In my last post, I talked about some weird episodes we were having with Will. It was something very odd that we had happening and I was worried. This was the 3rd time it happened, and I was stressing over it.
What happens is is that Will would wake up from a nap and scream. This was no normal scream either. Instead, he would scream for around 45 – 60 minutes, and nothing would call him down. He didn’t want to be held. If you tried to give him a sippy up or something to eat, he would throw it at you. Now, this is not Will at all. While he was screaming, he would constantly be arching his back and getting all rigid. It is enough to scare the crap out of any parent.
It didn’t happen often enough that I would even remember to ask the doctor at his regular visits. It happened once in September, once in November, and then 2 weeks ago. This last time I called his doctor, and we scheduled a visit.
Surprisingly, they think it is “night terrors”. Now, this was not something I knew a whole lot about nor did I know that this can actually happen at night time! It is very similar to sleepwalking and sleeptalking. Night terrors are considered to be a disorder of arousal and are a partial arousal from non-REM sleep. When Will naps, he goes into a deep enough sleep that this is occurring. They most commonly happen in children between the ages of 2 and 6 years. However, they can occur at any age (so adults can get them too). They often happen in times of stress and when they are overtired. There is nothing that can really be done regarding them either. Basically, I need to keep Will on a sleeping schedule (good luck with that since Madison’s preschool schedule throws that out the window) and make sure he doesn’t get overtired. Eventually, he should outgrow this.
I am hoping that me writing this will help someone else going through this. These episodes are scary, but at least now I know what I am dealing with.
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Lisa,
My Nephew experienced night terrors for approx. 2 yrs. He had one episode while spending the night at our house and it is quite terrifying for the adult as well. he just turned 8 and I have not heard of him having another episode since about the 7 yr mark.
They attributed his to two different factors. he had major head trauma in a car wreck when he was less than a year old. And video games! When they cut out the video games his rate of occurrences dropped significantly. At 8, even with playing video games he has largely outgrown them.
That does sound frightening! If only kids had any idea how many years they trim off our lives. I guess it is payback from when we did the same to our parents.
~Jenny~
Thankfully my little ones haven't experienced NIght Terrors so far.
They sound terrible and I hope they never do.
I saw a show on those once and they can be so intense. I hope they don't go on too long for your son.
My son had these several times a month from about 18 months to four years. They were -horrible-. I couldn't comfort him, couldn't even touch him because it would just make them worse. He'd almost always crawl underneath my chair and huddle there screaming until he screamed himself out and started sobbing. At that point, I could coax him out and rock him back to sleep. I promise you that most kids don't have them as long or as often as my Jid did – and that they do no lasting harm.
Thanks for the great tips, Lisa. I would try it on my nephew and hope it helps to overcome the night terrors…
That does sound frightening!