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Expert Tips on Helping Your Child’s Sleep Terrors

What is a night terror?

Those of you who have witnessed a child’s night terror will know how they came to be named. The child suddenly wakes from sleep in a confused and very frightened state, showing physical signs of panic such as sweating, rapid breathing and an elevated heart rate. Often the child will thrash around, scream, appear very distressed and seem unaware of their surroundings or of your efforts to comfort them. They may not even recognise you and this is because, even though their eyes are open, your child is actually still in a deep sleep state. These episodes can last for up to forty minutes before the child returns to a restful sleep with no memory of the event the next day. Night terrors appear so frightening however that you as a parent are often left shocked and wide-eyed for considerably longer. It’s important to reassure yourself that night terrors are common and are not at all harmful for your child.

Night terrors sometimes run in families. They occur most often in the 2 to 7 year age group and more often in boys although can also occur in girls, in older children and even, rarely, in adults. Episodes seem to occur more frequently when children also have a sleep disorder such as obstructive sleep apnoea.

Night terrors are different from nightmares and are not as common. Night terrors are episodes of arousal occurring during ‘deep sleep’ or ‘slow wave sleep’. Because we get most of our deep sleep early in the night, episodes tend to occur during the first third of the night. In contrast, nightmares occur during rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep or ‘dream sleep’) much later – generally in the early hours of the morning.

Sometimes it’s possible to identify triggers such as high fevers, being overtired and emotional stress on the previous day. These are useful to consider since addressing these triggers prevents further episodes for some children. In general though, night terrors do not usually require further investigation or treatment and there is no association between childhood night terrors and future mental health problems. Most often kids simply grow out of them.

How you can best help your child

Because your child is still asleep during a night terror, it’s best to avoid waking them up but to still ensure their safety. Some children will run away from their beds during an episode so you’ll need to make sure they don’t inadvertently hurt themselves by bumping into things. Just gently guide your child back towards their bed, tuck them in, reassure and comfort them and they will soon settle back to sleep. If your child won’t let you comfort them, be sure to still sit nearby to soothe them with your words and presence while making sure they remain safe. If a child is woken during an episode they may take longer to settle as they will wake disorientated and confused.

If your child’s night terrors are occurring frequently and at the same time each night and you’ve tried addressing possible triggers, it might be worth trying ‘scheduled awakening’ – waking your child 15 to 30 minutes before you’re expecting an episode. Keeping your little one awake for a few minutes for a quiet chat, song or drink of water before allowing them to go back to sleep may help to disrupt your child’s sleep cycle enough to prevent another episode. As always though, if you’re still concerned about your child’s night terrors, seek the advice of your General Practitioner.

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  • My daughter has these when she was a baby. I had no idea what they were but hubby did and I always wondered how babies could have such things as they don’t really know what is scary yet?

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  • My daughter went through a phase of sleep walking, but neither child ever had night terrors thank god

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  • Thanks for your post – so happy my children never experienced this. They were always too tired out from playing.

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  • Oh no !!! In the last week or so our almost 4 year old has been saying a lot of things are scary. We’re not sure whether he 100% understands the meaning of the word. However his older sister likes watching things on TV that I consider probably are scary to him. I constantly have to ensure the TV channel hasn’t been changed without me checking what is on. I sometimes impose a ban on it for that reason.

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  • I was advised by a General Practise Nurse that at the age of 2 1/2 to 3 y.o. toddlers develop a vivid imagination and some have night terrors. We went through a stage of it for awhile, now in the last month or so we are going through it again. Seems new furniture (bed and dresser) may have triggered it.

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  • My 4 year old has just started having night terrors. I find they happen if she has had a physically exhausting day. It’s a really horrible thing to witness as a parent. I’m just glad they don’t remember.

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  • that would be so terrifying for the parents to deal with , especially for the first few times that it happened

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  • Witnessed these in my cousins children just recently. Very disturbing, but the kids were fine in the morning. Such a bizarre thing.

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  • Wow, this article is so interesting. I had no idea we all sleep like logs in this house. I learned a lot reading this article.

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  • I feel for anyone suffering from Night Terrors.

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  • Good read thanks for the information

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  • Night terrors can be scary if you don’t know what’s going on.

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  • thanks for the tips, night terrors are very hard to deal with

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  • Interesting read, as my daughter was recently diagnosed with Epilepsy and only three days later, put her back in her room at night to sleep and she experienced her first Night Terror. I had no idea at the time what was going on, thought that it was related to her condition or meds, so this has been a good read, thank you.

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  • This information is very helpful. It’s an awful thing to experience. Thank you.

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