My 22mo ds has had night terrors almost every night this week. It's terrifying because he throws himself around (he stands up in the bed and throws himself). I have pretty much figured out that I am keeping him up too late at night this week - we've been helping a neighbor out who just had surgery and it's keeping us up past bedtime.
Does anyone have any other ideas - I'm mostly worried that he's going to throw himself out of bed and get really hurt?
Thank you all so much. The last 3 nights have been better, we have been back on our regular routine and no terrors, just the regular whimpering midway through the night and he quickly falls back to sleep after that.
We are going on vacation next week, so I will have to work hard to keep him on his routine. Since it will be an unfamiliar settings I will probably put a sleeping bag on the floor like you suggested. Again, Thank you!
Both my kids have had night terrors atone time or another. It is terifying. Especially when they can't really tell you what is wrong. Maybe you could let him sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor for a few nights. When it happens, hold and comfort him until it passes. They usually don't remember anything about it in the morning. Good luck.
He try B. going and buying a dreamcatcher and hanging it above his bed. My nine year old was having really bad nightmares when he was ur sons age and I was told to buy one and hang it above his bed and the ngihtmares would stop. So I did and they stopped right away. He kept that dreamcatcher for a long time.
http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/sleep/a/night_terrors.htm
http://www.clubmom.com/display/230992
http://www.ynhh.org/pediatrics/subspecialties/ADENOIDS.pdf
My daughter had tubes put in her ears and her adenoids taken out and about 4 nights after that are when her night terrors started. My advice is to be very patient because we did not know what they were at first so we just thought she was being bad. I found the above 3 web sites exspecially the first one very help ful. It took my daughters about 2 1/2 weeks to pass. She is doing much better now. Please email me at ____@____.com if you have anymore questions about this. I don't mind helping and telling you about our experience at all. Good Luck!!
Two of mine had night terrors, (one still does). You have to let them go through them. Mine would not let me console them or hold them. It's very scary when it first happens because you're not sure what's wrong. They don't remember having them when they wake in the mornings. I agree with the other poster, if he's throwing himself around in the bed, put him on the floor in a sleeping bag until they pass. Hang in there. Sometimes they last a while. My 3 year old's are lasting longer than my now ten year old's did when he was younger. Good luck!
Our son has had night terrors since he was about 12/18 months old. He had them frequently for about a year then they tappered off. I never related it to staying up too late; but now that you mention that possibility; it makes a lot sense, considering our life then. He is 3 1/2 now and still has them occassionally. He even has them in the car. If he fell asleep in the car seat and he woke up in the car, or if he'd fallen asleep by the time we'd get somewhere, when we would go to take him out of the care seat; he would have them. Most times they were really severe and scary for us. We used to be on the road a lot, 3-6 hour trips; we would have to stop somewhere; take him out of the car, hold him very lovingly, walk around with him and talk to him...in the cold months that seemed to help him more than the warmer months. It seemed like the cold air outside helped snap him out of it; once he'd calm down enough, we would let him walk it out himself (holding his hand of course, as we were usually at rest stops). Breastmilk was his primary source of nutrition for first year; he still nurses occassionally (at bedtime), but nursing him usually helped calm him quite a bit. Somtimes his terror episodes would last 45 minutes to an hour; sometimes it seemed like nothing we did would help. He too would throw himself around; jerk his body kind of violetnly, and sometimes he would take both his hands and dig into his face and run his finger nails down his cheeks actually leaving long red streaks on his face. My husband was a long haul night time truck driver then, and we were all on a very irregular schedule; our sleep patterns were often almost opposite of everyone else we knew. But since you mentioned it; I am now thinking lack of proper sleep and regularity might have been a huge contributor. In the past year or so, my husband has been out of a truck and both us have been working regular day-time hours and our son has been in preschool...we have a much more structured schedule and he has had very few of the night terrors. We were all up later than usual last night (we had a great evening together), but it was a late evening and about 2 hours or so after he went to sleep; he had a night terror. One thing I have noticed also is the change in them; now they are more like emotional episodes rather than resemble weird temper tantrums. Now he stills jerks his body a bit, but he will have very emotional tearful episodes. I know I have now rambled on....but I read somewhere and our pediatrician had also told us ...that there was nothing we could do, but to let him work it out himself; that if we tried to stop these terrors while he was having them, that we would make them worse. We found that not to be totally true for us. We just try to comfort him securely with coddling, talking softly to him, or stepping outside with him, or find something that fascinated him, and try to get his attention on it. For example: he loves BIG TRUCKS, so when we were on the road and had to stop, getting his attention on all the big trucks at the rest stops up close helped frequently. When at home in middle of night; I still usually nurse him or cuddle him in our bed, lightly rub his head or back and within a few minutes, he now falls back into a peaceful sleep. I hope this is somewhat helpful to you; you have actually made me aware of what I now think could be a primary cause of our sons terrors. I am thinking maybe they come from them just being so exhausted combined with irregular or out of the ordinary events. There have been a lot of things we have noticed have been much improved by our more structure life with our son, maybe this we can add to that list of reasons to keep him on regular structure schedule, as hard as that can be now a days. Good luck...and sweat dreams :).
