Night Terrors?

Kent Brockman

My 11 yr old has started to have these recently (I think that's whats happening). 5 nights in a row at the moment, around the same time shortly after he has gone to sleep he wakes up absolutely terrified, shaking with fear & wants his mother.

He has no idea what he is afraid of, he didn't have a bad dream but says he feels sick and keeps demanding to be brought to hospital!!
He seems to be spaced out but is still able to answer questions and understands what we are saying to him. His memory of it in the morning is very vague.

It's not a nice experience for us. We just try to calm him down and reassure him & one of us stays with him until he is settled. This can happen a few times during the night.

Did some googling & it seems to be not serious. Is this night terrors? Anyone have any experience of these?

tinkerbell

Yes, those are night terrors. Night terrors only tend to occur during that phase of sleep - shortly after drifting off. Has any changes happened recently such as bed times being later or even eating food later etc? It could be just hormones also, since he's 11 but he should grow out of it. Is he stressed at school? Is he watching something on TV which may be upsetting him / playing a new video game? Reason I ask is you say when he wakes up he is saying he's sick and needs to go to hospital - maybe he's seen something on TV about a hospital or is a family member sick - he may not be consciously thinking about it but it's in the back of his head?

When he's having a night terror, you need to be very calm and just comfort him until he wakes up as he's not fully awake yet so it's important to just cuddle him in case he tries to jump out of the bed and injure himself in the process. It's also normal to not remember it in the morning or have only vague recollections of it.

There are sleep clinics in some hospitals if you wanted to go down that route.

Kent Brockman

Thanks Tinkerbell.
We thought of lots of those things regarding eating late, sleep pattern (he has never been a good sleeper & has toast before bed without these issues in the past), we keep a tight control over what he watches on TV & the games he is allowed to play on xbox etc (I know we are meanest parents in the world & all his friends can do & watch whatever they want ), he is not having any major issues at school other than the constant battle that is soccer in the schoolyard :rolleyes:

Interestingly enough his Mother has a longterm illness & has been in and out of hospital several times in the past 18 months & that may be why he is talking about hospital & looking for her when he is afraid during the night terrors......

He recently started using ZirteK for hayfever & a quick google reveals that this seems to be a very common side effect!!!!!

Kent Brockman

Its NOT the Zirtec, stopped it for a week & it made no difference.

Aurelia Cotta

My nephew had these for some time. The doctor said its because he needs to urinate and can't wake up enough to realize it. We would have to take him to the bathroon and pull down his pants and tell him to go potty. Once he did, he was fine. I'm not sure what's causing your child to have them but I hope something helps.

fall

That's the same reason my son gets them. Once he goes to the toilet he goes back asleep. He doesn't even remember it the next day. We usually make sure he doesn't drink fluids too close to bedtime to avoid him having them.