I went upon a blind recommendation and let Sophia (almost 3) watch the movie "Happy Feet".... BAD IDEA. (There's a scary chase scene in it that involves a scary whale.) A couple nights after watching the movie, she started screaming in her sleep about 5 AM that "a whale is trying to get me" and was seriously freaking out for about one hour. we co-sleep, and she seemed to not know I was there because I was holding her and she was crying/creaming "I want my mommy." She was shaking and pushing me away, while almost scratching me/trying to hold on to me at the same time. The biggest thing was she thought "there's a whale in the bed." So, we turned on the lights and I took her out to the kitchen and turned on the brightest light in out house and made her stare at it to make sure her pupils would react evenly, and they did. She didn't have a fever and was well otherwise the day before and after.
It looked like a bad trip to me, like she was seriously hallucinating. I watched her dart her eyes around the room, like she was following a moving animal. Next, piles of clothes became animals and she would point to a crumpled shirt and say "The purple animal is going to get me." I don't really know how she came out of it, she just kind of fell asleep. Since then we have had many discussions that whales live in the ocean and could not be out of water or in our house, they are nice to people, but they may not be nice to other animals and they do eat fish. She tells us every day that there is no whale in the bed, but she says it frightfully. This was almost one full week ago- well last night, we all laid down and once that light was off, she was screaming about the whale in a way that topped the first night- she was screaming and crying so loud, but it was different.
I don't know how to help her and how to reduce this anxiety. Last night, she asked to sleep in her own bed so her dad took her in and she fell asleep without problem, and slept there all night. We are both okay with her sleeping in her own room, so is that an effective way to break her of this fear? I just don't know what to do.
I was just reading up on nightmares and night terrors, and apparently nightmares happen normally closer to the morning, and the child normally gets up and comes and talks about it, and is awake and aware of whats going on, nightmares you will not know about, until your child wakes and tells you about them.
Night terrors, you'll see the pupil thing(which means they are probally still asleep), they most commonly dont remember what happens, and they are normally between 1-4 am, and they will appear very confused, and unresponsive.
Night terrors occur more commonly when the child is over tired, or has had a change in sleep schedule. I also read that even if they call for you they will not recognize you, or know who you are, and they will not remember them when they wake, if they do it will be very vague.
I've heard that when a child has a night terror you aren't supposed to try and wake them, but I wasn't sure if that was true so I did some reading on that.
What I read is that parents normally try to wake the child or comfort them and when it is a night terror (which it sounds like thats what that was) that comfort only prolongs the terror.
All this info I read on a buncha diff sites so I dont really have a link but I found this paragraph from http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/refcap/preschooler/psleep/64971.html
What should I do if my child has a night terror?
Don't try to wake her. And expect that your efforts to comfort her will be rebuffed â a child having a night terror really can't be calmed down, and if you try to hold her it may make her wilder. Unless she's in danger of hurting herself, don't attempt to physically comfort her. Just speak calmly, put yourself between her and anything dangerous (the headboard of her bed, for instance), and wait for the storm to pass. Before you go to bed, take the same precautions you would for a sleepwalker, since children in the grip of a night terror often stumble out of bed: Pick up any toys or objects on the floor that she could trip on, fasten a gate at the top of the stairs, and make sure windows and outside doors are locked.
Good luck, that must have been scary.
Wow that is so intense! I never really knew what a night terror was, I guess I just assumed it was just bad nightmare, but man that sounds like a whole other level. I dont have any advice, but you could probably find some good tips like the one's the pp posted by just searching online.
Good luck!
Cae had night terrors for a week. It was terrifying. He can't talk much but he'd just lay there screaming while sleeping and I couldn't comfort him with anything. I just started telling him stories while he was screaming. It made me feel like I was doing something but didn't make it worse.
My Cae had night terrors for 2 nights after watching Finding Nemo. There's a scary scene in it with sharks. He would wake up screaming, and my mom kept telling me to just let him go through it. I think it makes it worse if you try and wake the kid up because it could put them in some kind of heart arrest thing...I forgot what my mom said, but she was told by one of my aunties who is also a pediatrician. You can give them a glass of milk before they go to bed if you think they seen a scary scene in a cartoon or movie, because the milk is supposed to really calm them, and also hot chocolate, although I don't know if that one would work or not, but if you put milk in it, it's supposed to work just as well, according to my auntie...
Night terrors are really difficult to handle. Both of my kids suffer from them, as did I as a child. In our case they'll scream and cry and won't answer questions or respond in any other way. My parents used to splash water in my face but I don't suggest doing this. It's too much of a shock. Sometimes you just have to let em play it out while comforting them.