My daughter who is now 5 had night terrors between the age of 2 and 3. I never really kept her up late but she still had them. The best thing that worked for me was to wake her up out of it. She always went right back to sleep but it disturbed whatever was making her have those terrors. Also, be aware of what medicine you give him. Her pediatrician at the time advised that some medicines can make a child act out in ways that aren't normal.I would see about just trying to get him to lie down at night at a descent hour and just put some cartoons on for him or some music and just let him relax if he can't go to sleep or if things are too hectic. I've had those nights where everything is happening other than trying to get the children in bed at a descent hour.
My advice? If you son is truly having night terrors...get him to a sleep therapist!!! I know 3 children that have true night terrors, and they have to be on sleep monitors that monitor their heart beat, so that an alarm will go off to wake the parent, letting them know that the child is having a night terror. This is done so that the child doesn't a) go into shock, or b) go into cardiac arrest. Night terrors are VERY dangerous, and are NOT typical bad dreams. A child's heart can stop in a matter of minutes. (A friend of my families is a sleep therapist, so I've heard quite a few stories about her patients). If these are just typical bad dreams, I would just make sure that you son is getting plenty of sleep, make sure that his door, and yours are open so that you can hear him. Mabey think about a baby monitor in both rooms if the door thing isn't enough to wake you. You need to be able to hear if he starts to stir, then mabey you can get to him and wake him before he has a chance to throw himself to the floor. Also, I'd make sure there was something soft for him to land on just in case you don't get to him in time to wake him. If you feel that it is night terrors and a sleep therapist isn't convinient, his pd is a good start. Mabey they could recommend someone. I hope this helps!
My daughter had those for awhile when she was little. Make sure that he's not eating too close to bed time. It always seems like she couldn't get a peacful sleep when she would snakc before bedtime. Just a little water, not too much or you'll have another problem! Also make sure no TV right before bed. Some images stay with you. Just like with us if something like bills or a butthead of a co-worker can haunt our dreams. try asking him what happened and tell him if he dreams it again that you are right there and won't let anything hurt him. They usually grow out of them.
Well, you've already realized the obvious, an earlier bedtime will help. Could you put him to bed on the floor and/or surround him with pillows so if he throws himself off the bed he lands on something soft?
B.,
Our little boy had night terrors about this age. When he first started this we didn't know what it was and would go in and pick him up and try to sooth him. He would just cry and scream with a blank look on his face. We tried to walk with him and rock him and nothing helped. One night while trying to find something to sooth him my husband was looking for cartoons on the TV and when he stopped the channel was off and only static was coming from the TV. My son stopped crying looked at his dad and said "change it Daddy". Strangely enough, this worked every time. He never had them as often as your son, nor did he ever throw himself around. I don't know if this was just a strange fluke that only worked for our son but it couldn't hurt to try it.
Good Luck
B.
