Night terrors should be more accurately referred to as Sleep Terrors. They are a form of arousal which occurs in about 3% of children, usually in later childhood.
Typically parents are woken by a loud scream or sudden loud alarming noise from the child who is at the start of a sleep terror. The child appears to be awake, eyes wide open and staring, sweating profusely, with a rapid pulse and crying out as if terrified. The child may jump out of bed and rush about frantically as if fleeing some danger. Injury caused by bumping into things is a serious risk.
Usually the episode ends as abruptly as it began. The child goes back to sleep and has little or no memory of the event in the morning. If the child wakes at the end of the terror, then a feeling of definate threat may be expressed, but not a nightmare.
Such dramatic events do not mean that the child is ill. Trying to calm a child during such an event is pointless. The child is not aware of anything outwith this feeling of primitive threat. The best thing parents can do is to ensure that the environement is as safe as possible, wait until the event is over, and then resettle the child in bed.
Typically parents are woken by a loud scream or sudden loud alarming noise from the child who is at the start of a sleep terror. The child appears to be awake, eyes wide open and staring, sweating profusely, with a rapid pulse and crying out as if terrified. The child may jump out of bed and rush about frantically as if fleeing some danger. Injury caused by bumping into things is a serious risk.
Usually the episode ends as abruptly as it began. The child goes back to sleep and has little or no memory of the event in the morning. If the child wakes at the end of the terror, then a feeling of definate threat may be expressed, but not a nightmare.
Such dramatic events do not mean that the child is ill. Trying to calm a child during such an event is pointless. The child is not aware of anything outwith this feeling of primitive threat. The best thing parents can do is to ensure that the environement is as safe as possible, wait until the event is over, and then resettle the child in bed.
Trying to discuss this in the morning will only make the child more anxious about themselves. Ensuring that the child has a good sleep pattern with regular and adequate sleep will reduce the frequency of these events. If, despite good quality regular sleep these events persist there are recognised effective behavioural methods for dealing with them. Medication is a last resort.
Most children will grow out of these events by adolescence. If your child experiences sleep terrors and you have concerns that they remain frequent despite following good sleep hyigene guidelines, contact Dream-Angus. We can help you to overcome this.
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