nightmares??? | Imamother

boymom

Fri, Aug 06 2010, 1:05 am

my ds is almost three and he always cries in his sleep. he sometimes says things, throws himself.. I thought maybe he was in pain but it seems like nightmares. anyone ever experienced this before? he's my oldest so im quite inexperienced. someone told me maybe its pinworms but I dont know. any suggestions?

WriterMom

Fri, Aug 06 2010, 1:08 am

boymom wrote:

One of my sons did strange things in his sleep. Never sleep walked, but sat up and changed clothes and spoke random meaningless phrases. Now there was never any sign of distress or pain, or I would have pursued it more, but children lack the unconscious control over their bodies when they sleep that adults have developed. Which is why adults almost never fall out of bed and children frequently do; and why sharing a bed with DH can be pleasant, while sharing a bed with a toddler is usually a nightmare.

Pinworms: is he picking at his bottom? They tend to come out at night, if you inspect the backside region with a bright light at night you'll see them, if that's the problem. Easy to cure, I think the drug is OTC most places.

boymom

Fri, Aug 06 2010, 1:13 am

writermom: no he doesn't pick at his bottom, he just throws his legs. I doubt its pinworms. once he said "the man made a noise" and kept on mumbling about the man and the noise, even when I tried to wake him out of it. today he was reaching for a "picture" dunno what that was!

MamO3

Fri, Aug 06 2010, 4:59 am

My DD does that too. She is a happy well adjusted child so I'm not too worried about it. I usualy calm her down by going along with her dream.
Sometimes she cries because she sees somebody doing something. Instead of telling her it's just a dream and she starts crying and waking everyone because she thinks it's real, I just tell her that I sent that person home/out the room. She calms down much faster that way.
Talk to him during the day, see if anything is bothering him.

2busy

Fri, Aug 06 2010, 8:33 am

my kids awake in the night crying and kicking - it is called nightt terrors - I cannot wake ss out of it and she is unaware of the state she is in - she is 3 yrs old and it is hard sometimees - I have to just let her cry it out - have you heard of night terrors?

boymom

Fri, Aug 06 2010, 11:17 am

2busy wrote:

as in nightmares??

tzatza

Fri, Aug 06 2010, 11:41 am

My 3.5 years old has night terrors. He is a feisty kid and very impressionable. So, when his gets overloaded on new images and info that day, he can end up with night terror. It is different from nightmares.
Here is a link.
http://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHea......html
during the episode, he usually just cries histerically for a short period of time (a single episode lasts from 2-25 min). THe only thing that helps is to gently wisper that everything is ok, shoosh him very softly and just sit next to him for a very little. He calms down and sleeps through the rest of the night. He never remembers any of it in the morning.
THis whole stage started about 4 months ago and I am hoping it will end soon. Smile

SivanMom

Fri, Aug 06 2010, 12:54 pm

tzatza wrote:

THis whole stage started about 4 months ago and I am hoping it will end soon. Smile

Sorry to say, but it is more than likely that he will never outgrow it. Night terrors usually last forever, though the amount of episodes can diminish based on outside factors, like stress. Night terrors are also hereditary, which means that in all likelihood you have a relative (parent, sibling, your husband?) that has it. They may not know it though, or just attribute it to nightmares. I have had night terrors all my life, and now DS (3.5) has them as well, though luckily he doesn't have many. The best thing for me is to open all the lights for a few seconds to get my bearings and to chase away the lingering terror after I wake up. The only time it can be a problem is if a person will do harm to himself or others based on the terror he is having. I don't think that's common though.
Night terrors usually occur within 45 min to 1 hour after falling asleep (after any wakeful period in the night). Nightmares, on the other hand, usually occur later, during a deeper part of sleep. When someone has a nightmare, they are usually awake, but remembering something in their sleep (spider on the wall). During a night terror, the person is usually still asleep.
Nightmares and sleeptalking are usually harmless, you may just want to take away some extra stimulation he is getting during the day, if he is. (DS had several nights of nightmares after listening to Marvelous Middos machine the first few times. those cds are scary)

lost

Mon, Aug 09 2010, 1:07 pm

I had night terrors when I was a child. I don't remember it but my mother says I used to make the entire family leave our apartment. I would run into my parents room in a state of delirium and drag them screaming and crying. In the morning I wouldn't remember a thing. They though I was possessed or something. Took me to mekubalim. B"H it passed. My DD is 2 1/2 and thus far she hasn't done anything like that.