Night Terrors and Child Anxiety: A Guide for Parents

Having a child who experiences night terrors can be a truly horrifying experience for the parents who have to watch it happen. Night terrors and nightmares are not the same thing and while most children will experience nightmares and some point in their childhood night terrors are thankfully a lot rarer.

First of all let’s talk about what a night terror is. A night terror is an episode of extreme fear as evidenced by screaming, crying, thrashing, and the inability to be comforted or awakened. Night terrors are generally thought to be cause by over activity of the central nervous system during sleep. Night terrors usually occur during deep non rapid eye movement sleep (REM). Night terrors will often occur two or three hours after a child falls asleep.

Nightmares are much more common than night terrors and occur during rapid eye movement sleep (REM). Children having a nightmare may exhibit some of the same symptoms as those having a night terror such as screaming, thrashing, and crying but a child having a nightmare can usually be calmed down and woken up. Children will often remember images from their nightmares and be able to tell you what it was about.

Usually children who experience night terrors are somewhere between the ages of two and eight when they start but people of any age can experience them. Only around 15% of the total population experience night terrors. Interestingly enough 80% of people who experience night terrors have a family member who experienced them as well so there appears to be some kind of hereditary link. Night terrors are a little more common in boys than they are in girls.

The symptoms of night terrors can be different for individual children. Some of the most frequently noted symptoms are sitting straight up in bed, kicking or thrashing, scream or shout, run around the house, have rapid breathing, sweat, stare wide-eyed, or become violent. Each of episode of night terrors may be different from the previous one. In some cases the child will lie back down and fall back into a peaceful sleep after a few minutes. Other children may gradually awaken from the night terror but will have no memory of the episode at all.

No one really knows what causes night terrors though they are occasionally described as a fear reaction to the transition between dream states. Night terrors are more likely to occur in children who are prone to them  if your child is anxious, overly tired or fatigued, sick with an illness particularly one with fever, taking a new medication, sleep deprived, feeling stress, or sleeping in unfamiliar surroundings. Some medical conditions that are associated with having night terrors include migraines, strokes, hyperthyroidism, head injuries, seizure disorders, and sleep breathing disturbances such as sleep apnea.

Preventing night terrors can be difficult since we don’t know what causes them but there are some things you can try that might help. Establish and use a relaxing bed time routine. This may include a warm bath and reading a story in bed with Mom or Dad. Make sure that your child is getting enough rest and try and prevent them from becoming over tired. You should also try to reduce your child’s stress level. There are many ways you can do this but one of the best may be to incorporate some kind of physical activity shortly before bath time. Physical activity helps to release endorphins like serotonin and dopamine. These endorphins make you feel good and serotonin helps you to sleep. If your child is going to be sleeping away from home or in an otherwise unfamiliar situation make sure that they have a favorite toy or doll and blanket to make things feel more like home.

Generally children who have night terrors do not need to be under a doctor’s care because there isn’t really a treatment for them. However if your child experiences night terrors and they are becoming more frequent, lead to injury or dangerous behavior, follow the same pattern every time, routinely disrupt sleep, or cause your child to fear even trying to go to sleep then it’s time to see the doctor. If you feel that your child does need to see the doctor for their night terrors make your initial appointment with the pediatrician. They will rule out any underlying medical causes and then refer you to another physician if they feel it is necessary.

If your child does experience night terrors there are a few things that you should not do. Do not try to wake up a child in the middle of an episode. Recent evidence suggests that this can actually make the episode last longer than it would if you had not tried to wake the child. Even if the child does wake they are likely to be so confused and disoriented that it may take them longer to calm down and go back to sleep. Do not try to hold a child in the middle of a night terror down chances are this will make them thrash about even harder increasing their risk of injuring themselves. Try to prevent your child from hurting themselves for example by putting pillows or yourself between your child and the headboard of the bed. If you have a child who regularly experiences night terrors you will want to take some of the same precautions sleep walkers parents would take. Make sure all outside doors and windows are securely locked, place a child safety gate at the top of any stairs, and make sure toys and other tripping hazards in the floor are put away before bed time.

Night terrors are extremely nerve- wracking for those who are forced to sit and watch them but take comfort in the fact that your child will have no memory of the episode. You on the other hand may have nightmares about what you have seen. In the vast majority of cases children grow out of their night terror episodes very quickly, but it can be a very anxious time for the parents waiting for it to happen.

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