigger them. Night terrors are more likely to happen within the first hour or two after falling asleep. I think ( JMHO) that some kids are just more prone to them. My middle boy has also slept walk on and off since he was a toddler.
A night terror is different than dreams for a few reasons. One, the time they happen ( with an hour or so after falling asleep), the person is usually not fully awake and can not usually recall what they were dreaming. My son never could. he never remembered these episodes in the morning. Usually during dreams, we are "paralyzed" but during night terrors, the person is not, even becoming violent.
HTH? :-) Good luck to you

Answer 4

It is not known what causes night terrors but they are common in toddlers. Some schools of thought think it could be the "kenetic" energy stored up during the day that doesn't get used and "spills" out when the child is sleeping. Their minds are so full of stuff and they are so eager to learn new things that their little minds are going a mile a minute and continue to go even when sleeping. Whether you get it or not they are a fact of life.

Answer 5

Believe it or not,night terrors are common in children.It has to due with a hormone called melatonin that increases the amount of time that the child stays in the r.e.m stage of sleep.It is in the r.e.m stages of sleep that the mind dreams and sorts out subconscious problems.The longer you stay in this state of sleep ,the more likely you are to have nightmares because your body is trying to process so much info.As children age they produce less and less melatonin.Some adults don't produce enough melatonin and have trouble sleeping.Many will choose to supplement with melatonin and they to get nightmares.

Answer 6

It is a phase that most kids go through. If it just a nightmare, they are usually lots easier to calm down, if it's a night terror - they are nearly impossible to calm down & sometimes seem like they are still sleeping. The best thing I found was just to hug them tight & keep reassuring them. The phase doesn't last too long - even though lack of sleep makes it FEEL like forever!

Answer 7

Night terrors?

Answer 8

night terrors can arise from the most safe situations, then turn in to something horrific. Just make sure you reasure your child that they are not messed up, or are doing something wrong because of having the dreams. Children will blame themselves, remember that.

Answer 9

Ushually with a night terror your child is having a nightmare... They are not really awake although they may appear to be. The best you can do is sooth her or stand back and see if she calms on her own after a few minutes. Its a stage and ushually they outgrow it.

Answer 10

Birds can feel earthquakes that are very, very slight that we cannot feel. I always leave the back part of my bird cages covered so they have a dark place to nap and sleep and at night a night light so if something scares them they can orient themselves. This works really well. Some birds are more hyper/jumpy by nature. I have one and even tho he's sweet, he starts very easily and is easily startled by any thing.