Re: question need help!...night terrors

[Guest guest]

Hi Carolyn

My 1 year old is also experiencing night terrrors and it is a scary thing for the parents too. My son with autism has never had one. My doctor suggested that since night terrors typically occur around the same time each nite ( usually within 2 hours of falling asleep) for us to go in and rouse up my baby for a minute or two - just long enough to break the deep sleep cycle and then let him fall back asleep. Doctor said this sometimes helps with the night terrors. It is hard to determine which nites the terrors will occur but the doctor told us that stress and sleep deprivation can often be culprits. My son began to experience them right after we returned from Disney and had been short on naps for a week.

Hopes this helps your friend

stacey

question need help!...night terrors

I have a friend whose child is experiencing night terrors. She has a hard time keeping her child in bed, because she is afraid to go to sleep. Her child's bad dreams are making her very afraid of going to bed. Her mom has tried using a night light, talking, laying with her, stuffed animals, etc., but nothing is helping. My daughter tends to wake up often with bad dreams too. Is this common in children with autism? has anyone had any luck dealing with this? or do you recommend a book on night terrors that would be helpful? Any feedback would be helpful! My friend is soooo tired:( Thanks._________________________________________________________________Optimize your Internet experience to the max with the new MSN Premium Internet Software. http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200359ave/direct/01/

[Guest guest]

from www.nighterror.org

Night Terrors People who have night terrors are often misdiagnosed. The most common one is a simple nightmare. Any of you who have had a night terror can say they aren't even close! Another common misdiagnosis (especially among veterans) is PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. For this reason I have included a description of the difference between nightmares and night terrors.

Night Terrors Symptoms: Sudden awakening from sleep, persistent fear or terror that occurs at night, screaming, sweating, confusion, rapid heart rate, inability to explain what happened, usually no recall of "bad dreams" or nightmares, may have a vague sense of frightening images. Many people see spiders, snakes, animals or people in the room, are unable to fully awake, difficult to comfort, with no memory of the event on awakening the next day.

Night Terror or Nightmare?:Nightmares occur during the dream phase of sleep known as REM sleep. Most people enter the REM stage of sleep sometime after 90 minutes of sleep. The circumstances of the nightmare will frighten the sleeper, who usually will wake up with a vivid memory of a long movie-like dream. Night terrors, on the other hand, occur during a phase of deep non-REM sleep usually within an hour after the subject goes to bed. This is also known as stage 4. (A link to a sleep stages chart can be found on the navigation bar to the left) During a night terror, which may last anywhere from five to twenty minutes, the person is still asleep, although the sleepers eyes may be open. When the subject does wake up, they usually have no recollection of the episode other than a sense of fear. This, however, is not always the case. Quite a few people interviewed can remember portions of the night terror, and some remember the whole thing.

Fast Facts about Night Terrors:

Run in families. Are not dangerous.*Can last 10-20 minutes. Occur in stage 4 of the sleep cycle.Can happen at any age 6 months - 100 years old.

question need help!...night terrors

I have a friend whose child is experiencing night terrors. She has a hard time keeping her child in bed, because she is afraid to go to sleep. Her child's bad dreams are making her very afraid of going to bed. Her mom has tried using a night light, talking, laying with her, stuffed animals, etc., but nothing is helping. My daughter tends to wake up often with bad dreams too. Is this common in children with autism? has anyone had any luck dealing with this? or do you recommend a book on night terrors that would be helpful? Any feedback would be helpful! My friend is soooo tired:( Thanks._________________________________________________________________Optimize your Internet experience to the max with the new MSN Premium Internet Software. http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200359ave/direct/01/

[Guest guest]

FYI...

A nightmare is what this child is having if she remembers them. Night terrors happen in a totally different stage of sleep and they are not recalled. It is possible that she has both, but if she is actually afraid to go to sleep because of bad dreams, that is a nightmare.

http://www.kinderstart.com/frame_for_links.php?redirect=http://www.drkutner.com/articles/nightmare.html

http://www.nightterrors.org/

Those are two good websites on the subject.

As a Mom of a night terror stricken kiddo I can certainly sympathize with the lack of sleep and fearful parents.

Since we got Woody (Xander's canine companion) he hasn't had one night terror. We are calling him a cure right now. )

As far as this being a common occurrence in kids with ASDs, it could be more common since sleep disturbance is a common problem with children with ASDs. You could assume that the common sleep deprivation would naturally cause a higher rate of occurrence in kids diagnosed with an ASD. However, there is a genetic component to night terrors as well, so consider that. Does this child have parents, siblings, or others who have some sort of sleep disorder?

Hope that helps,

Adrienne

I have a friend whose child is experiencing night terrors. She has a hard time keeping her child in bed, because she is afraid to go to sleep. Her child's bad dreams are making her very afraid of going to bed. Her mom has tried using a night light, talking, laying with her, stuffed animals, etc., but nothing is helping. My daughter tends to wake up often with bad dreams too. Is this common in children with autism?

[Guest guest]

I forgot to add that we usually wake the baby shortly before we expect the night terror to occur. So, if they have been happening around 10 p.m., we usually will wake him around 9:45 or so. The doctor says that a child has no recollection of the event but I wonder sometimes cause there have been a couple of times when he acted like he was afraid of the crib the next day.

question need help!...night terrors

I have a friend whose child is experiencing night terrors. She has a hard time keeping her child in bed, because she is afraid to go to sleep. Her child's bad dreams are making her very afraid of going to bed. Her mom has tried using a night light, talking, laying with her, stuffed animals, etc., but nothing is helping. My daughter tends to wake up often with bad dreams too. Is this common in children with autism? has anyone had any luck dealing with this? or do you recommend a book on night terrors that would be helpful? Any feedback would be helpful! My friend is soooo tired:( Thanks._________________________________________________________________Optimize your Internet experience to the max with the new MSN Premium Internet Software. http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200359ave/direct/01/