What do I do with night terrors?

[riuliani]

My DS is almost 14 months.  He has been a nightwaker since about 6 months.  He doesn't need anything.  He just cries out in his sleep.  When he was younger he would settle himself within about 2 minutes.  At the time I would have diagnosed the wakings as night confusionals.  Now he is older the wakings are getting more "violent".  For example, I looked in on him tonight and he was passed out cold.  I left the room.  Within 2 minutes he screamed out at the top of his lungs, like he had been smacked.  Then he kept screaming like this.  I got to his room fast and he was sitting up.  We usually try to sing and comfort him in the crib.  I am pretty sure he isn't awake because his eyes are squeezed shut.  However, now he is strong enough to thrash around the crib.  I get concerned that he will hurt himself as his arms and legs poke through the slats.  (I don't want to put bumpers in the crib as he will use them to launch himself out.)

I have heard two methods of handling these episodes.  One is to let them just go through it.  You stand there and make sure they don't hurt themselves but let them work through it.  It could take a while for this.  The other is to wake him.  I am worried this will scare him even further.  Although tonight I decided to wake him.  After the initial scare he wanted to play.  Hopefully he goes back to sleep nicely.

DH is a HUGE sleeptalker.  Everynight I get to see his unconcious show.  I know that usually DHs are not happy sleep talking moments.  He sees and talks about things that scare me when I hear him.  I am sure DS is just taking after his father.  I am just a little unprepared to handle it with DS at this point in time.

FYI In September we will be doing a sleep test for DS.  He was having a lot of congestion a while back and lots of nightwakings.  I think they were due to allergies but the doc wanted to check for sleep apnea just in case.  So I think I have the medical end covered.

[Layla]

Sorrry we haven't dealt with night terrors yet. I find my girls waking up at night & crying out if they are overtired. Does he sleep well during the day?

Bumping this so maybe someone esle could help you out with night terrors.

[Lana]

Page 271 in BWSAYP Tracy talks about night terrors versus night mares and what to do.  I have attached the table for you

[riuliani]

Thanks for the additional info.  Reading the chart I think it might be a night terror/confusional incident.  He has always slept well during the day.  Still does.  He goes down for naps with no problems.  Bedtime is usually the same.  He has had a few incidents recently where he has fought bedtimes but we adjusted his daytime sleep and it seems to be better.

Generally he has been a good sleeper.  His worst time of night is always between bedtime and midnight.  Rarely does he wake up between midnight and morning.  That would be consistent with what they say about the night terrors.  I know that he has trouble transitioning between sleep cycles.  We had a period of 2 months when he was 5 months old where he would wake up everynight at exactly the 30 minute mark after going to bed.  At first I thought it was overtiredness but eventually realized he had trouble transitioning.

Maybe the sleep study that we will do in September will help confirm some things.  In the meantime I will just do my best to keep him from hurting himself when he is having his fits.  I find it best to take him out of the crib.  Then we sit on the floor with him.  In the crib he gets his limbs through the slats too easily then twists and turns.  I worry he will dislocate something.

[dkjokisch]

Dd has episodes of night terrors every now and again, and from what you describe, it sounds the same.  For dd, I find the triggers are being overtired (she almost always has a few nights of night terrors when she is ill and not sleeping well) and overstimulated, particularly in the hour or two before bed.

I found that I couldn't leave her in her crib as she was so violent, she was seriously in danger of hurting herself.  So my dh or I would hold her, but we would do our best NOT to engage her (ie, talk to her, ask what's wrong, etc).  Her spells would last ~30min, and when they ended, she had no idea she had been so upset.  She often wanted to take a tour of the house (we always turned out all the lights so she wouldn't realize we hadn't gone to bed yet), presumably to make sure all was well, but then would be back to bed without too much difficulty.

[riuliani]

Thanks Deborah.  I don't know anyone else who is having these issues, so it is nice to hear from someone with experience.