My daughter will be 3 at the end of the month. She wakes up about 3 hours after going down and is inconsolable for about 30 minutes before passing out again. It's fuggin scary to say the least. Anyone go through this? Would welcome some advice.

Apparently that was my thing as a baby. I grew out of it. It will pass.

Read up on Pediatric obstructive sleep apnea as a possibility. Hopefully KidDoc will respond soon to offer advice.

It is a disorder of sleep stage transitioning, there is very little that can be done about it short of pretty significant medication to consolidate sleep, which is NOT indicated. Occasionally a scheduled awakening after sleep onset will help, but children outgrow these. Unfortunately, consoling the child during a night terror usually doesn't help much.

if its truly a "sleep terror", she is not aware of the event and should not remember it

My son just turned 10 and we've dealt with them since about the same age. When he had his tonsils and adenoids out that seemed to help a lot but they didn't completely go away. They are very sporadic now. Maybe 5-6 that we know of in the last year and a half. It IS very scary to watch and as a parent you desperately want to help in the moment be there doesn't seem to be anything you can actually do but keep them safe. My son has had dozens of them, even a couple at sleepovers with friends and he doesn't remember a thing about any of them. It's a good thing to let other parents know that it's a possibility when they get to that age of sleepovers. In the end it seems to only traumatize the parents and the kids are fine! Good luck!

We also went through that with our oldest daughter, and it happened about the same age. Like someone said above, they don't remember it after it happens. You also can't do much in terms of "waking them up" like with a nightmare. When it happened, we would turn on her favorite tv show and just ride it out. This went on for several months, but eventually stopped. Hang in there.

Thanks all. That echoes everything I read. Just gonna be a rough transition. Timing is bad due to us moving soon and starting a new gig, but life gives zero effs about what's convenient, right?

Thanks again.

My 6 year old son had this happen a few times lately. So we decided to think about 6 things he wants to dream about that night. Hoping to put positive thoughts in his head while falling asleep. They are pretty funny, honestly. (What he wants to eat for lunch tomorrow at school, who he will play with on the playground, what our dog will do the next day etc).

Might not be the answer you are looking for but when one of our sons had them my wife or I would hold him in our lap and pray for him. He eventually quit having them and sleeps just fine these days.

AGGIE WH08P said:

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My 6 48 year old son self had this happen a few times lately. So we decided to think about 6 things he wants to dream about that night. Hoping to put positive thoughts in his head while falling asleep. They are pretty funny, honestly. (What he wants to eat for lunch tomorrow at school work, who he will play with on the playground, what our dog will do the next day etc).

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I found this to be easily adaptable.

I am sure your child is having normal childhood "night terrors" but I will give a PSA. Parasomnia is often genetic, and when it extends into adulthood it can be a sign of nocturnal epilepsy. Google away for details on the condition, but knowing someone who spent years thinking they had a sleep issue until they were finally diagnosed by neurological testing I feel like it is something everyone needs to know exists.

ETA: Autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy, and I think there are other types that look like night terrors

Geriatric Punk said:

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My daughter will be 3 at the end of the month. She wakes up about 3 hours after going down and is inconsolable for about 30 minutes before passing out again. It's fuggin scary to say the least. Anyone go through this? Would welcome some advice.

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My best friend was battling with this with his kid. They went to several doctors and finally one told them to cut out foods with food dye. It worked immediately. The kid is now in his early teens and if he eats foods with dye's in it he will get night terrors. You should ask your pediatrician about it. I know it is a pain in the ass to make that big of a diet change, but it could be the cause.

AgCMT said:

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Geriatric Punk said:

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My daughter will be 3 at the end of the month. She wakes up about 3 hours after going down and is inconsolable for about 30 minutes before passing out again. It's fuggin scary to say the least. Anyone go through this? Would welcome some advice.

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My best friend was battling with this with his kid. They went to several doctors and finally one told them to cut out foods with food dye. It worked immediately. The kid is now in his early teens and if he eats foods with dye's in it he will get night terrors. You should ask your pediatrician about it. I know it is a pain in the ass to make that big of a diet change, but it could be the cause.

