Anyone familiar with night terrors?

I've got a skin-kid related question!  Not sure how many of us have non-furry kid but hopefully someone will know what I'm talking about here!

I'm not sure if my DD is having night terrors or what she is doing (she is 2,almost 3).  I notice it seems to happen when she has been missing naps (like after a busy weekend with Monday and/or Friday also being busy).  She will be asleep for an hour or maybe 2 and then sit up in her bed crying.  When I go in she is responsive to me, but definitely not with it either.  Rarely can see tell me that something is wrong.  Usually she answers "yes" to any questions (hot, cold, thirsty...etc).  She'll just be crying her little eyes out and it's hard to understand anything she might say.  Sometimes she is hot from being buried under her blankets; but sometimes I can't figure anything out.  I tell/ask her to lay back down and she does.  Several times now she was back out as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Does that sound like it could  be a night terror?  I thought they were unresponsive during those.  I'm mostly curious what is going on and at least I know the trigger...but yikes.  I'm usually still up (it always happens earlier in the evening) but I still get a jolt of adrenaline and then it takes me a while to settle down again myself!

  It's pretty scary to witness, but your daughter will be okay. You are right, they are night terrors and she's probably having them because she's missed some sleep. Night terrors happen as she transitions to the dream state of sleep. Do just what you are doing, watch that she doesn't hurt herself but don't try to wake her up. It would help to try to make bedtime as calm and routine and regular as you can. 

I can't stress this enough to anybody reading this: don't let your kid who is having night terrors get too hot. NO footie pajamas, NO socks - make sure their feet can cool their bodies! Also no pajamas with elastic bands on the wrists and ankles (again too hot). Use all cotton pajamas and bedding, if possible.

Getting too hot was a major trigger for my night terrors when I was a kid, can you tell.  

Oh I can definitely relate to this and I feel for you. 

My son started having night terrors at around 3 years old.  At first they seemed to be related to him not getting enough sleep the night before or not getting his nap.  Later they started comming every night with no trigger it seemed.

He would scream this blood curdling scream that sent me running.  I would usually find him either laying there and crying or sitting up but with eyes still closed.  He wouldn't really respond to me other than saying no every once in awhile.  He would quickly go back to sleep but would be up screaming again shortly after. 

Broke my heart that I couldn't seem to console him.  He never remembered the dreams the next morning but I still couldn't stand to see him go through that.  The lack of sleep seemed to contribute to the night terrors and then having them disrupted his sleep greately so it was an endless cycle.

A pediatrician friend of his dads gave us some great advice. 

First of all she said that when he has the night terrors to make sure to wake him up fully.  Make him get up and walk around and be able to answer questions so you know hes fully awake.  That should break that particular dream cycle because they can fall back into the same terror that they were having.  That usually worked but I wanted him not to have them in the first place so she suggested a dose of Benadryl before Ryan went to bed.  That was supposed to put him in a deeper sleep quicker and bypass the stage where they go into the night terrors.  It worked and I was so relieved! 

She said do this for one week and he will hopefully not have a problem with them anymore

Lucky for him and us he has only had one or two episodes in the past several years so I'm so thankful for that!

You may want to ask a pediatrician about it.  It sounds like your daughter and you could do without those terrible dreams. 

I wish you luck and am sending vibes for you and your daughter

I have something similar to night terrors, called sleep paralysis. If your daughter doesn't remember awakening and screaming, then chances are they are night terrors as you normally don't remember night terrors. And with night terrors, you can usually go right back to sleep. I agree about making sure your daughter can break the cycle, meaning awaken her completely, have her answer questions so you know she's awake. And then put her back to bed.

Night terrors and sleep paralysis start just at the moment where one is starting to drop off to sleep. They're right at that moment. At least with me, that's when they hit. And they are scary.

