Nightmares and Night Terrors
Aaahh! Real Monsters! Throwback Thursday, anyone?
Any who, nightmares, and their cousins night terrors, are no one’s idea of a good time. Your kiddo gets woken up, and you get woken up when these things happen.
Most kids have nightmares at some point. They wake up, telling you they had a bad dream and can describe what was happening most of the time, and with some snuggling and soothing/reassuring that there are no monsters under the bed, they eventually go back to sleep. Sometimes these are related to stressors and worries during the day, such as a big test coming up or watching that late-night horror movie on TV. So, it’s always a good idea to discuss any possible reasons for stressing out before the kiddos go to sleep to help calm those fears and worries. If they do have a nightmare, try to make the soothing and the settle-down routine super boring and bland so kids are not inclined to want to have nightmares to wake up for the extra time and attention from their parents.
Night terrors, on the other hand, are like nightmares but way more vivid, and when the kiddos wake up, they act a tad crazy. Sometimes they will wake up screaming with their eyes open and playing out things going on in the dream. You go in there to help calm and soothe, but they don’t even acknowledge you are there and sort of stare straight through you. Then all of a sudden, the kiddos will just lay down and go back to bed. When they wake up in the morning, you ask them what that whole commotion was about, and they look at you like you are crazy because they don’t remember anything you are talking about. Night terrors often run in families due to the genetics of the sleep cycle and can also be associated with families where there is night talking, night walking, and prolonged bed-wetting. Rather than soothing and settling down, your job to help your kiddo with night terrors is just being there. If they let you hold them, go for it. If not, just be there to make sure they are not running down the halls or banging into things. If these are causing multiple awakenings during a week, we can try what is called an early awakening to help bypass the part in the sleep cycle that is responsible for these night terrors. We do this by noting around what time the night terrors occur and going in to slightly jostle awake the kiddo 15–30 minutes before the night terror normally occurs. Nothing more than a slight jostle to make them want to change positions is fine; you don’t have to get the kiddo fully awake to accomplish this early awakening. Even a gentle alarm that automatically shuts off in a few minutes can work for most kids.