Have 11 year old daughter who screams, cries and now recently, hits things in her sleep.
Shortly after falling asleep if she is disturbed even slightly, she will start yelling and crying at the top of her lungs. Last night was awful, she was screaming so loud that I thought someone was being attacked . I went into her room(around 1 am) and she was screaming that she couldnt sleep and was hitting things. There was no calming her down and it lasted on and off all night. I laid down with her and she did sleep for 30 minutes while I was in there and then it started again later. It dont happen all the time, but, it leaves a mark when it does. It happened while we were at a motel on time and we were beat the next day because I did keep her awake afterwards because I didnt know how bad it was going to be. She had been sharing a room with my oldest daughter for a year (now 18) who I had taken back after being with her dad and is now out on her own for 2 months. These incidents have been going on over a 4 month period now and are progessively worse. School is a few days away and we have 530 am wake ups coming.Any suggestions would help.
Thanks.
This would be scary! Have you talked to her pediatrician about it? I think I would start there. Has something traumatic happened to her that she is keeping inside, but can't control it at night?
Blessings!
My sister is a children's psychologist and deals with issues like this a lot. Children don't know how to express how they are feeling into words to tell you what is wrong and so they act out. I would seriously look into taking her to someone to help her deal with whatever issues she is facing. It definately seems like more of an emotional issue than sleeping issue. Also, don't let it freak you out that your daughter might need some professional help.
Hi Christine,
Is she fully awake when you talk with her in the night (may appear to be but is not)? Ask her if she remembers anything when she wakes in the morning? If she has no recollection of anything I think it sounds like night terrors. My daughter, though much younger, will do this and has on and off since she was very little. I have found if she is well rested she does it less. Probably worth mentioning it to your pediatrician especially if it gets to the point that she is harming herself(we haven't hit that point yet). Good luck and hang in there.
This probably doesn't sound helpful, but it sounds like your daughter is stressed out and would benefit from talking to a professional. I'd start with your pediatrician or a counselor.
I'd talk to her doctor, and maybe get a referral to a children's psychiatrist or counselor. It could be nothing, but it also could be an indication of some stressful event (maybe not even recently, but that something recent brought it to the surfacce).
Good luck!
Hi C. - I recommend talking to your pediatrician first and ask him for some resources. You could also research sleep specialists in your area.
What you are describing sounds pretty classic for night terrors. She is definitely not too old for them, even adults suffer from them. They usually are not caused by a trauma or psychological event so that might bring you some comfort.
Here are a couple of articles that you might find informative:
http://www.babycenter.com/0_night-terrors-why-they-happen...
http://www.nasponline.org/resources/health_wellness/sleep...
Christine,
Sorry to hear about this. I'm sure it is very frustrating. My husband is a hypnotherapist and one of his specialties is dream therapy and he may be able to help. I don't have much information on it myself, but it may be worth a shot to give him a call just to discuss some ways to help.
His name is James and his number is ###-###-####. I hope this is helpful.
This sounds like an emotioal fear. It could also be realted to a sleep disorder. As well as the stress of not having her sister in the room with her. I would take her to the dr and request a sleep study. Reassure your girl that no matter what she tells you ,you will always listen and love her . Maybe it could be the hormones related to puberty too. Growing pains. Good luck and god bless
Gosh, I would only suggest this in the most delicate way, but something is clearly wrong. There's a tiny chance that something unusual happened while she was rooming with her sister. Again, I'm so sorry to even mention it, but I would take her to a child psychologist who knows how to talk with children in such a way as to get them to reveal any possible fears or traumas which might have occurred.
When my brother was young he would have night terrors. It was horrible. His eyes would be wide open, but he was still asleep, and he would scream like he was being attacked but he would panic randomly if you tried to comfort him. Sometimes it would help and sometimes it would set him off worse. We never looked deep into the problem but they went away as he got older. MY brother-in-law also does this. He screams and shouts profanities. He still does at age 28. He says that anything new, like sleeping in a new place will set him off. Maybe the new sleeping arrangements are setting your daughter off.
It wouldn't hurt to see a professional. I read an article that was studying dreams and emotions and it said that we need deep REM sleep for our bodies to process and store correctly our emotions. If their has been trauma then our brains cannot do it, they don't know what to do with the emotions, they can't cope and our sleeping patterns are disturbed.
I am not a professional and I don't know how much this one study has been taken seriously, but it wouldn't hurt to look into any emotional trauma that could be setting her off.
Does she sleep with a light on. that might help.
Also one of my other brother-in-laws suffers from haluccinations from time to time. When he was little they scared him a lot and so his parents got him a little yorki that would sleep in his room, usually on his bed. He knew that if the dog wasn't barking at it then it wasn't real and it helped him a lot.
For me eating a little protein before bed helps me sleep deeper, and good exercise really helps me sleep better because I can work out all my stress so my brain can shut off at night.
Good luck
Hi C.,
I can email you some info on sleep. There are some natural technologies that can make a huge difference in the quality of sleep (magnetics and infrared). It changed my life. The other thing is releasing trapped emotions. I took a course and read the book called The Emotion Code. There was a woman who had night terrors for years - even breaking arms, etc as she thrashed about. After a few sessions of releasing trapped emotions, the night terrors are gone. As part of my certification, I need to work on 30 people/animals. The work can be done remotely with a proxy. Please let me know if you would be interested in seeing if that could be a contributing factor. I know it sounds crazy, but I've already seen amazing results in the 12 people I've helped already. Your subconscious mind remembers everything.
Good luck.
S.
like others have said, it sounds like it could be night terrors. all three of my daughters have them (or had them), at one point or another, and our middle daughter (9 yrs) still has them occasionally. it usually occurs when they are OVERTIRED! what's terrible about it is that after a night of these restless fits, they are even more tired - it's a bad cycle. we're really careful about giving the girls "down time" to relax, especially on those crazy days, or days when we're on a trip, etc. sometimes it's unavoidable, but it's quite scary to watch your little ones so upset in the middle of the night. like someone else posted, ask your daughter if she remembers waking up - most likely, if it's night terrors, she'll have no recollection at all of anything.
talk to your pediatrician - always a good idea.
good luck in your search for answers. try to schedule your days so that you all get plenty of rest.
