NIGHT TERROR HANDLING SLEEP TERRORS IT'S AN HOUR after your child has fallen asleep and all of a sudden you hear a blood-curdling scream. Your child is frantic and unconsolable. Is she having a nightmare? No, it's probably a sleep terror. Sleep terrors, or night terrors as they are often called, are dramatic and quite distressing to witness. They are common in preschool-aged Sleep terrors often begin with a scream or shout and your child will look terrified and be extremely agitated. During the frenzied event, children may hurt themselves or someone trying to calm them. As disturbing and frightening as For the child, a sleep terror is less traumatic than a typical nightmare or bad dream. An easy way to distinguish between sleep terrors and nightmares is to determine who is more upset the next morning. If your child is more upset, then it was a nightmare. If you are more upset, then it was a sleep terror. About 5 percent of children have sleep terrors, with most sleep terrors occurring when the child is between 5 and 7 years, although both younger and older children can also have them (note, most children do outgrow them by puberty). And, sleep terrors run in families. Studies find that 96 percent of children who have sleep terrors have another family member who has experienced sleep terrors or sleepwalking. Once you know about sleep terrors, they are usually easy to identify. First, they almost always occur within one to two hours after falling asleep. So, if your child goes to bed at 8:00, the sleep terror will occur between 9:00 and 10:00. Some parents can even predict the exact time that they will occur, such as at 9:20. Second, your child will probably have no memory of these events. The reason is because she is essentially asleep. A child who is experiencing a sleep terror is basically stuck halfway between asleep and awake. And, last, during these events most children avoid being comforted. They may get more upset if you talk to them and try to calm them down. This It is also important to understand what sleep terrors are not. Sleep terrors are not nightmares. Your child is not dreaming during these events, although it may look it. Sleep terrors are also not an indication that your child has some serious psychological problem, or even that she is upset about something.
CAUSES We don't know what exactly causes sleep terrors or why children look frightened during them. They are actually the same thing as sleepwalking, but just more dramatic. What we do know is that there are certain things that make sleep terrors more likely to occur. SLEEP DEPRIVATION. FEVER OR ILLNESS. STRANGE PLACES. STRESSFUL TIMES. © FAMILY.COM. All rights reserved.
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