Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Night Terrors

DJ has been getting Night Terrors a lot. He will wake up screaming, crying, kicking, and throwing his body all around. It scared me the first time he did it cause I thought he was having a seizure or something.

Last night he had one about 2 hours after he went to bed. He woke up screaming his head off and throwing his arms and legs around. I picked him up and took him into our bed and tried to calm him down. He finally calmed down after about 10-15 minutes of screaming. He fell back asleep about 3 minutes later.

There are no real treatments for NT's so you just have to deal with them. I was reading a website about Night Terrors. They talk all about them and get into detail with what causes NT's. Here are a few things about NT's:

  • Night terrors are also called sleep terrors or pavor nocturnus.
  • Similar to sleepwalking and sleeptalking, night terrors are considered to be a disorder of arousal and are a partial arousal from non-REM sleep.
  • Unlike a nightmare, children usually don't recall having a night terror.
  • Also unlike nightmares, night terrors usually occur in the early part of the night, about 1 to 4 hours after going to sleep.
  • If your child gets night terrors, make sure that baby sitters and other caregivers are aware of them and know what they should do if one occurs.
  • Most children outgrow night terrors as they get older.

It also says that NT's affect around 15% of children ages 2-6, and they also can happen at any age.

2 comments:

Kelly said...

I used to have night terrors...according to my mother. I've heard it's fairly common. Good luck!

My daughter will often cry/whimper in her sleep and we can't get her to calm down. I wonder if that's the same thing/similar??

Bridget said...

James used to have night terrors (atleast he hasn't had any recently) Man oh man they scared the crap out of me.