BabyWhispererForums.com

SLEEP => Sleeping For Toddlers => Topic started by: M and N's Mom on June 27, 2007, 10:59:18 am

Title: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: M and N's Mom on June 27, 2007, 10:59:18 am
We had a strange NW last night.  Firstly, it was the first time in months that I have had to go in.  Usually if we hear DS at all, he settles himself within a few minutes.  Last night he was screaming.  I gave him Motrin as he has been teething, but it really didn't seem like pain as when I picked him up he stopped immediately and calmed down in my arms.  But, when I tried to put him back down he went absolutely crazy.  He was literally trying to jump up the sides of the crib to get to me.  I have never seen him so panicked.

Anyway, I sat with him a bit longer, finally got him to lay down and rubbed his back for a minute, then left and he whimpered himself back to sleep.  The whole thing took about 40 minutes.  (Then I couldn't get back to sleep for another hour  ::) but that's another story, LOL).

The good thing is he is sleeping in a bit this morning. 

So, does this sound like a night terror?  Teething?  We didn't have anything like this until later with DD.
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: Stace on June 27, 2007, 11:02:06 am

I've had very similar issues with our DS so if you don't mind I'll keep sticking my nose in to see what feedback you get.

In the meantime - empathetic hugs being sent.

Stace x
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: rinajack on June 27, 2007, 11:04:57 am
I may be wrong here, but I thougth with night terrors that they were in a sleep like state but screaming, and that picking them up usually woke them and made it worse because they don't remember having the night terror.

Could have just been an awful nightmare?
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: M and N's Mom on June 27, 2007, 12:29:20 pm
He was sitting when I went in so I first tried just laying him back down but then he screamed even more!  He went crazy.  But, he stopped as soon as I picked him up.
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: A_C on June 27, 2007, 12:53:01 pm
I've had something like this happen to DD once or twice, maybe a month and a half to two months back. Quite similar circumstance to yours....also found her sitting in her crib crying and quite frightened (and clearly upset that she woke up). Though I attributed it more to teething (which she was going on at the time)....this was preceded by a long wind down before bed as she just refused to be left alone and would cry...usually we tuck her in and she goes down with no fuss (even if she stays up for about an hour before actually getting some shut-eye).  This happened for about a week or two, until her teeth finally broke through...but the incident of waking up at night happened about once or twice during this period only.





I may be wrong here, but I thougth with night terrors that they were in a sleep like state but screaming, and that picking them up usually woke them and made it worse because they don't remember having the night terror.

I thought the same thing as well....


Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: xxkaty23xx on June 27, 2007, 19:35:17 pm
Mikey has been suffering night terrors for around 10months now, since he was about 2 1/2... its right they are in a sleep state, they dont see you come in, sometimes they even have their eyes open and are sitting up staring through you screaming and shaking... you must not wake them if thats what it is... we've ever had our dr out during the night to watch and i've videoed them to show drs and they all tell me the same, if you wake them it scares them even more b/c they dont know they are doing it, they dont remember it in the morning and it basically just scares the hell out of you and they are fine lol. I usually sit quietly at the side of Mikey's bed and wait until he lays himself back down then i walk back out of the room again, they are becomming less frequent, maybe only once or twice a week rather than every other night. They also seem to happen more if he has had an overly exciting or stimulating day or is over tired when he goes to bed. Not a whole lot you can do to 'cure' them just ride it out but most kids grow out of it by the age of 4-5 :)

But to me if he was aware of your being in the room then i wouldn't say it was a night terror, either a nightmare or a pain of some sort :-\
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: Asher's Mommy on June 27, 2007, 21:02:48 pm
M and N's mommy - What you described is EXACTLY what has been going on at our house for the past several days. Asher is normally "textbook/angel" so I am a little beside myself with what to do!
We have been doing WI/WO. That has worked ok.

