Night Terrors

I mentioned a few posts ago about night terrors, which Tommy has experienced a few times over the past month and a half. Thinking back, there may have been two other episodes several months ago that could qualify as night terrors, but when you look up information on it, the experts tell you it's something that usually starts around age 2 but is more prevalent after age 4. Although I had heard of them, I really didn't know what they were until the day after we experienced one with Tommy back in early August. Previously, I would have said night terrors are when a child wakes up and realizes it's dark and starts screaming because he/she is afraid of the dark.

The next day at work I was talking to a colleague with a daughter who is about 4 months older than Tommy, and as we were chatting about how both of us had a long night, it turns out that BOTH of our children went through almost the same thing the night before, where they were screaming, crying, and were completely inconsolable! My friend had already done the research and asked, "have you ever heard of night terrors?"

Here is the clearest definition, from Wikipedia:

A night terror, also known as a sleep terror or pavor nocturnus, is a parasomnia disorder that predominantly affects children, causing feelings of terror or dread. Night terrors should not be confused with nightmares, which are bad dreams that cause the feeling of horror or fear. An estimated 1-6% of children have at least one night terror in their life but have no memory of the occurrence.

Children from age two to six are most prone to night terrors. They affect about fifteen percent of all children, although people of any age can be affected. Episodes may happen for a couple of weeks then suddenly disappear. The symptoms also tend to be different, with the child being unable to recall the experience. While nearly arisen, hallucinations occur.

Children who have night terrors are usually described as 'bolting upright' with their eyes wide open, and a look of fear and panic. They will often scream. Further, they will usually sweat, breathe fast and have a rapid heart rate (autonomic signs). Although it seems like children are awake during a night terror, they will appear confused, be inconsolable, and will not recognize others.

So that is what a night terror is?  It often happens after a day that the child has been overstimulated, perhaps has not napped enough. Often, night terrors are inherited genetically.  Neither John nor I have experienced this, nor do our moms recall us having them. They are not related to nightmares.

But the experiences we had with Tommy were after days where he was probably a little more overstimulated than a "normal" day.  The first time was a weeknight, so it was odd since it was a normal school day, he got plenty of naptime, he ate fine...but it was definitely a night terror. The second time was a Saturday night after being out all day at a BBQ, and Tommy slept about 20 minutes in the car on the way to the party, and then about 40 minutes on the way home. He ran around with other kids and was in a pool a good part of the day. And this most recent time, was after his birthday party almost 2 weeks ago. Definitely an overstimulating day. I swear he only took a nap because I made John drive him around for an hour before the party was starting because he still hadn't fallen asleep like he does around 12:30 every other day of the week at school and I did not want a Mr. Cranky Pants at his own party!

The "treatment" for night terrors? Just reassuring the child that he is loved and everything is okay.  The first night we thought Tommy was in pain, or hungry, or teething.  He did not have a fever, he did not want milk, he did not want chips, or even an ice pop (and he NEVER refuses an ice pop!). We tried putting the TV on thinking that might soothe him...it did not. When he was between 12-18 months old, something similar happened on 2 separate occasions.  He screamed and cried and was throwing himself around for about 20 minutes.  John and I were beside ourselves.  Eventually he calmed down, but it was almost like he was possessed and did not know who we were; it was sort of like he was looking through us - very scary.  But that is exactly what a night terror is when it's happening.

Yes, it is scary, and yes, when it happens again even after you know what it is, it's still scary. The last two times it happened after we knew what we were dealing with, as recommended by several other moms, we continued to talk to Tommy in a soothing voice, tried to reassure him that we love him, he'll be okay, everything is okay, we rubbed his back, his face, and tried to snuggle/cuddle as much as he'd let us. One time it worked relatively quickly to calm him down and eventually fall back asleep.  The last time, on his birthday, it was not so easy.  My mother-in-law, my parents, and my niece were all sleeping over and everyone heard the ruckus.  But we were persistent, and eventually, he sort of "woke up" out of it and asked for some milk. Of course we obliged! I snuggled close with my boy til the next morning each of the nights that this happened.

Sweet sleeping boy...with his menagerie of friends

Orange Guy still gets top billing, followed closely by "Big Tux" on the left and Panda all the way to the right

A good number of Tommy's menagerie ends up in our bed every morning

Fortunately, Tommy has NO MEMORY of any of these episodes, which, according to everything I've read, is usually the case. I'd rather Mommy and Daddy be unnerved by it than Tommy be worrying about whether it will happen to him again.