Night terrors?

[undecidedowl]

DS1, 9 yo, has been having what I assume are night terrors every night for the past month. I think they started after spring break when his schedule got messed up. Every single night he starts crying between 11p and 12p. Sometimes he comes to find me, says nonsense or nothing then goes back to bed. Other times he just sits in bed crying until I lay him back down. He has no memory of these events in the morning.

Is there anything I can do to stop this? It's getting exhausting!

[mccallister84]

I have no idea if these things are related but DD2 had night terrors for the first and only time a week ago. She had a runny nose and low grade (if even that - temp never got above 100) fever so we brought her in for covid testing bc of those symptoms (not the night terrors). Turns out she had an ear infection (both rapid and pcr covid test was negative). The night terrors haven’t returned. Again could be a total coincidence but just wanted to throw it out there. I was shocked she had an ear infection - she was not showing any of her normal signs.

I hope things get better for you. Even just one night of it was challenging.

[tcjmama]

Mine were much younger when they had night terrors, but we could usually prevent them by gently waking them about an hour after they fell asleep. We wouldn’t fully wake them, just enough to break their sleep cycle.

[mrsGreeko]

I don’t think you can do much to prevent them, although I think they say if you can put them to bed before they are overtired that helps. My DD was a lot younger when she had night terrors, she was like 3 or 4 when they started. I just took her to the bathroom and that snapped her out of it. She eventually outgrew them, but now at 14 I can have whole conversations with her, albeit bizarre conversations, where she appears to be fully awake in the morning but isn’t. It’s entertaining.

Any chance you are giving melatonin? Because that can cause super bizarre dreams which might not help with night terrors.

[undecidedowl]

Apr 18, 2021 10:05:22 GMT -5 mrsGreeko said:

I don’t think you can do much to prevent them, although I think they say if you can put them to bed before they are overtired that helps. My DD was a lot younger when she had night terrors, she was like 3 or 4 when they started. I just took her to the bathroom and that snapped her out of it. She eventually outgrew them, but now at 14 I can have whole conversations with her, albeit bizarre conversations, where she appears to be fully awake in the morning but isn’t. It’s entertaining.

Any chance you are giving melatonin? Because that can cause super bizarre dreams which might not help with night terrors.

He does take melatonin, maybe we should try skipping it. I might also try PPs tip to wake him before it happens.

Interestingly, I have always been a sleep talker and occasionally sleep walker. Both kids seem to be following the same path.

[1yeartogo]

When it’s safer you might look into doing a sleep study on him to help figure out what’s happening. When my DD was much younger 4-6 she would get these, so I emphasize. She didn’t remember them but it would be her hysterical crying and sometimes talking a little for long periods and she would not calm. When I thought she was awake I would be hugging and rocking her, etc telling her everything was okay and I could not figure out why she wouldn’t calm down...until I realized she wasn’t even awake.