Katy 20 - The lights are out and I can't see when I walk in. I just assumed he was awake because he was sitting up crying. I was thinking that if it happens again tonight I will walk in and see if he reaches for me. If he does then I will know he is awake. If not, then do you think it could be the night terrors?

I also thought I would disrupt his sleep cycle since he seems to be doing at about the same time every night. What do you think of that idea?

ALSO - he did it today for the first time during a NAP! Plus, he is waking up early crying when normally he wakes at about 7am, playing.

I just put him on  a 1 nap routine. I am wondering if, even though he adjusted well and seemed to be doing great on it...maybe he wasn't ready and is overly tired? That would make sense of his early morning wakings. Right?

Hmmm.... Any thoughts??

Thanks
Annette
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: rinajack on June 27, 2007, 21:08:20 pm
could you post your routine?
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: 15milner on June 27, 2007, 21:23:54 pm
We dealt with night terrors at around age 2.  They happened at a consistent time each time - around 10pm.  Night terrors happen during the first few hours of sleep, nightmares toward the middle / end of the night.  the night terror is connected with the transition between the different stages of sleep (sorry can't remember which stages) and somehow they have got 'caught' between the stages.

With Matthew - the first time not knowing what it was - by physically touching / hugging / holding etc made it worse.  He kicked and screamed  - asked for mummy, I said I was there, hug him at which point then he'd completely push me away saying go away mummy.  He asked for water, which we gave him and the beaker got hurled across the room etc. 

The best way I found to deal with it was to sit with him, but not touching (very very hard to do), but repeating over and over ' it's OK, mummy's here, mummy loves you' and he was back to sleep again about 10mins later or back to a state that we felt comfortable to leave him as he had settled himself.

Alex
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: Asher's Mommy on June 27, 2007, 21:36:54 pm
Usually -
7am wake up - happy, playing in crib until I get him out
7:30 - breakfast
PLAY PLAY PLAY
12pm - lunch
1pm nap
3pm wake up happy
3:15 snack
5pm dinner
6:30 bedtime routine
7pm in bed sleep through night with no issues

Annette
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: Stace on June 27, 2007, 21:40:31 pm
M and N and Asher's mommy - we're EXACTLY the same too!

The more I think about it, I feel that our DS must be/been hurting in some way in the night (teeth?) but as a knock on effect his routine has gone crazy. He's been awake for around 2 hours in the night so ends up sleeping till 9am instead of 07:30 and I'd been putting his nap an hour later so it was starting at 13:30 and ending around 16:00 and putting him down at night around 19:30 which I realise now is all wrong.

I've put him down at his usual nap time today 12:30 till 15:00 (fell asleep around 13:00) and a later bed 20:30 and so far he's having a great night, hope I've not spoken too soon!!!

My plan, all being well, is to slowly get him back into his 07:30 wake, 12:30 Nap for 2.5 hours and bed 19:30 which he had been great on.

Asher's mommy - what is his current routine?

I will let you know how DS is over the next few days. If you guys wouldn't mind posting any successes, I'm a bit panicy with number 2 due any day now, the thought of DS waking in the night and getting a real fright when we're not there is really concerning me.

Stace x
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: Deb_in_oz on June 27, 2007, 21:50:20 pm
just marking this thread as i suffered with night terrors as a child and i wonder if Liv might in the future (i figured it was us spirited ones)

good luck
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: M and N's Mom on June 27, 2007, 22:22:12 pm
The way you guys describe a Night Terror, I'm thinking that's not what we had last night.  Maybe a nightmare though.  He was definitely awake though, and definitely wanted me as he calmed immediately when I picked him up.

Annette, what you are describing does sound a bit OT to me.  6 hours is a very long A time in the morning, could you move the nap back closer to 12 or 12:30 and see if that helps a bit?

