Let me first say my Great Granddaughter is a blessing and every minute we get to keep her is also a blessing.

However she is prone to night terrors, not every night but sometimes twice or three times in one night. I looked up night terrors and what little info. I could find said that children usually grew out of them during their adolescent years. What my main concern is how do you comfort them and get them thru these episodes? Nothing I do seems to help except for overpowering her and holding her until it passes. Does anyone else have any experience in this area?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

My youngest had nightmares about the "bad sheep."

My son had night terrors for a while when he was 2. It can be pretty scary, especially the first time it happens. He would run around his room screaming and crying, and he didn't respond at all to us when we tried to talk to him or hold him. It was like he either couldn't see us, or thought we were part of his nightmare and was afraid of us.

It would usually last about 30 minutes until he wore himself out and would fall back to sleep. Our pediatrician told us there wasn't much to do other than watch him and make sure he doesn't hurt himself. He grew out of it after about 6 months, and I'll be more than happy to never have another child or grandchild go through it.

I had them for a short period of time when I was in grade school, can't remember the exact age. They seemed to think that mine was brought on by an illness episode that included running a high fever for several days. But I think they had no idea.

After talking about it with my parents over the years it appears that it was much harder on them then it was on me. As your well aware they felt totally helpless. At first they tried to physically restrain me but to no avail.

According to them they got to a point they would just let them run their course and watch me to try to keep me from hurting myself ( I ran full speed smack dab into a closed door one night).

Finally, they just quit happening, I think it lasted about a month, but that was forty years ago. Sorry this isn't much help, but everyone I've talked to that had them over the years got over them with no long term affects.

Good luck, you truly have my sympathy knowing what my parents went through.

Tommy

My nephew had them, but outgrew them. I remember witnessing one, and asking him "Do you know who we (myself and his parents) are?" and he replied with a very concerned "no." Sure felt sorry for him, but he did get over them before he was 10, as I recall.

I had them when I was between 7 and about 12, only had them when I had a fever/sick. From what I remember there is not much comfort from anything. Your scared, really scared, its irrational but real to you. Mine would only last 10 or 15 minutes, wide awake but dreaming.

Our munchkin had them a few times when she was really little but grew out of them quickly. Here is hoping it is the same for you.

What I think is funny is my daughter had a dream that she vividly remembers and is the reason she likes to sleep with the sheet over her face. I vividly remember a nightmare I had when I was like 5 and to this day I don't like sleeping with windows open.

My almost 2 year old has been waking up at random times screaming and crying for like one minute and then right back to sleep. We think that's what's happening -- bad dreams.

I am an adult, never had them as a child, but sometimes get them as an adult. My problem is that I also get paralyzed & can't move. In that case, my husband or dog will wake me up. Best thing I can say for a child is hold them & reassure them.

quote:

Best thing I can say for a child is hold them & reassure them.

Our oldest is 3 and change. He had these for a bit when he was getting ready to turn 3.
He would wake up screaming, you would go and get him and there would be no indication he had any clue you were there.
I would just hold him while he thrashed and screamed he would eventually stop and I would lay him back in bed.
I would ask him about it the next morning and he had zero recollection. Had 1 or 2 a week for about 6 months.

My little man has had them on and off to over a year. He turned 3 a few months ago. It really is a helpless feeling as a parent, especially with mine. As everyone else described, he seems completely awake, but has no idea who we are when his mother or I go in to help him. But he reacts worse when we try to hold him or come near him, so there is no comforting. We get to try to talk soothingly and hope it passes quickly. He had a bad one about nine months ago, absolutely hysterical shrieking. Nothing helped, everything made it worse. We waited it out.

Sorry, OP. It really isn't fun.

My wife had them from 1976 till about 2012. She would wake me up and would insist that whatever the dream was about was real. It would scare the crap out of me ! Just tell her everything is ok you're there for her.I feel for you.

my down stairs neighbor lady gets them three or four times a years , they scare the cheese out of me! just listening to her ,
I can't imagine what she must experiencing.

three times I had to pound on the wall to wake her up.

I just wrote 5 paragraphs and deleted it.

Short answer, it ruined my life for about 18 months. Being afraid to fall asleep is pretty awful.

I really don't think she is afraid to go to sleep but, she doesn't remember anything the next day about it
The look of terror and fright in her eyes is something no Hollywood actor can emulate it actually scares the bejeevers out of me.
So far I have been able to over power her and hold her until it passes. I just hope she will out grow them before too long.

How old is she, that is critical in figuring out what to do.

quote:

Originally posted by SIG 229R:
I really don't think she is afraid to go to sleep but, she doesn't remember anything the next day about it
The look of terror and fright in her eyes is something no Hollywood actor can emulate it actually scares the bejeevers out of me.
So far I have been able to over power her and hold her until it passes. I just hope she will out grow them before too long.

You hit the nail on the head with your explanation of the fear.
I am not sure the age of yours but as I said mine was 2 when his happened. I have been in some pretty terrifying situations with people even the unfortunate experieance of holding a man while he died him knowing I had done all I could to save him.
The fear in him was nowhere near what would manifest in my 2 year old. Which leads me to my theory on night terrors and I myself will be the first to admit it is about as wackadoo as one could come up with but can't think or come up with any other reason.
As a 2 year old there at least for my child is no experience or anything that he had done or seen that he could possibly have been so scared nothing even remotely terrifying that his imagination could conjure up for him to be so paralyzingly (in the literal sense of the word).
No way, no how his little brain with so little experiences in life could ever create something so terrifying.
As a Christian I believe in spiritual warfare a constant battle between darkness and light good and evil whatever one may call it.
Crazy as it sounds the only thing I can come up with to explain it is evil trying to infiltrate his mind. We all know the younger one is the more easy it is to sway them.
On the opposite side of the board even when he was only months while he was sleeping he would bust out in fits of laughter and just have huge grins while he slept.
Yeah, yeah no need for the you're crazy comments I am well aware how nutty it sounds but nothing new really.

All I can say is hang in there it is tough while it is happening but I honestly believe they have zero recollection of it and it scares us more than them.
While my thoughts of the spiritual realm manifesting itself with us is out in left field it is more likely something to do with the brain growning and synapse firing while the body is at rest or some sort of brain function that is well beyond my understanding.

I was 27.

Y'all might think it's crazy but we put a dragonfly mobile above our daughters bed and told her they would catch the bad dreams.

It worked. This was while she was an infant.

Like voodoo, if you believe, it can be real.

My daughter went through this when she was about two years old. Complete terror, no matter what I did she wouldn't snap out of it. The incidents would happen one or two nights a week. Thankfully she grew out of it in six or eight months.
She's 25 and perfectly fine now.