Nightmares/night terrors???

[Erin C]

Have any of you had experience with your infants having nightmares or night terrors? Last night my 10 month old DS woke up, about 3 hours after going to sleep, screaming. He's done this before, but it's always been because he doesn't want to sleep, he wants to play when he hears daddy come home. But this was different. When we went in, he was still laying down and was apparently still asleep. I picked him up and tried to get him to wake up. His eyes were open, but he just didn't seem to be awake. He wasn't fighting me or anything, he was just screaming. I finally put him on his changing table to take his temp (he didn't have one) and gently massaged his head and face. This seemed to calm him down and when we put him back in his crib, he went right to sleep and we didn't hear from him the rest of the night. I'm just wondering if this could be a night terror. I've read a little about them and they usually don't start til around 3 year, but they're starting to think that they can happen in infancy. Any information/advice on this would be great.

Erin

[maple]

Hi,
DD used to (and sometimes still does) get these. She is 3. I found that she would look awake, but she wasn't- she was still immersed in the dream she was having. We tried to talk to her, but she was just hysterical. So I usually just sit with her and rub her back until she calms down, which usually results in "waking up". My DH used to get these a lot as a kid- like 6 or 7 years old. They were so bad that the Drs ran tests- like CAT scans etc because he would have such strong night terrors. There was nothing wrong with him- just a super active imagination that crossed into sleep. Even today he gets quite vivid dreams.

I think you did the right thing. My DS is almost 10 months and he has done the same thing. I try to think about how their little minds must be on information overload everyday...think about all the things that they see/hear/touch that they can't process yet. If your little one is tryin gto stand or walk, that could be it too. I have heard that sometimes the babies pull themselves up in the night and get very upset. It is if there brain says "stand!" they do it and then they can't understand why they are standing.

Hopefully tonight will be a better night!