Glad we're not alone in this, but hoping it doesn't happen again tonight (for any of us)  ;)
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: rinajack on June 27, 2007, 22:56:34 pm
I agree Ahsers mum, bring the nap to 12/12:30 to even out your A times a bit.
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: Asher's Mommy on June 28, 2007, 03:41:33 am
That is what we did today we brought the nap up and Asher woke up 30 minutes later SCREAMING. So, since we could not console him and we were confused by this behavior. We gave him some meds (not for sure if he is sick or teething???) and let him up for about 30 min or less. Then, DH put him back down and he slept until almost 5pm!!!! I wanted to wake him up but the more I talked it through with you guys the more I thought he could be overly tired.
I think tomorrow I am going to give him his lunch as early as 11-11:30am then put him down closer to 12pm. We'll see what happens...
I appreciate any ideas!
I am going to go right now to disrupt his sleep cycle and see if we can't over come this night SCREAMING!!
I'm like M and N's mom, I swear he is awake but after reading the posts I guess I am not 100% sure that I am not assuming he is awake and really I'm waking him up but re tucking him in. KWIM?

I'll let you know and if you can think of anything else that we might try I would appreciate it. We are not used to this around here and I admit it is upsetting me a bit.

M and N's mommy - do you really think it is pain? What is your LO's routine?

Annette
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: rinajack on June 28, 2007, 08:00:20 am
If you are not sure if it is pain related, have you considered giving pain relief before bed to see if it eliminates the waking?  If it does, then you can probably assume pain....
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: M and N's Mom on June 28, 2007, 11:08:11 am
I don't know if it was pain...just guessing as he has been teething.  Last night he let out a few good cries at 10:30 (same time as the episode the previous night) but thankfully, settled himself without me going in and slept until 6:45 this morning  :).

Our routine is:

wake 6:30-7:00
3.5h A
Nap #1 - 30 mins
2.5h A
Nap #2 - ~1.5h
3.5h A
Bedtime


Good luck today Annette.  I think they say 5-5.5h A before nap should be the max when they are going to 1 nap.  We are still a long way from that (and our LOs are close to the same age).
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: Stace on June 28, 2007, 12:04:17 pm
Thankfully my DS had a really good night last night, only a couple of crying spells, which calmed down pretty quickly and he went straight back to sleep  ;D.

I think our prob has been night pains, I think teeth, I can't see/feel any new ones but he's had a lot more smelly bums?

He woke at 8:45 this morning, so I'm going to do the same again today as yesterday and hope that's been our problem.

Annette - Robbie took ages to settle yesterday with his nap being brought forward and cried a bit but he settled after about 20 mins but I'm hoping he will start to settle back down again if I persevere (I put him down about 25 mins ago and he's gone out like a light), I think bringing lunch forward is a fab idea. How did disturbing his sleep cycle work? Has he any sign of new teeth or any signs of being unwell? I have tried giving DS meds before bedtime but he still woke crying, I think possibly when the meds wore off.

M&N's mum - sounds like you've had the same prob as us with the teeth, hopefully both are getting over the worst of it and back to good nights sleep ;D.

Stace x
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: Asher's Mommy on June 28, 2007, 14:54:49 pm
Yea, after talking with some of the girls on our birth thread, their babies seemed ready for 1 nap and as it turned out, there were not.
So, today I am going to try and move everything up and hopefully he will get enough sleep. If not, then we will go back to 2 naps.
I really don't think ours is sick/pain related. Meds did not work.
However, all the sleep he got yesterday and disrupting his sleep cycle seemed to work like a charm. NO night waking! And he was up at 7am like normal.
I think I have mine figured out. I really appreciate you guys letting me think it through with you! It means so much that I can talk with mommies following the same parenting style. Your thoughts and comments are meaningful to me and get me thinking when my "in person friends" don't make any sense and their kids do this kind of thing ALL THE TIME! KWIM?

So, mommies who are still wondering. For us, it was not enough sleep during the day (I am 99% sure). For us, in addition to more nap time,  disrupting his sleep cycle worked great (it has in the past too).

