Night Terrors

For the last few months, Cori has been waking in the night screaming and crying and nothing that Adam or i do can console her. As a matter of fact, the more we ask her what is wrong, or what hurts, the louder and harder she cries. It is very hard on a parent to see their child in such obvious pain and know that whatever you do to help is unsuccessful. It happens about once every couple of weeks around 11 or 11:30pm. Usually, you can hear her move around a little (we still have the monitor in her room) and then the full blown crying and screaming begins. Sometimes she calls for Mommy and sometime she calls for Daddy. But when we arrive in her room, she doesn't want held and will often fight against whoever is trying to hold her. After a while (sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes as long as 15 minutes) she will lay down and go back to sleep like nothing happened. This leaves Adam and i confused. At times she has cried so hard, i just snatch her up and put her in bed with us. She will fight against laying down and then suddenly will snuggle up calm as can be.

I have done some research and found that she is having what is most commonly referred to as a night terror. These are different from your run of the mill bad dreams. For one thing, while she is crying and carrying on, she is actually still asleep although her eyes are open. While she is stuck in this state, you can't console her because she doesn't know who you are and can interpret your hugs as attacks which scare her even more.

As far as i can tell from what i have read, her brain is stuck between light sleep and REM. This transition happens in the first few hours of sleep. While in this limbo state, her brain has trouble distinguishing between real and not real. No one knows for sure what triggers this behaviour in toddlers. Some say it is hereditary. Poor Cori gets a little bit from both parents as both Adam and i were sleep walkers when we were young. We both grew out of it and there is every indication from the literature i read that Cori will grow out of this also. There is another theory that toddlers who are sleep deprived will exhibit this behaviour. Cori still takes a pretty long nap during the day and sleeps about 10 hours each night. Yet another theory explains that toddlers will go through this when they are reaching a developmental milestone or going through a growth spurt. Apparently, the night terror only happens if the toddler is disturbed at the time between light sleep and REM. For example; a loud noise, a change in temperature, a muscle cramp, the feeling of a full bladder and in some cases sleep apnea. As we are really trying to concentrate on potty training right now, it may be that she is noticing when her bladder is full. My niece had sleep apnea and my sister told me that she too was prone to these night terrors.

Actually, night terror is a misused term in most cases. A true night terror is hysterical, blood -curdling screaming where the child's eyes will near bulge from their sockets in fright. This child can become violent and will try to break down doors or go through windows to escape the perceived terror that is frightening them. Only about 1% of the toddler population experiences a true night terror. What Cori is experiencing is more of a night confusion. Something causes her to "wake" in a state of panic. She will cry and cry but will then calm down without causing harm to herself or anyone else.

Overall this phenomena is much harder on the parents than on the child. The child will not recall anything amiss from the night before and there is no bad dream to remember. I just put all of this here in the blog to see if anyone else has experienced this either themselves or with their own children. I will be watching Cori a little more closely to see if she might indeed have sleep apnea or if she just inherited this trait from Adam and i. I hope it doesn't last long. There is nothing worse than having your child cry and cry and know that there is nothing you can do to stop it.