The Terror of Night Terrors

Few things are more terrifying for a parent than the first time their child has a night terror. Night terrors are different than bad dreams or nightmares.

Bad dreams and nightmares happen to virtually everybody and occur during the REM sleep phase (rapid eye movement). Researchers have discovered that even fetuses have dreams – including “bad” ones. Bad dreams may cause facial grimaces, moving, thrashing about and may result in being wakened up. If a child does wake up, he will usually fall back to sleep quickly but may need to be comforted by mom or dad first. He may remember parts of the dream in the morning.

Night terrors occur in about 10% of children and typically occur during the non-REM sleep phase in the first few hours of sleep. The usual ages of children experiencing night terrors is 3 to 12 years but a very small percentage may experience them into adulthood.

During the terror, a child’s eyes may be wide open but he is not awake. He may cry, scream, hyperventalate, sit up or even get out of bed. He may push the parent away, fight against being comforted and act in very strange ways. The terror typically lasts only a few minutes but can go on for as long as 30 minutes.

The child will return to a peaceful sleep once the episode passes and will usually have no recollection of the incident in the morning.

Night terrors are truly terrifying for the parent but the child suffers absolutely no ill effect and rarely needs the pediatrician to become involved.