[Beltie]

I just remembered something.

Between our 2 appointments we had to keep a sleep diary to help track the terror, the timing and duration.

We had to record all periods of wakefulness, periods in bed but not asleep, periods of sleep and periods of terror/disturbance. This was daily for 4 weeks I think. I used coloured textas on a grid with 24 boxes across representing each hour of the day. It was quite cool to see a pattern emerging. I never saw it before because DD2 had terrors at about 1-2am and I was so sleep addled I couldn't tell you my own name.

If you do go to see the specialist you could do this in advance. It would give him a good picture of your son's sleep pattern and a lot of concrete information to base his suggestions on.

[Kay1]

Thanks, that's a great suggestion Beltie.

[Munchy-Chipmunk]

Sorry I can't offer any advice but I am sitting here on the verge of crying as I just watched my 7.5yr old again have another terror. DH is away and normally calms him down but tonight I had to do it. I read all the comments about not touching them but I can't not do anything.

I just searched on EB and found your thread OP. I think I am going to start a food diary and see if that can give us any clues. He clutches his stomach all the time and is continually coughing/choking action so I am wondering if it is something to do with food.

I wish you and I both luck OP.

[judy_]

My DS1 had night terrors for about 3 years between aged 2 and 5. They were very predictable and always the same. They would happen in the evening (we were usually still awake). He would scream out in a voice that wasn't his! he would talk in tongues and his eyes would look like he was possessed. He would shake uncontrollably. He was not awake and he was barely responsive to questions. He could sometimes answer a simple question with yes/no but his voice was not normal. It was like he was talking through clenched teeth.

We tried everything at the time. Waking him, not waking him etc. In the end we would turn the lights on, hold him, take him out of his room, put the tv on and take him to the toilet. they would end as quickly as they would start and he would go back to sleep immediately. But they could last 20 minutes plus. He never ever remembered them in the morning. They only ever happened once a night.

They would occur when he was tired and when he got hot. They would happen for a few nights in a row and then stop for a while. For us we would try to avoid overtiredness and he only has a light cotton doona on his bed and 100% cotton sheets and pjs. He has always slept with a night light since the day he was born. There may be some relation to needing to go to the toilet as for us the best way to end it each night was to get him to pee.

DS2 has had 2 of them in his life and he's 3.5 but his are not as bad and he is much easier to get back to sleep.

[fairyflossfart]

Our 18yr old used to get them and one day we realised it seemed to happen after particularly hard academic days at school. By that I mean days where she had been concentrating too hard on things like tests. With her we would turn the hallway light on to put just a small amount of light into her room and then talk softly to her about the dogs and different things and she would eventually calm down and just go back to a peacefull sleep.

[mumto3princesses]

Sorry I can't offer any advice but I am sitting here on the verge of crying as I just watched my 7.5yr old again have another terror. DH is away and normally calms him down but tonight I had to do it. I read all the comments about not touching them but I can't not do anything.

I just searched on EB and found your thread OP. I think I am going to start a food diary and see if that can give us any clues. He clutches his stomach all the time and is continually coughing/choking action so I am wondering if it is something to do with food.

I wish you and I both luck OP.

I know it's hard. Some kids do respond ok to touching or getting them up to go to the toilet etc but others like my DD2 get so much worse. It's just a case of figuring out what is the best way to deal with them for your DS.

I figured out for DD2 I needed to stay clear of her and only touch her if I thought she might hurt herself. It's heartbreaking though. The times I did feel I had to touch her the night terror would become much much worse and actually last a lot longer than if I had just left her. It would also get worse if I spoke to her. I would usually end up getting hurt if I touched her. I remember walking around with a bruise on my face for a while after being kicked in the face.

While doing the food diary it might be worth it if you can to try eliminating as many foods containing msg, hydrolized vegetable protein etc (its in heaps of things) which is pretty much all the additives starting with the 600 numbers. MSG is known for sleep disturbances.

[Munchy-Chipmunk]

Thanks Mumto3princesses that has made me feel better. Funnily enough we had risotto last night which I used stock powder in so maybe that is part of it. DS1 didn't go to school today for another reason so it will be interesting to see what happens tonight. I have also limited his food today and avoided junk foods and numbers.

[whoisme]

Sorry if I am repeating what others have already said, I just don't have the time at the moment to read all the replies.

