Night Terrors: Why Kids Get Them

Night terrors are a sleep disturbance that commonly occurs in young children. While it can occur in adults, it's most common in school age children. Night terrors may be difficult to differentiate from nightmares, but there are a few key differences.

1) Night terrors occur during the first two to three hours of sleep. Most children with night terrors will experience them several nights in a row, usually after the same amount of time asleep has passed. For example, if your child wakes after sleeping for an hour and a half, it will be about the same the next night. Nightmares generally happen later in the night, as your child gets closer to waking for the day.

2) Your child will not remember the incident upon waking the next day. Night terrors occur before your child enters the REM sleep stage, which is when dreams occur. Your child therefore has no images to recall. We enter REM sleep about three hours after falling asleep, although some people may only need ninety minutes for this to occur.

3) While your child may be crying, screaming, or even thrashing about, they may not seem to be awake. Much like sleepwalking, night terrors don't really wake your child, which is why they seem to be inconsolable. Your child may not even be aware you are trying to sooth them. Some doctors recommend not waking a child in the throes of a night terror, because it is theorized that it may be harmful to the child; another similarity to sleepwalking. As a parent, it can be difficult not to wake them to ensure they are alright.

If your child has night terrors the most important thing to do is discover the cause. They may be experiencing night terrors because of stress, overtiredness, illness, or from a change in environment.

If you suspect stress to be the cause, it may be more beneficial to teach your child how to deal with stress during the day than to remove the stressor. Of course, sometimes the stressor is something important, such as abuse, which is why it's important not to ignore signs from your child that they are stressed. Make an effort from a young age to talk about your day with your child so that they not only can relieve stress before bed, but so that they feel comfortable telling you about their feelings.

When night terrors are caused by overtiredness, you may wish to ease the bedtime to an earlier time. This should be done slowly, as your child is probably set in a routine and will notice big changes, which may stress them out. Fifteen minute changes are fairly unnoticeable by your child. Every couple of days, move the bedtime by another fifteen minutes, until your child seems to be getting enough rest.

Unfortunately, both illness and a change in the environment are generally wait it out situations. With an illness, most children will stop having night terrors when they feel better. As far as the new environment goes, it may help to find ways to make your child feel more at home during the day. Provide a familiar blanket or stuffed animal at bedtime.

If your child has night terrors, you may be able to prevent them from having them if you gently wake them before the episode starts. Get them out of bed for a few minutes, or if they are young enough, changing their diaper can be enough to wake them long enough to prevent the night terror. Generally, you should do this about twenty minutes before they would wake. This is where it comes in handy that the timing of the night terror is predictable. The object of this is to disrupt the sleep cycle. Once you've done this several days in a row, you may be able to stop and see if they still experience the night terrors. If they are still experiencing them, you may have to look for a deeper cause.

As always, if you are concerned about your child, it's best to speak to your pediatrician. Only rarely should children be given sleep aids, and only at the advice of a doctor.