Terror in the night...

If you follow me on Twitter you may have already read a few Tweets I've posted about Carley's night terrors, but if you haven't here's the story...

A few months ago Carley woke up in the middle of the night in an emotional uproar. She was very fussy and crying, almost like she was throwing a fit. I got her out of her bed and Jeff and I rocked her on the couch to try to calm her down but to no avail. Once Jeff took her from my arms I noticed her eyes were open and I tried to talk to her but it was as if she was looking straight through me and had no idea I was standing there at all. At first I thought maybe she had a bad dream and was upset but then I realized this was something more than a nightmare.

For the next few days I did some research online and I read about the differences between nightmares and night terrors. Feel free to read about that here. Basically nightmares are bad dreams and night terrors are a function of the brain and sleep cycle and most children exhibit outward fear and screaming or crying, they appear to be awake when they are not with no recollection of the episodes.

To date Carley has had about 10 night terrors. She's followed most of the symptoms of a "typical" night terror - they happen at the same time every night (between 11:30-midnight), they have about the same duration, and the exact same reaction every time.

I read somewhere that once parents pinned down the cause of the night terrors they were easier to manage. Some parents noticed that when the child saw something scary (a bat man episode, the Snow White ride at Disneyland, a scary clown, etc.) then the child would have a night terror. For us it wasn't that simple. Nothing seemed to trigger a night terror, it didn't seem to be black-and-white. I figured we'd just live with this for a while until she outgrew whatever was causing them.

A few weeks ago Carley fell asleep in our bed while watching TV and it occured to me that she didn't go potty before laying down and I just brushed it off and planned to take her when I put her into her own bed - about 10 minutes later she had a night terror! A few days after that she fell asleep in the car on the way home (without going potty first) and she had a another night terror! All of a sudden it clicked!

Most night terrors happen between sleep cycles and while the person or child is transitioning into the next cycle of deep sleep and something arouses the brain just a tiny bit which causes the night terror to occur. Since it happens in deep sleep the person is unable to awaken fully so a night terror ensues. For Carley it was because she had to pee so when she was in deep sleep her bladder aroused her brain and a night terror would begin. Toward the end of her episodes (while she was still in panic) she would yell "POTTY!" Once she emptied her bladder the panic would begin to calm down and she would fall asleep as if nothing happened. The next day she couldn't recall a single thing!

I am so thankful we have figured it out and we make sure she goes potty twice before bed, and we are also thankful that she doesn't remember anything that happens.

We definitely sleep better now that we know the cause and we can control them a little better.