I can remember starting with them when I was around 4 or so; we don't know what the trigger was. And I had them right up until maybe the last 4-5 years ago. Then they stopped. But they started back up again a few weeks ago and they're hitting me now about twice a week. DH knows about them and he understands why I sleep with the tv on at night. And when we awaken in the morning and the hall light is on, he knows why.

I wish you luck with your daughter. It's heartbreaking when you can't help them.

If you can wake your daughter up (to fully lucid), it's a nightmare and and not a night terror - night terrors take place in the deepest stage of sleep (usually 2-3 hours after falling asleep). Waking your daughter is not recommended because: you would be worked up into a frenzy by the time you would be able to wake her up (it's NOT easily done), she would also be completely disoriented when you pull her out and probably think she's still in the bad dream, add to that the frantic yelling parent and there will be several hours of late-nigh calming everyone down before anybody gets more sleep. 

And, with the incident fresh on her mind, you might end up with a kid who is terrified of going to sleep at night.

Just watch that she doesn't hurt herself, make sure she has regular sleep, and it will pass.

Thanks everyone!

She is easy to calm and she is still in a crib; so I'm glad that keeps her safe and cozy in her bed.  She has gotten much more verbal over the last few months; but when she is out of it like that it's still very hard to understand her.  And she still answers "yeah!" to a lot of questions or has trouble answering questions sometimes; so the only way I'll know for sure if she even remembers it is if she starts talking about it on her own.  But so far she never has.  We go see her pediatrician in January; so I'll bring it up then.  I've been repeating to her every night and nap time 'If you get hot, push your blankets down! If you get cold, pull them up!"  A few times she has fallen asleep buried under her blankets and has been sweaty when she starts crying.  I haven't even moved her to a quilt in her bed yet.  But she loves to have a blanket over her in bed too.  I will ask about the benadryl thing if it becomes more common.  She takes it sometimes when she has a cold to help her rest.  But I know some docs have different opinions on benadryl.

Gosh night terrors are horrible, I get them myself (Although not as much now as when I was a kid...) and every time they terrify me- they generally happen in that "twilight zone" where you are not awake, but not fully asleep either............. very scary!!

My dad had them and my Grandpa... they tend to run in the family from what I have noticed. I get them sometimes and they are almost always spider related. Spiders in the bed, or snakes- or spiders and snakes on the floor... it's horrible because I don't really remember it the next day, but my husband certainly does.

I will be talking to you with eyes open, and you will think I am awake but I am fully asleep and in a massive deep sleep, I am not sure what causes them... they just happen every so often. I will get up and try to kill the spiders, and scream until my husband gets up to kill them......... it's bad....... Sorry you are dealing with this, I remember when I was a kid mom never woke me up (I'm not sure it is a good idea to wake someone up in that state of mine...) could shock them.
 

When you go see your daughters physician,  Write some things down to show him so he can use that to make a better diagnosis. 

Write down the exact time she goes to sleep and then when the dreams start to appear.  With Ryan it was usually an hour and a half to two hours.  Which made sense because the Dr. said night terrors occur between the 3rd and 4th stage of non REM sleep. 

Also document everything that she does, is she difficult to wake up or will she wake up and talk to you.  Does she appear to be sweating or heart racing.  How often it happens and what happened that day  that might have possibly caused it.  Sometimes nothing causes it, or at least nothing that I could see other than the being overtired.

Yes, do talk to your Peds Dr. about any medicines.  Ryans Dad is a Physician and he doesnt have a problem with giving children Benadryl every once in awhile but he knows so many lazy mothers who will use it as a sleep drug just so they dont have to deal with their kids so that's why so many Physicians are getting out of even reccomending it.  Just make sure to ask a Dr. because the dosage must be calculated by age and weight.

I will say that it worked for my baby when nothing else would.  His night terrors were bad on us all and I can sympathize with what you're going through.

Please keep us informed about how she's doing and you too   I know it's equally hard on the parents because we feel so helpless to console them.  You are doing an amazing job form what I read