Child night terrors

Child Night Terrors Recognising and dealing with them

Child night terrors, Often confused with nightmares, but night terrors is a different kind of sleep disorder that really can be a nightmare for parents. Learn how to recognise a night terror and a confusional arousal, and how to deal with them.

Child Night terrors and confusional Arousals are something we never are prepared for and a shocking surprise when they occur. Not every child has night terrors and some might also have them at nap times during the day. The first time your child has a night terror will be a confusing and even frightening experience for you as a parent.

Confusional Arousals are most common with infants and toddler and the child will mainly show signs of confusion. Night terrors on the other hand are most common in older children and young adults, from age eight and up. With a night terror a child will show intense fear and might also sleep walk or run. Both sleep disorders are commonly called night terrors, even though confusional arousals affect between 5-15% of infants and toddler, according to Dr. Richard Ferber's research on sleep, while true night terrors affect only 1% of older children.

Child Night terror or nightmare? On any given night your child might bolt up suddenly from her bed, be panicked and terrified. She might scream and get up, roaring at everything and anything. Your first instinct will be to comfort and hold her, but she might just lash out physically or even verbally, screaming her head off like a banshee. Or she might run around her room or the house, she might be calling for you but not acknowledge your presence even though you are there with her and you won't be able to wake her. It can be a truly frightening experience for any parent that can leave you feeling utterly helpless and worried.

When a child has a nightmare they will wake up very easily and will be able to tell you about their fears. With a night terror they will tell you they're scared but not why, says Dr. Catherine Crowe at the Mater Private Hospital Sleep Clinic.

Child night terrors: Night terrors, also referred to as Pavor Nocturnus, are often confused with nightmares or even seizures, but are actually quite easy to distinguish if you know what to look for. The primary clue is that your child is behaving aggressively in a situation you would expect her to seek comfort. Your child might look awake, even be standing and walking, but will seem not fully there, almost as if she doesn't see you. The reason is that during a night terror the child is actually asleep. Night terrors are closely related to sleepwalking, it is also common that both types of sleep disorders run in the family and are inherited.

They occur during deep sleep, also called stage 4, unlike nightmares that are more common during REM-sleep, which is the dreaming time and a lighter type of sleep. Night terrors happen during the shift from deep sleep to REM, the child would be half way to waking and not passing all the stages to lighter sleep in a usual calm order.

A Child night terror will usually occur after 1-4 hours after your child goes to sleep, and might last from 5-30 minutes. When it passes your child will most likely return to immediately to regular sleep without really waking. Your child could have night terrors regularly for a few weeks and then never again, or a couple times a month for a couple of years, it is very individual. The same happens with a confusional arousal.

Most experts will agree that children grow out of night terrors, but it's not always the case since even adults can suffer from them. Ask members of your family if there is any history of sleep disorders as night terrors, sleepwalking, sleep talking and a bedwetting.

A nightmare is just that, and the child wakes up looking for comfort from the parent. They will usually remember the dream the day after and talk about it, whereas with night terrors the child might be completely oblivious to what she was dreaming or doing the night before.

There is no real medical treatment or cures for night terrors. It is also important to understand, as a parent, that night terrors are not a psychological problem or disorder. In reality there is little your GP or a psychologist can do, you will probably just be told that your child will grow out of it…eventually. In rare cases sleep medication is given to alter the depth of sleep.

- Night terrors and confusional arousals can occur in clusters, and there can be months or weeks that are bad and then just settle down. If it runs in your family you might want to ask your parents or in-laws on how they dealt with them. You might seek help if the episodes are disturbing or disrupting the whole family.

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