Night Terrors

Night Terrors

When my son was very young he suffered from what we later discovered were night terrors.

At first I didn't know what was wrong, but I knew it was a horrible experience both for him and for us.

He would sit up screaming at night. Thinking he was awake I would go to him and hold him and try to talk to him to calm him. I soon realized that even though it looked like he was looking at me, he wasn't seeing or hearing me. He seemed to have no idea I was holding him, no idea of where he was at. I could do little to comfort him. I did some research and determined for myself that he was suffering from night terrors.

Night terrors arise from the victim not being able to go from one stage of sleep to another.It's like they are stuck in between and don't know their way back. The advice to stop these episodes was both easy and difficult for me as a parent. The victim has to learn to go from one stage of sleep to another on his own. There is not much you can do to intervene and help. So for a few more times what you must do is just let it happen and not try to wake them. As horrible as it was to see and listen too, it worked. After a few more times he had learned and the night terrors stopped. Later he started walking in his sleep, but that's another story.

by Kathleen Milazzo
at Great Blogs