Your child is sleeping peacefully when you suddenly hear a blood curdling scream. You race into their room and find them sitting up in their bed. Their eyes are wide open, they’re sweating, and they have an odd, almost “possessed” look on their face. You reach out to comfort them but they push you away and scream louder. They don’t recognize you – actually seem terrified of you! You assume that they’re having a nightmare and try to wake them up, but the more you try, the worse things get. Nothing you do is helping, and you’re starting to panic. You reach for the phone to call the pediatrician, but before you dial the number your child suddenly calms down. They stop screaming, their body relaxes, they yawn, lay down and fall back to sleep as if nothing ever happened. Your child sleeps peacefully for the rest of the night, but you’re so rattled that you don’t sleep a wink. WHAT JUST HAPPENED???
Sleep terrors are sleep disturbances that occur when your child is transitioning from one non-REM sleep cycle to the next. They typically occur during the first four hours of sleep, but may occur at any time throughout the night – and during nap time as well. They can last anywhere from 5 to 45 minutes (and occasionally even longer). Terrors can be a one time only event, or occur nightly for several weeks at a time. 6 to 8 percent of healthy, happy children will experience a sleep terror sometime during their childhood. They tend to run in families. Sleep terrors by themselves are not an indication that your child has an emotional or medical problem.
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