Night Terrors or Nightmares.?

Hey Love's,

I am wanting to talk to you guys about Night Terrors. This is one that really hits home and maybe a lot of you are dealing with. Night Terrors I personally know can be scary for an adult more than the child. Out of 3 children so far I have only dealt with 1 child having Night Terrors on a regular basis. He has them almost 4 nights out of the week at most since a little after his 2nd birthday. For a while we were able to sort of pause them in a way for a couple months. With Kayden it's also a rolling the dice kind of thing on whether or not its night terror or nightmare. I never know which one it is until I go into his room. You guys, for a mom, they are horrifying. Our 2 older kids share a room but because we raise our kids up on noise since they were in the womb, whenever my son Kayden would have a night terror or nightmare, it would never disturb Sophia so that was always a plus.

Here I will be letting you guys know what a night terror is vs a nightmare, ways you could possibly help cut them back or even pause them for a while, I would call it prevention of night terrors but unfortunately there is not really a proven way to prevent them. Also I will be telling you guys my way of dealing with it. I am a night owl for now, I am working on that now that my youngest, Lyrix, is no longer in the waking up every 2 hours to eat phase anymore. The only reason now that I stay up is because I love the quiet time of the house being quiet and me being able to do my "Me Time" in silence, and it also I know that I may fall asleep and my son have a night terror or maybe even a nightmare. So lets start with the What....

It is also called "sleep terror". It is a sleep disturbance that happens usually between sleep stage transitions. I know some doctors have defined it as "glitches" in the brain. It is not a smooth transition with your sleep stages. Basically what happens during a night terror is the eyes are open, you appear to be awake, it happens all of a sudden, thrashing around, screaming, crying, even mumbling and moaning. Here is the thing, they are not really awake. Its like sleep walking in a way without the walking part. Night Terrors usually last up to 45 minutes, which yes is an incredibly long time to be dealing with a child having a night terror.
Mom's YES you can do this, your super moms and its all part of the job. It scared the living daylights out of me when Kayden had his first night terror.

The difference between a night terror and nightmare is that a night terror cannot be remembered by the child. They are not actually awake, where as, a nightmare is a scary dream that you wake up from and can remember.


Well now that you know what a night terror is, how exactly do you help it or if you would like to call it preventing why not...

There is not a really definite way to "prevent" a night terror, there are ways to help it though. Night terrors can happen for many reasons.

1. Stress
2. Sickness
3. Not enough sleep, or deprived of sleep
4. Caffeine intake ( a child really shouldnt be drinking caffeine but all too many times we tend to forget that sweet tea not only contains sugar but caffeine as well) 
5. Child Sleep Apnea

Keeping them on a good sleep schedule, doing some calming sleep routines before bed can really help. Also please remember to NEVER WAKE A CHILD IN A NIGHT TERROR, its the same rule as sleep walkers. Also do not physically touch the child in a night terror. You could get hurt in the line of fire and wake them as well. 

What I do with Kayden when he has a night terror is, I will first make him a sippy cup full of water, I will turn on the tv for some light and also for me, I will lay down with a pillow in between us (my older 2 share a queen sized bed because they have always shared a room and co-slept, they are each others "security blanket"),  and really I just wait until he stops. Once he stops, I tuck him in and turn the tv back off. His longest night terror was close to 2 hours and it was his first night terror, I made the mistake of trying to wake him and comfort him thinking it was a nightmare. Lets just say it was not pretty, I ended up with a busted lip and a black eye, my husband was kicked a couple times in not such great places, Kayden also started to shake really bad uncontrollably to the point where I thought he was seizing (but he wasn't thank goodness). 

You guys I am in no way a Dr, I had to just learn and do the research myself, also with the help of our family Dr. This is what helps me get through my child's night terrors. I really hope it helps you guys! Please dont forget to like and +1 for google on this. Stay Golden Loves :)