How long will these Night Terrors go on???

[Corie]

My 6 yr. old son has been waking up every single night with
night terrors. The night terrors are really freaking us out! He is screaming, crying, yelling out our names, etc.
This has been going on now for over 2 months. When is this going
to stop? Is this normal to last this long?

What should I do?

[minnie-zb]

Have you talked with your pediatrician?

[JBaxter]

I would call his ped. 2 months of every night it a bit long. There may be something going on he isn't dealing well with on his own.

[daisymommy]

I agree. Every night (or close to it) for 2 month is not typical at all. Something else may be going on.

[Katigre]

Does changing the room where he sleeps make a difference? I would do an experiment and try to have him sleep in your room (sleeping bag on the floor) and see if he still gets them. When DS was 3 he would wake up crying with fear over nightmares every.single.night between 12-1am (right when DH and I would be falling into a deep sleep cycle too...fun times!). This continued for months. Finally, we moved him to our room for a different reason (I had to put both kids to sleep at the same time and didn't feel like moving him) and he didn't wake up with a nightmare that night. I was shocked and tried it again - same deal. He hasn't had a nightmare like that in over a year (the time he's been back in our room). It was a total win/win situation for us.

[Corie]

Does changing the room where he sleeps make a difference?

The room doesn't matter!

He slept with his big sister in the guest bedroom and he still
woke up.
He sleeps with me/DH in our bed and he still wakes up.

[mom2binsd]

It doesn't sound like typical night terrors, they usually start around age 2-3 and tend to be sporadic, not every single night. Most kids I know who had them, DD included began them as toddlers and they continued to but less so until age 6 or so......but never every single night.

Call you ped to see what else could be going on, can't be good for any of you not to be getting quality sleep, DS most importantly. I feel for you, they are scary, and can't imagine them every night.

[buddyleebaby]

DD2 has frequent nightmares. Recently she has dreamed about alligators, dinosaurs, someone trying to "fire" her, someone in her room trying to steal her piggybank, hunters coming to get her.

Things that help her are limiting food before bedtime (I don't know why it helps, but it does) and making sure she gets to bed fairly early. If she is extremely tired/overtired she seems to have bad dreams.

We also encourage her to talk about her dreams (she has decided that if she talks about it, it will not come true) and crawl into our bed when she needs us.

I used to have frequent nightmares as a child and night terrors as a teen. My father as well. We also both suffer from chronic migraines and I have always wondered if they are related.

I hope Knox is feeling better soon.

[arivecchi]

I did not realize that older kids had night terrors too, but according to this website they do:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/night-terrors/DS01016

My DS had them whenever he was overtired, but given the frequency with which your son is having them, I would definitely call his ped.

Good luck.

[willow33]

My oldest DS gets them several times a week...he's almost 8. His eyes are open, but he is not awake and he makes strange noises/yells, shakes, runs around. It's very unnerving. We find that they tend to happen when he is overheated and overtired, but sometimes that doesn't seem to make a difference either. One way to help end the terror quicker is to have him go to the bathroom.

Here's a great article on it:
http://www.drgreene.com/qa/what-are-night-terrors