Night Terror

Yangyang was put to bed 2 hours ago, and suddenly began crying and screaming. I picked him up and tried to soothe him or wake him up, but he just kept kicking and crying hysterically. I knew about the term "night terror" but had no idea what to do. I thought it was the same as "nightmare" so I should try to wake him up from his bad dream. After about 10 minutes, he finally calmed down and went back to sleep. I googled "night terror in toddlers" and found the information very useful.

Night terror is different from nightmare. Night terror occurs during deep sleep mode, so one cannot wake up the child. Trying to soothe, to calm, to wake him up can only worsen the episode. The parents should stay nearby, make sure the child is safe, and wait till the episode runs its course. The child won't remember a thing about it in the morning. One cause of night terror (occurs in about 5% of the children) is sleep deprivation. This is true.

Yangyang woke up early and skipped his nap today. It happened a few weeks ago on a weekend when he was really tired and maybe a little sick. We tried to comfort him but nothing worked. Eventually I patted his back and he calmed down, but that was probably an coincidence. These episodes are so scary to watch. Hopefully he will get enough sleep from now on and have no more night terrors.