Is my niece haveing night terrors if not what is it?

Question

I really am starting to think that my niece, Gabriella, who will be 4 in June is having them. Both of her parents sleep very soundly so when you ask them they will tell you that both of there girls are great sleepers, but when I have Gabby or my mom has her at night she is far from a great sleeper! Usually about 2 hours after she goes to bed, sometimes later, you hear her tossing and turning in bed, talking, crying, hitting and kicking. She is sound asleep and does this off and on anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours! The only way to get her to stop is to pick her up take her out of bed and the room and turn on all the lights. It is really hard to wake her but after a few minutes in with lights on she will always say "what are you doing, I want to go to bed." After that she sleeps fine though. She wakes up in the morning thinking she slept all night and doesn't remember anything from the night before.

I think she is having them at her house but her parents but don't hear her.

My sister and BIL don't wake up when she does this they don't even hear her! A monitor won't work cause they still wouldn't wake up to it. She does it at my mom's house when her parents are there and they don't hear her. My mom or myself have to go and tend to her.

Her 15 month sister sleeps with her in the same bed and sleeps through it so either she is a sound sleeper or is use to her doing this at night.

She doesn't remember anything and when you tell her about the night she looks at you and laughs and says don't be silly. She wakes every morning with a huge smile and in a great mood not remembering the screaming she did for 2 hours.

We pray every night before bed and every morning we talk about dreams. she will tell you all about them if she has them but nothing about the screaming. And her dreams aren't scary!

The are not neglecting there daughter they are both sound sleepers. There youngest has slept through the night since she was 6 months and before that she slept in a bassinet in the same room beside the bed and nine times out of ten Gabby would wake them when her sister woke up!

Not neglect just sound sleepers

Answer 1

That sounds like classic night terrors to me. Sometimes these can be stopped from happening if you wake the child an hour or two after they have fallen asleep (before the night terrors have started) and give them a good night kiss. It seems to disrupt the pattern in the brain that causes the night terrors.

Also, if it is happening every night and you don't get a chance to stop it by waking the child, just observe--don't try to wake the child as it could cause her to get accustomed to waking in the middle of the night--not a good habit to have! :-)

One last thing--if it is night terrors she won't remember it in the morning, so try not to mention it to her as it may just embarrass her or cause her distress.

Answer 2

It might just be from sleeping somewhere other than her own bed, my son does this when he goes to stay at nannas or my aunts, but at home he is fine, i am a light sleeper. Or it could be night terrors, which unfortunately you cant do much about other than reassuring the child, they grow out of it. If she isnt waking with a start and has to be woken, its probably just from sleeping somewhere else. Night terrors they usually wake with a start and are hard to calm down as they will remember the feeling of being frightened. If she was having them at her place she wouldnt be sleeping very well so would be a cranky tired little girl. And trust me, it doesnt matter how sound a sleeper you are, if your child wakes and cries, so do you. My husband is the hardest person to wake in the world, and the heaviest snorer, but if one of our sons wake, his eyes pop open, even if its just a little whimper i dont hear.

Answer 3

My son is 5 and has had night terrors terribly since he was about 1. He throws up from the crying in his sleep and you can get him up, change his bed and bath him and he doesn't remember a thing the next day. I asked his doctor about it and he said since we have a very stable loving home that there probably isnt anything that sets it off, we don't let him watch violent stuff or anything. He said sometimes no matter what you do kids just have them but that they normally out grow them the older they get and by school age they pretty much stop. Well Derek has one maybe once every 6 months or so now so I guess they are almost done.

Your best bet is to wait things out and to make sure she is sleeping in a safe enviroment so she won't hurt herself. It would be best to get her, her own bed and to make sure no sharp or hard toys are in the bed with her. Comfort her when she has them but don't make a big deal out of them, or they could turn into attention getting dreams

Answer 4

My 7 year old girl has been doing this since she was 4. I know not to go to bed until she has been asleep for at least 2 hours. After the 2 hour mark, she's fine and won't wake up. My pediatrician said that it can be a form of releasing stress. She could be scared staying at your house, even though she doesn't realize it. Or she may have just have an off day that affects it. There is nothing they can do to help it unless someone knows for sure she is doing it every night. We were told if she did it over 4-5 nights a week, they would do a sleep study on her to see if anything could be fine. They don't remember in the morning, but I know my daughter gets a kick out of some of the stories I have told her, lol. It's nothing to flip about yet, but I would ask her parents to stay up until at least the 2 hour mark after she falls asleep, or set something up so they can hear her. My daughter has walked out the backdoor before during these night tremors. I was in the shower and hubby was sleeping. She was sitting on the backporch crying, she had been there maybe 2 minutes. I asked her about it the next day and she remembered nothing.

