Tunde Nyarfadi Duncan wrote:

Night terrors -  is there such thing or is it bad dreams?

My son who is 21 months old the past 2 days woke at 5:30 am screaming, and he could not calm down. The 1st morning he woke up from his screaming nightdreams, but this morning he was still asleep and sobbing, like breathing hard, but not crying.I felt so sorry for the porr guy, I was trying to sooth him, holding him, but he was not waking up from his dream. About an hour after he had his dream he finally clamed down and fell back alseep.  hat can I do to help him if this happens again, and why does this happen?

 

Thanks,

Tunde

Hi Tunde,

My 4 and a half year old son has been having night terrors since he was about 2.  From my expoerience, if it is truly a night terror your son might look awake to you but still be screaming.  When this happens, we have found that there is really not much we can do.  My son will hit and kick us and basically throw a huge fit.  We try to put him in a soft, safe place (ie: the carpet with nothing around him) and let him work through the fit.  We know that trying to hold him just makes things worse for him.  When the terror is over, he falls back to sleep immediately and has no recollection of it in the morning. If this continues, you might want to speak to your doctor.  We have taken our son to a sleep clinic where he stayed overnight. Good luck!

Sandra