"A Night of Terror"
We've had a rough couple of nights. My 7 year old son has been having night terrors. He has them frequently when he was about 3-5 years old. Then, they kind of disappeared.
Friday night, my step-sons came into town. When all the boys are here, they want to stay up all night. We usually tell them that they can as long as they're quiet. They usually fall asleep anyway. We've found that if you tell them that they can't stay up, they never go to sleep. It's a reverse psychology of sorts.
Well, Friday night they stayed up the entire night. My husband had to get up twice during the night to get them out of the kitchen and off the computer.
They finally fell asleep at about 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning. At 7:00 a.m., we heard this blood-curdling scream coming towards us. I knew immediately that it was my 7 year old son.
He was screaming uncontrollably. He came into our bedroom and stood on my husband's side of the bed. When asked what was wrong, he said that his foot hurt. We figured that one of the older boys had hit him or something. His eyes were wide open and he was looking at us, responding. We asked him to show up where his foot hurt. Then, he pointed to his head.
He then started pointing in the corner of the room and screaming, "They're killing him. I need help!". He could not be consoled. He was running all over the house.
He described being abducted by aliens, chopped with an axe, seeing his little brother being killed, vomiting, and more.
It was pretty scary.
This went on until 9:15 in the morning; almost 2-1/2 hours total.
It wasn't until I called his father, in Texas, that he woke up. Something about his father's voice snapped him out of it.
I tried leading him back to his bed to go back to sleep. That wasn't happenening.
Then, on Saturday night, it happened again. This time, it only lasted about 30 minutes.
At about midnight Sunday morning, we called his father again. Again, his father's voice is what snapped him out of it.
Has anyone ever heard of this working? I wonder why him talking on the phone, to his father, is what worked?
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Friday night, my step-sons came into town. When all the boys are here, they want to stay up all night. We usually tell them that they can as long as they're quiet. They usually fall asleep anyway. We've found that if you tell them that they can't stay up, they never go to sleep. It's a reverse psychology of sorts.
Well, Friday night they stayed up the entire night. My husband had to get up twice during the night to get them out of the kitchen and off the computer.
They finally fell asleep at about 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning. At 7:00 a.m., we heard this blood-curdling scream coming towards us. I knew immediately that it was my 7 year old son.
He was screaming uncontrollably. He came into our bedroom and stood on my husband's side of the bed. When asked what was wrong, he said that his foot hurt. We figured that one of the older boys had hit him or something. His eyes were wide open and he was looking at us, responding. We asked him to show up where his foot hurt. Then, he pointed to his head.
He then started pointing in the corner of the room and screaming, "They're killing him. I need help!". He could not be consoled. He was running all over the house.
He described being abducted by aliens, chopped with an axe, seeing his little brother being killed, vomiting, and more.
It was pretty scary.
This went on until 9:15 in the morning; almost 2-1/2 hours total.
It wasn't until I called his father, in Texas, that he woke up. Something about his father's voice snapped him out of it.
I tried leading him back to his bed to go back to sleep. That wasn't happenening.
Then, on Saturday night, it happened again. This time, it only lasted about 30 minutes.
At about midnight Sunday morning, we called his father again. Again, his father's voice is what snapped him out of it.
Has anyone ever heard of this working? I wonder why him talking on the phone, to his father, is what worked?
To leave a comment and view others, click HERE.
Labels: night terrors, nightmares
posted by Melissa Swanson at 3:00 AM
Melissa is a student, a working mom, and the mother of 4 boys (ages 4, 7, 8, and 10). She is costantly fueled by the tenacity of her boys and their ability to make her laugh! What they say is true, "Laughter is the best medicine!"
2 Comments:
Maybe this is a way to get yours and his dad's attention. May I ask if he takes any med's? If so my child takes med and we have had the same thing happen to us. I would call his Dr I would bet it is med's causing the nightmares.
He is on Ritalin LA for ADHD. He's been on it for over a year though. He had night terrors when he was little, but outgrew them. The night it happened, he didn't go to sleep until 6 in the morning. He was playing all night apparently. I feel like that's what caused it. Last time this happened, they had him have what I think was called an EEG (brain wave test), to test for seizures. It was negative. I did call the doctor. He is going to be checked at his next appt in a few weeks, unless it happens again.
How old is your child?
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