Night terror and nightmares

At least once in your life you would have had a nightmare, but have you ever had a night terror or ever witnessed someone else who has one. Many children experience nightmares and night terrors, but most grow out of them. They don't cause any long-term psychological harm but can be very distressful for the child and the witness. Night terrors are very different from nightmares. A child having night terrors may scream and thrash around, and may not recognise you if you try to comfort them. This behaviour occurs on waking abruptly from deep, non-dream sleep, they won't be fully awake during these episodes and will have no memory of it the next morning. However nightmares occur from dream sleep (REM sleep). The child may wake up from the nightmare and, depending on their age, may be able to remember and describe the bad dream to you.

A child who experiences night terrors may scream, shout and thrash around in extreme panic, and may even jump out of bed.  Their eyes will be open, but they're not fully awake. The episodes usually occur in the early part of the night, continue for several minutes (up to 15 minutes), and sometimes occur more than once during the night. This may be distressing to watch but the best thing to do is not to wake up the child as they may not recognise you and may become more agitated if you try to comfort them. The child won't remember the episode the next morning, but it may still help to have a general chat to find out if anything is worrying them and triggering the episodes. Try not to discuss the episodes with the child in a way that worries them as this may increase their anxiety. Most children eventually grow out of night terrors. But talk to the GP if they're occurring several times a night or most nights. The GP will be able to check whether something that's easily treatable is causing the episodes e.g. large tonsils could be causing breathing problems at night and waking your child.

Nightmares usually occur later in the night and cause strong feelings of terror, fear, distress or anxiety. The child may wake up and be able to remember and describe the dream to you. Nightmares in children can be caused by a frightening experience, such as watching a scary film, or by something that's worrying them. Talking to the child is the most important part, it's a way to find out whether anything is worrying them that could be triggering their nightmares but also to show the child conform. Take the child to see the GP if they're having repeated nightmares (a series of nightmares with a recurring theme). If the child's nightmares are being caused by a stressful past experience, they may need counselling

Thank you for reading

Kethujah Sethurajah

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/night-terrors/

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