anna h asked:
My daughter has what i think is NIGHT TERRORS..
I dont know whats wring but every night i wake to her whimpering, a moaning sound. mother intuition..I cant sleep thru anything.
Shes not awak, but sometimes crying like shes terrified. Shes only 2.
Im a single mom, so this is killing me. I get up 2-4 times a night. I also go to work at 5am, so the lack of sleep is killing me.
My daughter has what i think is NIGHT TERRORS..
I dont know whats wring but every night i wake to her whimpering, a moaning sound. mother intuition..I cant sleep thru anything.
Shes not awak, but sometimes crying like shes terrified. Shes only 2.
Im a single mom, so this is killing me. I get up 2-4 times a night. I also go to work at 5am, so the lack of sleep is killing me.
What can i do for her? Why is a two year old having nightmares? If thats not what it is what is it?
Carla O says:
2 is a very common age to have night terrors. The best thing you can do is be patient and try and soothe her. I know it can be frustrating but she will grow out of it.
July 13, 2009, 7:37 amBizz says:
make sure you know what she watches on T.V.
July 14, 2009, 2:14 amGeorgie says:
As much as you may want to pick her up and cuddle her, its best to leave her alone until the terror is over. Touching her while in that state can cause her to be violent, and make you nightmare worse. So unfortunetly you’ll just have to be patient for now. You can see a doctor to get more info on this.
July 14, 2009, 9:38 pmserena says:
this may sound crazy but my mom went through the same thing and i helped her so i kind of know what to do
im only 14 but my dad was a alcoholic at the time so i was the one that helped my mom out
we read to my sister every night before she slept
that helped put good thoughts in her mind
my mom would massage her head to toe every night right after giving her a shower, before she went to sleep to help her relax
sometimes we played soft, classical music all night to help calm her
and hugging her or just having an arm around her all night kept her from whimpering.
sometimes its the location too. hate to bring this up, but sometimes the cause of the problem is supernatural. young children can see things we can.
im taking physcology and they told us that up untill around the age of 3 children think that if you hide something its permenetly gone.
if your child cant see you they might think your gone so sometimes waking them up really helps.
and the last thing is that my sister took this medication when she was older and she would wake up from sleeping and still think she was asleep, she would hallucinate. she’d scream and cry and talk to things that wernt there.
if your child is on any medication maybe its too strong, too overpowering.
good luck=)
July 15, 2009, 3:41 pmTefi says:
Nightmares and night terrors are two completely different things. Nightmares involve the psyche, they involve fears, real or imagined and can be triggered by trauma or fear or things a child hears or sees, movies, all sorts. Night terrors are actually more to do with the way the brain acts during sleep. The rhythms that occur while we are sleeping get messed up and the line between consciousness and unconsciousness gets blurred so that someone can be asleep but really feel they are awake, they will feel paralysed, as the brain does this to us in deep sleep so we cannot act out our dreams and hurt ourselves or those around us, but if these rhythms get disturbed and we are convinced we are awake, but are not, and we cannot move or scream or talk, it can be terrifying. Usually with night terrors, we cannot remember anything about it the next day. They can happen at any age and without any triggers.
It does sound like your daughter is having night terrors, rather than disturbing nightmares, which she would wake from and remember. They usually occur between 45 and 90 minutes after falling asleep, and if we are disturbed and then fall back asleep, they can occur again when the next wave takes place. It is much more complex than this, but it is an understod medical condition and as far as I know, there are treatment methods.
As a single mum myself, whose daughter had terrifying nightmares, resulting from early childhood trauma, I understand completely that you feel you cannot allow yourself to sleep. My daughter needed some therapy and we talked alot about the issues that concerned and worried her and the things that had happened to her in her early childhood. I am pleased to say that she rarely has bad dreams now.
As for your daughter, it would seem she is not having nightmares, but night terrors, she is not even likely to be aware of them, or remember them in the morning, but you, on the other hand, are acutely aware of them and are getting no sleep. You need to take her to see her doctor. If necessary he will refer her to a specialist or sleep clinic, they will take a detailed history of her episodes and possibly even monitor her brainwaves during sleep before deciding how best to treat her. Sometimes it can be something really simple that works, like waking your daughter up genly 45 minutes after she falls asleep a couple of times before you go to bed in order to reset the brainwaves, this can work, but I am not sure how it is done exactly. Or there can be medications available. Sometimes a degree of psychoanalysis is involved depending on the severity and type of night terrors she is having and what happens during them.
If you feel your doctor has not taken you seriously, then keep changing doctors until you find one that does. The other thing you can do is to research night terrors on the internet, you will soon be able to tell if your daughter fits the profile for these or not and there is likely to be much advice and support, a simple search should get you started. Good luck and God bless you and your little one.
July 15, 2009, 7:46 pmJen says:
I would pray over her. Lay your hands on her and ask God to give her peaceful sleep and to protect her from bad dreams.
July 18, 2009, 6:22 amtrac says:
My daughter went through night terrors when she was two. She is now three…it has stopped, but she is still a restless sleeper
July 19, 2009, 7:52 pm