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Nightmare and Night Terrors
By Hilary Gibson, Staff Writer
Children enter their deepest sleep of
the night within 15 minutes of falling asleep. This
stage of deep, non-REM sleep usually lasts between 45 to
75 minutes. It’s at this point when children typically
transition from deep sleep to a lighter stage of sleep
or even wake up briefly before falling back to sleep.
Night terrors happen when a child becomes stuck in the
deepest stage of sleep, and is unable to come out of it
and move on to the next stage of sleep. The episode may
last as short as a minute, or as long as 40 minutes.
Parents should not try to comfort the child through
holding or cuddling when a night terror happens since
this may give the child an even stronger sense of being
forceably restrained. Trying to wake them will prolong
an episode, however turning on some lights may be
calming. You should also protect your child from injury
by standing between them and windows, or moving
furniture.
Night terrors can be treated with medications,
hypnotherapy, or with other types of relaxation training
if there seems to be a serious problem. However, the
best way to try and “treat” night terrors is through
prevention. Keeping your child from getting overly
tired, by carefully scheduling waking and sleeping
times, and by taking the child to the bathroom before
your bedtime can help in contributing to the prevention
of night terrors.
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