Night Terrors in Children

Night terrors are mostly defined as an unexpected awakening from the slow wave of sleepy condition with a terrified scream from the sleeper accompanied by the autonomic (dominated by a portion of nervous system that manipulates motor functions of organs like heart, lungs, etc.) and interactive manifestations of extreme fear.

child sleeping on stairs

Symptoms of Night terrors:

  • Sudden stage of extreme fear while sleeping
  • The stage generally occurs in the first third of the sleep.
  • A partial or full amnesia can arise while the victim goes through the stage

    • Related features:

  • Polysomnographic observation can reveal the onset of the phase during the 3rd or 4th stage of sleep
  • Tachycardia can accompany the ongoing episode
  • Medical issues like epilepsy is not the cause of this episodes
  • Along this onset nightmares can be prevalent in the sleeping period

    • Severity of night terrors:

    Some of the children who face the episodes of night terrors once in a month do not have any chance of serious harm. The medium stage of the symptoms that may occur once in a week is also considered harmless. But the severe case can be the repetition of the episodes every night and this can result in physical injury of the child or the other family members. In such instances the parents should consult the sleep specialist for further treatment.

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    Posted in: Baby sleeping Problems | #103

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