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As someone who has a kid with a red food dye allergy/sensitivity, it may not be as big of a change as one would think. There are more and more companies making dye free foods, candy, gum, etc. Our kid can handle other color of food dyes, but will get some unpleasant GI issues with red. If you do try it, I'd start with red. Everything my wife read seemed to point to red dye being the one that can cause the most issues in kids.

Lavender Gooms said:

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AgCMT said:

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Geriatric Punk said:

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My daughter will be 3 at the end of the month. She wakes up about 3 hours after going down and is inconsolable for about 30 minutes before passing out again. It's fuggin scary to say the least. Anyone go through this? Would welcome some advice.

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My best friend was battling with this with his kid. They went to several doctors and finally one told them to cut out foods with food dye. It worked immediately. The kid is now in his early teens and if he eats foods with dye's in it he will get night terrors. You should ask your pediatrician about it. I know it is a pain in the ass to make that big of a diet change, but it could be the cause.

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As someone who has a kid with a red food dye allergy/sensitivity, it may not be as big of a change as one would think. There are more and more companies making dye free foods, candy, gum, etc. Our kid can handle other color of food dyes, but will get some unpleasant GI issues with red. If you do try it, I'd start with red. Everything my wife read seemed to point to red dye being the one that can cause the most issues in kids.

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Good to know!

So far we have worked on having a specified quiet time (she refuses to nap) during the day and that has made a big improvement. We are few nights now without any issues.

I had one kid that did this. He was my second kid, oldest boy, of 8 kids. Seems like it was about the same age, 3-4 ish. Also a couple hours after he had gone to bed. He never remembered it, and everyone said it was far worse on us than it was on him.

I will say this, though. With an "N" of 8, there may be some value in comparing experiences of our other kids. We have had a couple others that wake up at a similar schedule, a couple hours after going to bed, and doing weird things. But so far, only the one had the "terror" issue. And guess what... he's always been our kid with more fear, more anxiety, more emotional issues. (all within the realm of normal, and he's turned into a pretty normal teenager), but I have to think that anxiety played a role.


With anxiety, I think I did a better job with my later kids with listening to their fears and things, and maybe that's why none of them ever really report nightmares or had the terrors. With the oldest boy, I was too impatient with things like fear of thunderstorms, fears of being alone, etc., and maybe that played in to his anxiety. If you see signs of anxiety, you might seek out some help with how to sooth kids and make them feel more secure. Of course if it is severe, don't get your help from me or a message board. Every kid has some anxiety, and what I'm describing was within a normal range, I think, but I'm sure parenting styles can help or hinder.

I also feel like I remember reading that when kids wake up in the middle of the night, it is often a sign that they are not getting enough sleep. Might work on getting him to bed 30 minutes earlier and see if that helps.

But at the end, as others have said, night terrors are relatively common, and don't appear to be traumatic for the kids, who won't remember them. They will likely pass soon.

Great to hear! Our daughter also gave up napping around 2.5-3 years old. We did the same thing, having a set quiet time in the afternoon. She's now almost 8 and still has one!

We went through this with my daughter at Christmastime one year. I realized it was because we were visiting family and friends all over town and it was sensory overload. Once I cut out all the new experiences in such a short period of time, the terrors subsided. I think she was processing and cataloging everything and it put her brain into overdrive. That's what my mom's intuition said anyway.

Sounds like you've had big changes lately. I think that could contribute. I hope this passes soon!

Same as others have mentioned, my oldest does it and it is hard to watch. It was crazy, through tears he would answer math questions including multiplication while looking straight at us and never remember any of it. He still does it though it is much more rare these days. We believed it is due to stress, it seemed to always happen when he had a tough day at school, lost a sporting event, etc.

Similar to others. At first I thought my son was being defiant, but you could see the look on his face when he woke up from the night terror and you understood he was truly out of it. For us they lasted about 4 years and he has not had one for about the last year.

They sucked and scared both my wife and myself. He just was inconsolable for about 5-10 minutes. He would cry for me and then when I held him he would cry for my wife. After a few we figured out what it was and would just hold him until he stopped screaming and crying. It was super hard to see him like that but he never remembered waking up in the night.

It sucks at the time, sucks in the moment, but ours got better and hope that your will slow down and stop sooner than later.