Disrupting his sleep cycle - Usually just walking in is enough to make him stir a bit. Or, covering him back up with his blanket. Or, just tugging slightly on the blanket until he flinches a little. I'm explaining how we do it because when we first did it months ago (for naps I think?) I was disrupting him too much and it didn't work. I thought I was following the instructions in the book but after talking to another BW mom she described this and it worked MUCH better.

Good luck!!!
Annette
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: M and N's Mom on June 28, 2007, 18:35:20 pm
That's great Annette!!   ;D Hope it stays working for you!  It sure is nice to have other Moms here who think similarly! 

Some LOs can easily handle 1 nap (my DD transitioned EASILY between 13-14 months, but here we are with DS who gets OT so easily and he is a long way from ready  :-\).
Title: Re: What Age Do Night Terrors Start?
Post by: oilerbaby on June 28, 2007, 21:46:36 pm
Hi there - we experienced night terrors when our daughter was 2/3.  Here is some information on night terrors from the Berkley Parents Network... 

Things That Go Bump in the Night
Coping with Night Terrors

It's 10 p.m. You're dozing on the couch and decide it's time to go to bed. Just about the time your head hits the pillow, a bloodcurdling scream from your toddler's bedroom propels you like a shot down the hallway. You find her sitting up in bed, wide-eyed. She's screaming and flailing her arms. It's one of the scariest things you've ever seen. As you rush to her, you see she doesn't appear hurt or sick. It must be a nightmare, you think. "I'm here," you say as you put your arms around her. But she pushes you away. The more you try to calm her, the more upset she gets.

What's going on?

Most likely, your child is having a night terror - a relatively rare sleep disorder that appears mostly in young children. Two or three percent of all children will experience episodes of night terrors. Yet by the time they reach school age, most children will have outgrown these generally harmless events.

It's a normal phenomenon of childhood," says Harry Abram, M.D., a neurologist with The Nemours Children's Clinic. "As the brain matures and a child's sleep pattern matures, the terrors go away. This usually happens by age six."

Night Terror or Nightmare?

A night terror is not the same thing as a nightmare. Nightmares occur during the dream phase of sleep known as REM sleep. The circumstances of the nightmare will frighten the child, 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 an hour or two after the child goes to bed. During a night terror, which may last anywhere from a few minutes to an hour, the child is still asleep. Her eyes may be open, but she is not awake. When she does wake up, she'll have no recollection of the episode other than a sense of fear.

Can I Help My Child During a Night Terror?

It's helpful to know that although these events may be disturbing for you, night terrors themselves are not harmful to your child. But because a child may get out of bed and run around the room, doctors do advise parents to gently restrain a child experiencing night terrors. Otherwise, let the episode run its course. Shouting and shaking your child awake will just agitate him more.

Can Night Terrors Be Prevented?

It's likely that if you or your spouse had night terrors, your child will too. Fatigue and psychological stress may also play a role in their occurrence. Make sure your child is getting plenty of rest. Be aware of things that may be upsetting to your child, and to the extent you are able, try to minimize the distress.

Children usually have night terrors at the same time each night, generally sometime in the first few hours after falling asleep. Doctors suggest you wake your child up about 30 minutes before the night terror usually happens. Get your child out of bed, have her talk to you. Keep her awake for five minutes, and then let her go back to sleep.

Night terrors are a normal, if frightening, phenomenon of childhood. If they occur frequently or over a long period of time, however, discuss this with your child's physician.

Fast Facts Night Terrors...

    Are not dangerous.
    Are most common between the ages of three-five.
    Run in families.
    Occur in the first third of the sleep cycle.

What worked for us was to go in 1/2 hour before the night terror was "scheduled" to start and rouse her from sleep - not enough to wake her completely - we would just sit her up and give her a small drink of water.  I've also heard that you can dunk their feet into a sink of cold water but we never had to try that.  Good luck!