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Could Your Child Be Having Night Terrors?
Handling Night Terrors and Putting Your Fears to Rest By Laurie Dove
Yet, it is during this same deep sleep that a child's body can jolt into action; when the slumbering body responds to some kind of stimuli, yet the mind stays asleep, night terrors occur leaving children in a sort of sleep limbo.
These sudden, partial awakenings occur most often during the first two hours of sleep and typically begin with a high-pitched scream which brings panicked parents running only to find a child appearing awake, pupils dilated, sweat forming and heart racing, says Dr. Stephen Sheldon, director of the Sleep Medicine Center at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, one of five children's hospitals in the nation accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
"The child may be screaming or yelling something unintelligible which only gets worse when parents try to intervene," Dr. Sheldon says. "When parents start asking questions or touching the child, he becomes even more agitated. Later, he won't even remember it ever happened."
When Brette McWhorter Sember's toddler daughter woke up screaming, the Clarence, N.Y., mother found her sitting up in bed, terrified and seemingly unaware of her surroundings.
"She woke up screaming but could not hear us. It was as if she was asleep with her eyes open," Sember says.
A few months after Shelia Jordan's granddaughter was born, the infant survived a car wreck that killed her mother. Today, at 3 years old, Jordan's granddaughter is haunted by nightmares triggered after she hears loud noises reminiscent of the car crash, Jordan believes.
Unlike night terrors, which are argely caused by a physical reaction, nightmares can be caused by the subconscious recollection of a traumatic incident, says Dr. Paul Saskin, clinical director of Sunrise Hospital's Regional Center for Sleep Disorders in Las Vegas, Nev.