Parents Beware: It's not just a nightmare!
If you hear a child cry out at night, do you rush out to see what is wrong or leave them be until they get it out of their system? What if this happened every night? For some parents whose children suffer from night terrors, this is what they go through. At first it might seem that the child is just acting out to gain the parents attention, but it might be that the child is suffering from a night terror. However, how do you determine whether the child is having a night terror or your usual nightmare? One of the main differences between night terrors and a nightmare is that when children wake up they will not remember having a night terror and with nightmares they usually remember the dream that they had. Parents are advised to not ask their child about their night terrors or even mention that they had one. Other suggestions on how to deal with night terrors, as well how to identify them in a child are discussed in the video below.
I disagreed with a suggestion that the video gave on how parents should react with children who suffer from night terrors. Even though I don't have any children, I don't think I would be able to leave the child by themselves while they went through their episode. I think that I would wake them up before they suffered from the night terror, that way they would sleep better and so would I. It turns out that adults can also suffer from night terrors, especially if they are going through an emotional time that is causing them stress or if they consume alcohol. I myself have not had a night terror, but even if I did I would not remember it either way.
I have also been curious on how to distinguish the difference between nightmares and night terrors. The video you posted really helped to clarify just how the two differ from each other.
ReplyDeleteI did not know this, but this is really useful information. I did not know that nothing could be remembered from a night terror. My younger sister does not have any of these but she does tend to talk in her sleeps A LOT. In my Intro to Psy class, our instructor told us it is okay to continue the conversation with them and I do. It is kind of freaky how my sister goes along with it while sleeping, then after while she just stops replying.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that children who experience these night terrors look like they are awake and conscious but they are actually in a deep sleep. I would be totally freaked out if I had to ever experience this in the future but I know now that it is completely normal and not harmful. I agree with you on disagreeing with the suggestion on just leaving the child alone until the episode has passed. The most comforting technique I would personally use is waking the child up 15 minutes before their usual episode since they occur about the same time every night. It's shocking to hear that these children who suffer from night terrors have no idea what happened the night before. If I were to ever encounter this with my children I would definitely ask them about it the first time but after I would probably not want to ask anymore.
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