Night Terrors in Children

Night terrors in children are due to an inherited condition where a child has dreams during deep sleep and cannot be woken easily. Night terrors are prevalent in about 2% of children and not considered to be due to psychological stress. Affected children are typically aged between one and eight years. A known trigger for night terrors is excessive tiredness.

Night terrors in children typically start one to two hours after going to sleep and last between 10 and 30 minutes. In the morning, the child does not remember them. During a night terror, a child might:

• show agitation and restlessness
• be difficult to comfort or wake up
• sit or run around, perhaps screaming or ranting
• be unaware of your presence despite having eyes wide open
• construe objects or people as dangerous

Despite how distressing the episodes are to watch, each one ends when it is ready. Night terrors generally stop by age 12.

What You Can Do

Try to help your child sleep calmly. You can't waken your child during a night terror, so don't try. You can switch the lights on so that shadows are less confusing and talk soothingly and repetitively, telling the child he or she can rest now, they are home safely in their bed and that everything is fine. This sort of talk can help your child settle. Some children may like you to hold their hand, others may pull it away. Only hold your child if it seems to help.

There is no technique for stopping or shortening the episode. Certainly, shouting at the child or shaking is likely to increase their agitation and lengthen the episode.

Keep your child safe during a night terror episode by protecting him or her from open stairways, and stop them running into walls or windows.

Frequent night terrors can be pre-empted. If your child is older than six years and frequently has night terrors, you can try training him or her out of it. This involves waking your child at night before the night terror occurs. This technique has a high success rate. To start, observe how many minutes after sleep onset the night terrors tend to start, then start waking your child 15 minutes before the expected time of the night terror. Tell your child to wake up fast and keep him or her fully awake out of bed for at least five minutes. Continue these timed awakenings for seven nights straight and if the night terrors return, repeat the training program for another seven nights.

Prevention of night terrors in children

Overtiredness is the most likely trigger. For toddlers and pre-schoolers, ensure they have an afternoon nap or if they refuse, encourage at least an hour's quiet time. Late bedtimes can also trigger night terrors. If your child is hard to waken in the mornings, this suggests he or she needs to go to bed earlier. You can gradually bring forward bedtime by 15 minutes each night until your child wakes naturally or easier in the mornings.

When To Call Your Doctor

• your child drools, stiffens or jerks
• the night terrors occur at least twice a week after the 7 induced wakenings
• episodes go on for more than half and hour
• your child behaves dangerously during an episode
• episodes arise in the second half of the night
• you believe stress may be a trigger