Adding since your last input. Wake your sister and BIL up next time she does this. That way they can witness it. It is scary the first few times you deal with it, I know this. I've had my daughter doing everything from screaming to just shouting. There are times when I have to yell her name several times to get her to snap out of it. There are times when no screaming is involved and she's crawling on the floor whispering, I don't want to be a princess (I thought this was hilarious though). She can be in harms way if noone wakes up to her, so you really need to get one of them at least to stay up for 2 hours after she's out for the night. After the 2 hour window, chances are nothing will happen with her. Do they sleep with their door closed or her's closed? I think chances are if they witness one or two of these events, one of them will have no problem staying awake for her because it will scare the crap out of them. We go through sprees now of if and when she does it. They are suppose to grow out of them around 8 years of age. It can also be hereditary. My husband was like this, so I believe that's where my one got it. Whereas, my other one has never done this before.

Answer 5

I have heard that you are not supposed to wake the child when they are having night tremors. It could scare them. Our daughter is 8 now and has had a few episodes of night tremors but she actually gets out of bed and sleep walks, talks of nonsense and can carry on for awhile. We just sit with her, carry her back to bed and wait until it's over, her longest one was 3 hours, she thought that ants were crawling on her and us the entire time but doesn't remember it. We are fortunate that she has only really had a few and so very far apart from each other. If this happens every night with your niece then I would recommend that you tell her parents what you have witnessed and just please, just to be safe, that they talk to her doctor about what to do. Good Luck to you though, it must be rough especially when she's not your child and your hands are tied.

Answer 6

It sounds like night terrors to me. My son is 7 and he has always had night trerrors. He talks and screams and sits up and kicks and completely panics the only way we can get him out of this is to wake him up and when we do he has no recollection of any of his dream. He will repeat this if we did not wake him up completely. If we are successful with waking him up then he sleeps soundly through the night. My biggest concern is with your sister and her husband. I can't believe they can sleep through this. What if something like a house fire or burglary occurs. Someone could break in the house to kidnap the children and would they even hear the child scream? This is very disturbing. When the baby wakes up at night, don't they hear her cry? Maybe they really do hear her have night terrors but don't want to fool with her. They should be confronted. This is serious. You should talk to them because they may be neglecting their daughters.

Answer 7

Sound like classic night terrors to me. My son had them from age 2 until 9. He would run out into the street screaming and even threw himself into a pool at a freind place once. We had to get high locks on the doors to stop the escaping. Once he was woken, he would ask why we woke him and ask to go back to bed, but sometimes it took ages to wake him. I found my taking him outside in the fresh air and talking calmly about the stars and moon etc, calmed him the quickest and less stressful. Before we knew they were night terrors, we thought he was just being naughty thruogh the night and his Dad would get very cross with him, this made him worse. He has since grown out of them, but the worst age was 7 and 8.
I have never heard of girls doing it though, although I know of quiet a few boys, so that is interesting about your niece.
I aslo reccommend a councellor or psychartrist too tho, as my son has since had other issues we may have known about earlier had we have taken him at a younger age. Talk to your sister with your concerns, she is lucky to have some one who cares so much.

Answer 8

Yes....I do believe that she may be having night terrors. Usually though, people with night terrors don't wake up feeling rested. I think she may grow out of this....but her parents do need to see for themselves exactly what she is doing. I would ask them if they would feel comfotable letting you stay a night at there house and when she starts in on the crying and such....you go in and wake them....so that they can come in and see what is happening. Good Luck!!!

Answer 9

It sounds like she is having nightmares. Anything happen to a friend or family member? Dog dies anything like that? Parents fighting? She doesn't remember anything, or doesn't want to remember her dreams. Tell her to write a picture about her dreams. If you are a spiritual family pray with her that she doesn't have bad dreams. My friends son used to do that around the age of three or four, sometimes still does at the age of five. Wake her up, make her open her eyes and look at you. I know it's difficult. Try talking about her nightmares when she settles down, but before she goes back to bed. Does she have a nightlight? Tell the parents that it is going on, maybe they can stay up a couple nights and assess the problem. Good Luck. ,,,, I don't know if you want to know this and please don't think I'm crazy. I'm a christian and I believe demons are in your dreams when you sleep. It's on a different plane. Do you ever fly in your dreams, like your trying to get away from someone. I know it's freaky, it does happen.Just pray before you go to bed.

Answer 10

my son did the same thing but he started as soon as he came out the womb...he hated going to sleep...i thought it was colic but as he aged it continued till i read about it and it stated the majority of night terrors or tremors stem from SLEEP APNEA. Seriously my son would scream and scream one day he did this in his sleep for 30 minutes...talk about scared...

sleep apnea cause you to move around, cry, hit,toss and turn. She needs to have a sleep study done. all it is someone monitoring your sleep with plenty wires all over the bod...my son had this done and we learned he stopped breathing more than the average person while sleep...he would scream and cry because it would scare him. after he was diagnosed with sleep apnea he had surgery while he was 18 months to remove his tonsils and adnoids...thank you LORD...my son night terrors was left behind in the hospital and he finally slept peaceful during the night...he's now 5 years old... the Dr. warned me there was a chance it could come back since his adnoids can grow back and it looks like it has...he starting to toss and now i find him sleep in my bed...so after he finishes TBALL season he will go see a specialist and find out how much they have grown back if they have to operate and remove or try something else... i don't mind since my son enjoyed sleeping from 18 months to now...i'll do anything to ensure he gets the proper rest...also please get more than one opinion.
Prayer and God bless!!!