Night Terrors

Sleep Terrors is categorized as a parasomnia associated with being aroused from a very deep sleep. In this disorder, the person with night terrors is neither fully asleep nor fully awake. The International Classification of Sleep Disorder (ICSD) defines sleep terrors as being characterized by a sudden arousal from slow-wave sleep with a piecing scream or cry, accompanied by autonomic and behavioral manifestations of intense fear. In what stage of sleep dose this happen and is this pasted on to your children of you suffer from sleep terrors. Is there a difference in nightmares and sleep terrors?

Sleep Terrors is a sleep disorder that happens when you are in a deep sleep. What causes this and why only really in children? Can a child inherit this from their parents? In what sleep stage triggers sleep terrors? So many questions on how sleep terrors and not much answers.

Sleep in divided into two different categories that are REM sleep that has rapid eye movement, this is where regular nightmares occur and NON-REM that has rapid eye movement. With NON-REM sleep it is also divided into four more stages going from stage 1-4 were night terrors generate in stage 3 to stage 4, this is usually about 90 minutes after a child falls asleep, this is when the child is going into the deepest sleep. Each stage of sleep has to do with particular brain activity. Night Terrors happen due to over arousal of the central nervous system when a child is sleeping. This is happening due to the central nervous system is still maturing that regulates sleep and waking brain activity. Dealing with sleep terrors can be very hard and harmful to other people. When an episode accurse the child usually sits up in bed, has flushing in the skin and accusingly has screaming with waking up confused. In severe cases the child can get aggressive and try to fight. A child can inherit the tendency for this arousal of night terrors if a family member has had it or is a sleepwalker ( that is another sleep disorder). In study’s it shows that night terrors and sleepwalkers share a common genetic predisposition. Night Terrors are very hard on parents because you want to help and comfort that child and there is nothing you can do. The safest and best way is just wait it out and be patient not letting the child harm themselves or anyone else. There is no treatment for this disorder you can only help to try to prevent them by less stress in the child’s life and stick to a bed time routine. Limit TV to be off a hour before bed time so the child is relaxed and call before they go to bed. Understanding how night terrors work is a big help as well.