Night Terrors And Your Child

Night terrors are a common sleep problem which tends to occur in younger children aged 3-12 years. Approximately 15 percent of toddler and pre-school children have occasional night terrors. Most children outgrow night terrors as they get older.

Night terrors, also known as Pavor nocturnus or Sleep terror disorder are characterized by sudden disruption of sleep, during which the child wakes up with a panicky scream, accompanied by anxiety, confusion, disorientation, unresponsiveness with marked motor movements and doesn’t recall what has happened.

While nightmare is a frightening dream that occurs during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and is so scary that a person wakes up abruptly and sometimes remains in the mind for several hours. The episode can occur at any point of night but terrors occur typically in the first part of the night during the initial 1 to two hours of sleep while nightmares occur during the end of the night, in the early morning hours.

What causes night terror?

The exact reason why and how it happens is not known but some factors contribute to night terrors, such as:

• Stress and anxiety
• Fever
• Traumatic events or fatigue
• Medications that affect the central nervous system (the brain) such as antihistamines, decongestants, levodopa, reserpine
• Sleep deprivation

What are the symptoms?

While having a terror episode, children may be kicking hands, having a look of fear and panic on face or may scream and doesn't respond to efforts to soothe or comfort them. These children will be sweating profusely, breathing fast and have a rapid heart rate.

Unlike nightmares, most children will not be able to recall the episode upon waking in the morning. The terror episodes occur no more than once a night and last for about 5 to 30 minutes.

Should I wake up my child during terror episode?

No, you must not wake/yell or shake your child during episode. A child who is having an episode will return to a regular sleep without ever fully regaining consciousness and may further have absolutely no recollection of the event. But if you try to wake him up he will only be confused and disorientated and may take longer to settle down.

As a child is not fully awake during the episode there is no chance you would be able to talk to him or soothe him.

What are the treatments?

The good part is that night terror will not harm your child in any way. As such there no particular treatment plan for routine night terrors but the parents must take care that child get enough rest during daytime, maintain a good sleep pattern and if there is any psychological problem, tension between parents resolve it or talk about it with child.

If your kid get frequent night terrors, awake up your child 15 minutes before the expected night terror. During episode try to be with your child, lying down next to them often helps, soothe them and protect them from injuring themselves until they settle back down into sleep.

Talk to your health care provider if your child is having more episodes, in rare cases the doctor may prescribe an antidepressant.