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Is it a Night Terror Symptom?Before I could recognize a night terror symptom, I needed to know what a toddler night terror was.
Researchers at the Stanford University Sleep Disorders Clinic define night terrors as “arousal disorders that arise from deep non–rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep…states of confusion and partial arousal that emerge during the first third of the night when children exit slow wave sleep.”(1) Common night terror symptoms include fear, isolation, and/or a pressing urgency to run away from or fight monsters, snakes, spiders, or other threats.(1)
These children may wake up suddenly, sweat, scream, or have rapid heart beats. They may also have no memory of the night terror.(2) Often, “the child suddenly sits bolt upright and screams, and is inconsolable for up to 30 minutes before relaxing and falling back to sleep.”(3) Night terrors usually occur in children aged three to eight.(3) However, there have been reports of infants as young as four months of age experiencing a night terror symptom.(1) I remember my daughter experiencing numerous such symptoms. Her night terrors usually began around 12:30am. Instead of screaming loudly, she would cry uncontrollably and keep her eyes squeezed tightly closed. At that time I did not know how difficult it was to wake a toddler during her night terror, so I walked her out in the hallway and began talking to her. However, even then, I did not forcibly wake her up. Usually, I carried her out in the hallway and showed her the nightlight and quietly told her she was home now. She didn’t need to be afraid. Over time I learned what worked best for her after she experienced a night terror symptom. I began picking her up and sitting in the rocking chair with her, holding her and humming or talking quietly to her. Because sweating is a night terror symptom, often I wiped her face with a damp cloth during this time. I found that if I did this instead of trying to wake her up, she would arouse herself enough to tell me she wanted to go back to bed. Also, I learned if she became fully awake, it would take me almost two to three hours to get her back to sleep. Instead, if I held her while sitting in the rocking chair, it usually took only fifteen minutes for her to go back to sleep.
Because a toddler night terror likely occurs “approximately 90 minutes into sleep during stage 3 or 4 NREM sleep,”(3) I began to expect her to have one at the same time almost every night. Her consistent sleep behavior confirmed she was having night terrors not nightmares. I learned to look for triggers to her toddler night terror. That way I could almost predict she would have one if something happened during the day to precipitate it. If I expected her to have a night terror symptom, then I would put her and myself to bed early so I could get some sleep before having to comfort her.
Eventually, I found that just putting her to bed earlier helped alleviate some of her night terror episodes. Then I began trying to avoid her other triggers such as enforcing a more consistent nap routine and helping her to not get overly tired. I also began reading to her at an early age which helped to calm her down before bedtime. For us, these were effective in calming our toddler's night terrors. However, other night terror treatments have been tried.
Return to www.china-adoption-threads.com References (1) Guilleminault C et al.
Sleepwalking and Sleep Terrors in Prepubertal Children: What Triggers Them?
PEDIATRICS Vol. 111 No. 1 January 2003, pp. e17-e25
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