Night terrors in preschooler
Our son has experienced night terrors since he was a baby...meaning he occasionally begins to scream uncontrollably in his sleep in the early part of the evening and sometimes doesn't stop for 30-45 minutes. He can't be consoled or awakened. He's especially prone to them when he's ill or overtired. They have lessened in frequency as he's gotten older (now he's 4.5) but he still tends to get them when we travel or when he's sick. We have gotten good at preventing them by gently disturbing his sleep in the early part of the night, but sometimes they still happen. Just wondering if any families out there can comment on when these are likely to end, or if they have found any other tricks to lessen or avoid them. We've tried the Lully device but it didn't work well for us since we already know how to disrupt his sleep cycle to prevent them. Kaiser just says "these will pass" and the Stanford Sleep Disorders center is waaaay too expensive out of pocket. Moral support and encouragement welcome!
Parent Replies
Our 4.5yo daughter has awful sleep terrors as well. Has had them her whole life. We took her for an EEG and a pediatric neurologist visit a couple of years ago, and once they assured us that she was "normal," we, like you, have just accepted them as a part of life. The pediatric neurologist used the analogy that there's a big bell curve, and she is on one of the far, tiny ends of the bell curve, but the whole bell curve is still normal brain activity. The night terrors sure aren't fun (hers last up to an hour, and like your son's, tend to happen more frequently when she's going through some sort of period of adjustment or change). Her biological father also suffered from these, so I assume there is some level of genetic predisposition. He eventually outgrew them. I don't have any particular advice for you, just reassurance that we are in the same boat, and it helps me to remember that the night terrors are her body's natural way of doing things for now, and she'll outgrow them eventually.
Our son had night terrors for a few years starting at age 2 and ending at age 5. I read whatever I could find on the subject. Goodness, I had forgotten all about that horrible time. The screaming would start within one hour of going to bed and he had no ability to be woken out of the terror. We had some success with an old wives remedy: no socks on the feet, ever, to sleep AND, when a night terror began, putting the feet in a bucket of water. I am sorry I can not remember if the temperature was warm or cool. The terrors always ended immediately on the spot. BUT, I think the permanent cure only really came when we addressed severe sleep apnea by removal of both the toncils and adeniods. Hope your child gets some relief!
I feel for you!! And remember... my response is purely anecdotal.
My now 18 year old son had night terrors from babyhood as well. When I first talked to his wonderful pediatrician about the terrors he said... "good news, bad news...in general kids who have these night terrors are exceptionally intelligent" (and yeah...duh...maybe he was just saying that to make me feel better..:) The pediatrician walked me through the varieties of possible responses...mostly about keeping him from flailing out of his bed and hurting himself. My memory is that I would pick one part of his body to keep touching if possible (and not move my touch around which might further stimulate him) and talked to him in soothing tones, sometimes even singing a favorite "going to sleep" song. Sometimes he would respond for a moment, then go back into the terror. Eyes open, he seemed awake but of course his brain was still "asleep". He did not remember the terrors, except occasionally he would wake up towards the end and recall this the next day. When we were talking about these episodes recently he said that he does not remember anything about them... (!!).
Generally they happened just before what I called "developmental leaps", of any kind (language, motor skills, etc..) at all ages - so I came to think of them as developmental glitches of the brain as it was powering him to new skills and levels of brain development.
Over the years they lessened...by middle school maybe way less than once a month (I can't even remember!!). He does not seem to have any now.
Lastly - I remember having night terrors when I was a kid (waking up on top of my bedroom furniture, sleepwalking, etc), so perhaps this runs in my side of the family.
Hope you get lots of reassuring support on this as you navigate through.