You’ve put your four-year-old to bed, and you’re sitting on the couch having a moment of quiet, finally, when it’s suddenly broken by screaming. You rush into her room and scoop her up, but can’t find anything wrong with her — and she won’t stop screaming.
It’s not a nightmare, it’s a night terror. The two have some elements in common, but in fact, they’re very different. For one thing, the night terror is likely to leave the parents feeling traumatized, too.
What Is A Night Terror Anyway?
When your child suffers a night terror, unlike a nightmare, they may seem to be awake. They may open their eyes, move as though awake, even running from something you can’t see, or point in horror at their bedroom window.
You can’t snap them out of it, because they are not awake. Turning on the light, taking them into another room, calling their name, and other actions to snap them out of it them can just leave your child disoriented and confused. For the parent, there’s additional confusion, because the child you were so sure was awake the whole time doesn’t remember a bit of what was just going on.
How Night Terrors Differ From Nightmares
The most defining characteristic that differentiates nightmares and night terrors is also the hardest to identify. They happen in different stages of sleep.
Night terrors happen during REM sleep, while, according to Tinybeans, night terrors happen during deeper sleep stages. What that means for you as a parent is that night terrors will often happen shortly after your child is put to bed, while nightmares will usually occur hours later.
There are other differences though, with the most outwardly identifiable one being that your child will not be consolable during a night terror, and will not remember it afterward.
The Severity Earns Night Terrors A Serious Label
Unlike nightmares alone, night terrors actually fall under the umbrella of sleep disorders. Along with sleepwalking and talking in one’s sleep, night terrors are diagnosed as parasomnia, according to HuffPost.
Though the three are linked and can have comorbidity, a child can also sleepwalk or talk in his sleep without having night terrors. They can also have night terrors that don’t involve talking or walking in their sleep.
When To Seek Medical Help
While there is no cure for night terrors, some symptoms and circumstances do warrant a call to the doctor. According to Johns Hopkins, you should contact a medical provider if the child is drooling, jerking, or stiffening during the episode, or if night terrors result in the child doing something dangerous, such as trying to open a door to get outside.
You should also seek medical help if the child’s fears continue into daytime, if you think they may be influenced by family stress, or if night terrors are lasting more than 30 minutes and/or interrupting sleep on a regular basis. Under extreme circumstances, your doctor might seek a psychological evaluation.
What Should You Do In The Meantime?
Experts recommend that you don’t wake your child, but do keep them safe during the episode. This can involve turning them back to their bed, preventing them from trying to navigate stairs, and keeping them from other potential dangers, like windows.
The primary recommendation for night terrors is waiting them out. The episodes typically pass on their own, and most children will outgrow night terrors by their teen years.
Use Caution In Medication
Fortune reports that almost 4 out of every 5 parents have given their child a medication or supplement to encourage sleep. The substances used range from the severely alarming, such as alcohol or an Ambien intended for an adult, to medications intended for children but misused for sleep reasons, like Benadryl, to the more mundane supplements such as melatonin.
However, don’t give in to temptation to use a medication in hopes that your child will sleep more deeply. According to GoodRX, a number of meds that are often used for sleep, including antihistamines, have been associated with nightmares or night terrors. Even melatonin can worsen night terrors in children, according to Healthline.
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