Night terrors…and boys that go HA! in the night
January 16, 2009 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
Filed under Parenting
My son woke me up last night laughing hysterically. I like that he does this from time to time. Sometimes his eyes will be open and he’ll even say things like, “That hairy green guy! Ha ha!” And then just as quickly as it started, it’s over. His eyes close, his head rolls to the side, and he is fast asleep again.
My son has always been somewhat of an active sleeper. Sometimes he laughs at night, sometimes he chatters away. Other nights he screams violently. These are the most difficult to handle, as you can image. We’ll find him flailing around in his bed as if being attacked by a thousand invisible spiders. I reach out to hold and comfort him but he sees me coming and starts kicking and throwing his fists and shouting, “No! No! Go away!” I often end up with scratches on my face and bruises on my arms. Just like the laughter, his screams stop suddenly and he drifts right back to sleep as if nothing had happened.
I soon learned these were night terrors. My girlfriend Cyndi was the first person to tell me about them. Her husband suffers from them – a rarity for an adult – and she tells vivid stories of how he leaps out of bed at night and tries to climb the wall or chase the ceiling fan. After minutes – which seem like hours – he’s back in bed asleep and in the morning he remembers nothing.
Though they are frightening to witness, night terrors are not serious and most kids grow out of them by the time they reach school age. If you suspect your child suffers from night terrors, discuss it with your doctor. There are some things you can do to prevent them, like waking your child during the night. I’m not so much a fan of waking a sleeping giant, but to each his own. Here’s another helpful resource I found online, the Healthy Place.
I haven’t met many people whose kids have night terrors. Let me know if any of you have experienced it and how you cope with them.
(Photo: Flickr, LovelyPetals)
Oh, no. I hope your son outgrows them. I’m not sure if I had them as a kid, but I’ve had night terrors for several years now. They come and go.
Sometimes I don’t remember them at all, but my husband does! I feel bad because it scares him. I don’t usually get out of bed though, just sit up and scream. I just know one of these days the police will show up… eek!
By the way, I didn’t quite finish my comment on your intro and somehow it clicked over anyway. I meant to say I’m now living where you grew up from 5!
He seems to have fewer night terrors than he had in the past. So maybe he is working his way out of them. I hope!
And say HI to Memphis for me. We don’t get there as often as I’d like, however I still have plenty of family and friends there.
My 6-year-old had them when she was about three. They came maybe two or three times per week and lasted about two months, luckily. Once we realized what they were, we just basically sat near her to make sure that she didn’t hurt herself by falling off the bed or scratching her face and whatnot, but as difficult as it was, we didn’t try to hold her. Holding her after a nightmare is soothing but during a night terror it always seemed to make her more hysterical. Eventually they disappeared as abruptly as they arrived.
My 3-year-old has had one. I didn’t realize what it was at first since it was actually after a nap and I thought she was just cranky. It was when she kept screaming for me even while I was trying to hold her that I understood. Then she just face-planted and went back to sleep for 20 minutes. It hasn’t happened since, and it’s been about a month now.
They’re awful for parents but it does help to know that they don’t seem to remember later.