Hi all, i'm just wanting a bit of input with anyone's experiences with night terrors.

My 2nd daughter turned 4 a couple of weeks ago and during the last 6 mths or so has been having night terrors, getting more frequent recently, up to 8 per month, and sometimes 2 in the same night.

She is generally well behaved and there is no real tension in the house but she is often sick with tonsillitis and has temps over 38 quite frequently.

She wakes up screaming for mummy and when i get her out of bed she looks right into my eyes and says i want mummy, which is really quite terrifying for me as she doesn't seem to know who has her in their arms. She takes a while to settle down and then seems to come right out of it and is happy to go back to her own bed because she has no memory of any bad dreams or anything.

Does anyone know why some kids have them (my older daughter has never had one but often has bad dreams) or how to best deal with them while happening?

Shell

I do feel for you and I'm so glad you posted this as the last few nights my nearly three year old has been waking up terrified of something. She screams and just shakes in my arms.
She was having trouble sleeping through the night, then that problem stopped, she slept 12hrs on friday night and now BAM she wakes up every night screaming but its almost as though shes asleep-if you get what I mean. As you said its almost as though she doesnt know whos holding her.
Abby has had at least two bad dreams a night( although its only happened a few nights now) She is shattered bless her.
I do hope things settle for your daughter, I would be really interested if anyone has any suggestions or technices that may help sooth or settle my little one too.
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I've just googled "night terrors" and apparantly they are really common for 2-6 year olds and it seems the only fix is to hold them until they work their way out of it.

The difference between night terrors and nightmares is that usually they have no recollection of having any dreams or such.

This doesn't really help in the middle of an episode though.

Good luck to you too, Shell.

I've googled it too....great minds think alike huh!!!lol
Abby may well be having night terrors too as she fine in the morning and goes to bed fine(at the moment!!)
Oh well we shall see how tonight goes won't we?
It was suggested by a mum at the school that I should go to the doc's to get something to relax and help her mind settle.............I'm not really happy with that suggestion as I don't agree with giving medication to my kids unless they are ill.
I'm hoping that its just one of those things that comes and goes as they grow, other than lack of sleep it doesn't really affect Abby-it's me that worries!!!!!
Hope tonight is a peaceful one for you
xxxxxx

Hi my eldest son jack is nearly 6 and has been having these for about 2 yrs, there getting worse and he has been referred by dr to see someone from steps. He wakes in the night screaming and running round the house terrified and i mean terrified, hence why i took him to drs again i thought he was having a heart attack last time he was so worked up. His eyes are open and he will talk to you - ish but not he dont know who anyone is and forgets all about it by morning. He as also started showing probs outside of sleep now with biting nails and is a very anxious child. so think there might be something deeper with his. I think it is down to him witnessing his dad nearly kill me when he was 3 watched the whole attack in our bedroom. Any how thats my experiennce with them xx

Hi, I dont have children myself and was just scanning the boards when I came across this subject. The only experience I have of this is with my 3 and a half year old nephew.

He has always had trouble sleeping but more recently has been having really bad night terrors. It started he would wake in the night and sob for mum but it would take my sister up to 2 hours to calm him down then he would go off to sleep as if nothing had happened.
For 2 weeks solid every night without fail he was waking up and screaming at the top of his voice sobbing his heart out saying there was a man in the room. Of course the first few nights my sis was mortified and got her oh to check the house.
Brandon would shout things like hes there and he told me he was going to get me.

After about 12 days of this it then went to spiders being in the room and they were going to get him, he was absolutely terified but when my sis questioned him about it in the moning he didnt have a clue what she was talking about and absolutely no recollection of any of it, luckily!

He was shattered the whole time because these would last up to 2 hours before he actually went back to proper sleep.

The health visitor did say it was due to sleep deprivation?? its really strange because at the same sort of time he made up an imaginary friend named fred!!!!

He would sit in his room and talk to him, and if he ever did anything naughty he would always blame fred. The thing is he was convinced it was fred and some of the things he was doing were REALLY naughty.

Strange isnt it?

Within 3-4 weeks Brandon had gone from being a happy normal child to being an absolute nightmare with night terrors and a new friend named fred then back to a normal child again.

He has no problems at all now and my sister was just told to ignore them and his "friend" and its all blown over. Dont know if its the same for other kids this is just my experience with my gorgeous nephew

Hi just wanted to say that both my kids sleep very warmly and have nightmares when I have made them too hot at night so try decreasing the blankets on the bed or dressing your little one in lighter pj's or maybe both the night terrors might stop.