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| Parenting Advice: My son has night terrors Posted Date: 2007-01-05 Q. "My seven year old boy sometimes awakens screaming in the middle of the night. When we go into his room he is sitting straight up in bed, staring straight ahead. We try to calm him down but he isn't even aware that we are in his room. After a few minutes, he goes back to sleep. If we awaken him, he doesn't even know why we're there, as he remembers nothing about his dream." A. The reason that he cannot remember what he was dreaming about, is that he was not dreaming! What you are describing is a classic case of night terrors. When we first fall asleep, we enter stage one sleep. We then progress through stages two and three until, after about an hour and a half, we enter our the deepest sleep, stage four. Scientists can recognise these stages by our brain-wave (EEG) patterns. Surprisingly, we do not dream during any of these four stages of sleep. Indeed, if you wake someone up at this point, they will remember either nothing, or they might say they were "thinking". As the four stages fade, we fall into a totally different sleep mode known as "rapid eye movement" (REM). This is the time in which we dream. If you could watch someone during REM sleep, you'd see their eyes darting from side to side. Throughout the night we go in and out of REM sleep. We usually dream for approximately 45 minutes before returning to non- REM sleep, which lasts for an hour or so, and then back to a REM sleep state. As the night progresses the non-REM stages become lighter. This explains an old saying, "an hour before midnight is worth two after". Nightmares occur while we are dreaming. They can be as real and as frightening as a Hollywood thriller. Night terrors, on the other hand, occur in stage four sleep. This is also the stage in which sleepwalking and talking occur. The reason they occur is unknown, and most children grow out of them. They may be worse at times of stress. Hearing your child screaming in terror is distressing to you and the rest of the family, but luckily your child is in no danger. Your best strategy, if you can handle it, is to just leave him be. You've already said that he goes back to sleep on his own. Use the same methods for sleepwalkers as well. Determine that he isn't in danger of falling downstairs or out a window, or any other harm, and he'll soon return to bed. Night terrors are common in children aged 3 to 6, and may continue even beyond then. They do not indicate that there is anything seriously wrong with your child. Hard though it may be at the time, the best tactic really is to ignore them, and to try to get some sleep yourself. Resource Box Info: Dr. Noel Swanson frequently writes for Yes Parenting website and also has a free newsletter on children's behavior problems. Get a unique version of this article from our parenting article directory |
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