Does your child get Night Terrors? Dealing tips

We often get confused between ‘night terrors’ and ‘nightmares’. They are both common types of sleeping disruptions among children. As parents we need to have a very clear idea of both – the differences between them, and coping strategies…

What is a nightmare?

A nightmare is nothing but a bad dream. A child has several experiencesthroughout the day - some of them are happy, while some of them can be scary, or sad. While a child sleeps some of those experiences manifest in his/her dreams. A nightmare is definitely a bad experience or a fear of something that either the conscious or subconscious mind of the child has stored away.

What is a night terror?

A night terror is a sleep disruption in which a child doesn't experience bad dreams. It is an annoying feeling - a sense of discomfort and fear. The symptoms of a night terror are when your child just screams out loudly while asleep accompanied by vehement crying as if s/he is in great pain or experiencing something terrible. Actually, it is a state of ‘twilight’– a phase where the child is half asleep and half awake, though it might seem to the parents that the child is fully awake.

What’s the difference?

Though both are nothing but sleeping disruptions yet, they have some striking differences. A nightmare generally occurs early in the morning, whereas a night terror occurs about 2 hours after a child falls asleep. Parents can console a child who experienced a nightmare with comforting words and caress. On the other hand, a child under the attack of a night terror never reciprocates as s/he is in a half-asleep and half-awake state. A child who experienced a nightmare the night before can recall his bad dreams and also able to tell the outline story of the nightmare. But, a child who experienced a night terror can't recall anything about the experience. A child who suffered a nightmare sometimes looks upset or unhappy the very next day as s/he can remember the bad dreams. However, parents can't find any changes in mood of their children who had a night terror the previous night.

Should we be concerned?

Parents need not be concerned about night terrors. It is neither a psychological disorder nor a medical ailment. But, it is very difficult for the parents to see their child crying and screaming inconsolably as if s/he is in a great pain.

What causes night terrors?

Both psychologists and doctors cannot find any specific reasons behind a night terror attack. However, some generally accepted reasons are sleep deprivation, prolonged illness, stress and anxiety, over tiredness, use of certain medicines, consumption of too much cocoa etc.

How to cope…

• Unfortunately, as parents we can't do much to help night terrors in our children. Doctors and psychologists advise us that we should try not to wake up a child in this condition as it may worsen the situation as children can often become wilder.
• We have to keep in mind that our comforting words will not relieve them as they are in a twilight kind of state. We can stay calm and let the storm pass. We should take physical action only if there is a chance of the child getting hurt, as children do not have any awareness of their surroundings in this phase.
• There are a few solutions to control night terror attacks. We should not allow a child to do any strenuous activity just before going to bed. As parents we have to enforce a proper sleep routine for our children.
• We must prevent our children from watching horror movies before going to bed; on the other hand parents can read them some nice stories with happy endings. It is recommended by child psychologists that if we are aware of the time of occurrence of a night terror, what we can do is - 15 minutes prior to the attack we should awake our children from sleep and say a few comforting words to them, and let them go to sleep again.
• It can be said that both night terrors and nightmares are quite simply annoying sleep disturbances. A night terror generally occurs till 6 yrs. With patience and calmness we have to tackle both, as all of us only want to see our children happy!

Did you find Debashree’s insights on sleep disturbances useful? Does your child suffer from nightmares or night terrors – how do you cope? Do share your experiences and learnings with us in the comments section below. We love hearing from you!