Firstly, my son is 9.5 his bedtime is 7.30pm as in, tucked in had a story etc, we leave his room at 7.30pm, on a Friday and Saturday night we stretch it to 8pm, but that really is stretching it, maybe consider an earlier bed time.

I second the night-light, our nightlight is in the hallway that my son's room comes off and has a nice warm glow, not bright.

Also, a nice story at bedtime is great, it switches off their brain and give them something else to focus on. It may be a reader book from school, library book or a book you have at home, make sure it is easy to follow at that time of night and enjoyable. Like, Spot, or Faraway Tree series etc.

On the cooler nights we give the kids a nice warm drink, for us it is Sustagen you could do a Milo or Malt Milk drink, it really does make you sleep so well, even for adults.

My son at 9.5 has REALLY SEVERE night terrors. He stays in bed but is screaming at us, eyes wide open, no recognition of who we are or what we are saying, it goes for about 10 minutes and they have no control or comprehension, you just got to go with it. On occassion a bright light (bedroom light) being switched on has snapped him out of it.

I find he has them when he is anxious or stressed. He has started having them now since they have been working hard at school for the NAPLAN tests.

It is just a life thing and it will get better.

[Kay1]

Munchy-chipmunk - I'm sorry you are so upset by the terrors. I was too at first but after so long I am mostly immune to them now, although I do at times get upset to see him so upset. I hope they don't last long for you.

It doesn't seem to make any difference what we do with DS. If we leave him alone, hold him, take him to the toilet, talk to him, whatever, nothing seems to impact and they just take about 5 minutes anyway. I find it really hard to ignore it because he will look at me like he's not sure who I am and half reach out to me like he wants reassurance, all the while screaming hysterically. He mainly screams his brother's name, as if he's trying to warn him about something. Its very upsetting. He is very meek though, unlike your DD, Mumto3princesses. He is a very strong boy but if I hold him or try to move him etc he doesn't put up much resistance at all (thank goodness!). He does tend to respond better to DH than me when he's having one, Dh says firmly "Lie down" and he does. Sometimes that ends it but sometimes not.

fairflossfart - thanks for your input. I don't think its academic stress for DS as the worst he has been for ages was while we were away on holidays, doing not much but hang out on the beach etc and they don't vary at all between school time and holidays.

whoisme - DS is already going to bed at 7.30pm most nights, 8pm at a stretch. Can't really make it much earlier than that and tbh it seems that the earlier he goes to bed the worse the night terror. We have always done nice stories at bedtime etc. I know its just one of those things but every single night is hard as we can't leave him with babysitters other than my mum (its pretty confronting) and we have a new baby due soon so don't really want to be dealing with this every night especially as he will be sharing with his brother soon so we'll then have two upset kids to deal with.

Am going to take him to the GP and get a referral to the sleep specialist and see how we go from there.

Thanks again for all the replies.

[mumto3princesses]

That's lucky you can move him and speak to him! When DD2 was getting them she would get even more loud and violent even if one of us spoke to her. She's only a little thing and still managed to hurt me.

We haven't had a night terror in ages but I'm honestly not sure which is worse.

We have had extremely disturbing sleepwalking and sleeptalking (yelling) episodes. She does respond sort of to my voice. Very weird things like:

DD:Yelling in her room "I don't like it, there's something not right here" - I go in and she's standing in her room motioning to her bed and floor

Me: "whats the matter"

DD:"It's all weird and not right, I don't like it"

Me:"Come on lets go to the toilet"

DD:Goes to the toilet and sits down then SCREAMS "no, no, no I don't like it here I want to go to the other toilet" - Then gets up and goes to the laundry toilet. Then yells " no, no, no, I don't like this game I want to play a different game" Different variations continue for a couple of minutes of not liking it or wanting to play a different game then she goes back to her bedroom and screams again saying "it's not right and weird and how she doesn't like it" while motioning to her bed and the floor.

This happens for a few more minutes until she finally listens to me and lie's down and looks instantly asleep.

I'm making note of how often she has them to see whether I feel we need to see someone about it. At the moment I'm thinking it's less often than when she got the terrors but she had quite a few recently as she has been sick. She's seeing a developmental paediatrician in 2 mths anyway about something else so will see what he says about it too.

Hmmmm could be academic stress too for her. Well sort of. We think she might have ADHD. She has told me she is stressed about school work being too hard and things are getting a bit much for her. As far as I know she's not really struggling though except some parts of maths. I do know times tables are the cause of some tears.