Night terrors are something that quite a number
of children experience, but it can be confusing
to know if it is, in fact, a night terror
and also what causes it.
Today I am answering your sleep question.
Could night terrors be caused
by overtiredness, overheating and possibly hunger?
Hi, I'm Nicky, one of the founders of a company
called Little Ones and mother to three beautiful children.
At Little Ones, we specialize in infant and child sleep
through a comprehensive set of online sleep programs.
Without knowing the age of the little one
in this week's question,
I'm going to just give you a little bit
of information about night terrors in general.
So, a night terror is different from a nightmare
and generally, we would see night terrors happening
in children over the age of
about three years old.
Night terrors tend to happen
in the first part of the night,
so the sleep before midnight.
Interestingly, there's no evidence that suggests
that what the child was experiencing
during these episodes is in fact terrifying
for them as a nightmare would be.
Night terrors get their name because
it is quite terrifying to watch.
My own son had night terrors for quite a while.
And, I remember the first time my husband saw
one of these episodes,
he was quite alarmed, he was sort of saying
what on earth is happening with Max?
But, what it looks like
is your child appears to be awake.
They are screaming.
They are moaning.
They are very agitated.
They're either thrashing around in their bed
or they might even be sitting up
or they might have even gotten out of bed.
It seems like they are trapped
in a really horrific nightmare and they can't wake up.
The way to know it as a night terror
is the timing because, like I said,
they generally happen in the sleep before midnight.
But also the fact that your child is not awake.
They might seem awake.
Their eyes might be open.
If you talk to them
they won't respond coherently or logically to you.
And they are, in fact,
actually still asleep.
For today's question,
if your little one is younger
than about two and a half to three years old
I'm going to suggest that possibly they're not
having an actual night terror in the first place.
And we can have a look at what else
might be causing that wakefulness.
If they're over that age,
then chances are yes, they are having a night terror.
When your child's experiencing a night terror,
there's not too much you can do
other than keep an eye on them and make sure
that they're safe, that they're not going walking off
down the stairs while they're not actually properly awake.
In some instances you do have to try
and wake your child up.
I actually had to do this recently with my youngest.
It's quite hard to wake them up.
That was because she was becoming so distressed.
She was screaming and waking my other children up.
But generally with a night terror, your child is okay.
They will usually settle themselves back down
and just drop back asleep.
And the next morning have no recollection
of the event whatsoever.
While there's nothing that
definitively causes night terrors,
there are things that are thought to contribute
to night terrors.
And, your question is asking whether overtiredness
overheating and hunger are contributing factors.
Certainly the first two are...
Definitely overtiredness,
making sure that your little one
is getting a decent, early bedtime
and that they're not really overtired heading to bed
is quite crucial to avoiding night terrors
and overheating can certainly be a factor too.
Especially, if where you're living
it is pretty hot during summer.
And depending on the age of your child
they might not be very good
at regulating their own body temperature
with their blankets.
So maybe they don't think to kind of throw
off their blankets or put them back on
if they get cold.
These can be contributing factors to night terrors as well.
Hunger, not so much so.
If you're worrying that hunger is contributing
to a night terror, it suggests to me
that your child is younger than the age where
they do actually start getting night terrors.
So I'm wondering if your child is waking
for other reasons and it could just be overtiredness
or that they're just a bit too hot and sticky
and maybe they need a drink of water.
Thankfully night terrors generally don't hang around
for that long and will generally resolve themselves
and giving your child an earlier, decent bedtime
is a really good way to help stave off,
if your child is susceptible to having night terrors.
We hope that's been helpful.
Please head to our website
if you're interested in more advice
around this topic and around any other
topic to do with infant, toddler, and child sleep.
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And I'll talk to you again next week.