Sleep Dreaming/walking

Google night terrors. The advice I read when it happened to us was that you shouldn't try to comfort too much as that extend the length of the episode.

My 3 year old daughter kind of has the similar problems every so often in the middle of the night and when she does that I take her to go potty and then i lay her back in bed with a favorite toy and she usually sleeps the rest of the night but my daughter has also woke up screaming in the middle of the night saying that there are bugs in her room cause bugs are one of her fears and she was so freaked out she was looking all over the room and there was a toy ball with a picture of a spider on it and she saw it and screamed her little head off! A friend of mine also said his daughter wakes up in the middle of the night screaming too i think its just because they have bad dreams or have to go to the bathroom and when you are that age its easy to get frightened specially of the dark! don't know if i am of any help but i wish you luck!

They are night terrors. My son had them from 15 months until 3. He just out grew them. They usually happened when he was sick or getting sick. Our pediatrician told us not to intervene. Just stay by his side so he doesn't hurt himself. They are sleeping (not awake and do not know it's you there to comfort them). I know of a couple of other people who have linked them to food coloring in their children. One girl said it was red food coloring that triggered it in her daughter. ....and food dyes are in everything!! I even discovered that day that there is Red #40 in white frosting. Who would have known. You can try excluding processed foods from her diet and see what happens. It could also be caused from a food sensitivity or an overall lack of sleep.

could also be a Confusional Arousal.
http://www.drhull.com/EncyMaster/C/confusional_arousals.html
My daughter had them often and grew out of them around the age of 4. Her daddy was also a sleepwalker as a kid. It would usually happen on nights when she was overtired or running a fever. It seemed to be worse when I would try and wake her up so I would just pat her bed or pillow to draw her attention to the bed, gently and softly say "lay back down sweetie" and she would lay back down. Sometimes she would stay down, sometimes she would be back up and it would take a few times before she would stay down and go to sleep.
She hasn't done it in a couple of years now but she does talk in her sleep just about every night now. I wouldn't be surprised if she starts sleepwalking one of these days.

Our daughter also suffered from night terrors. As much as you want to physically comfort them, the best thing to do is put them in the middle of the bed surrounded by pillows so they can't hurt themselves while they are flailing, and soothe them by talking to them quietly. As one Mom said, touching them can actually prolong the episode. The good news is that they outgrow this, like everything else!

our pedi warned us that after a year they would start to have night terriors. our son did around 15 months or so. he would be screaming and crying and acting like you said. although i don't remember not being able to calm him down after about 15 mins. he was still crying but not kicking and acting like a crazy kid. i would just let her lay in bed and i would use a very clam voice and talk to her and pat her back. if she hits your hand away respect that but keep talking to her and after several mins try to pat her again. poor thing i hope she gets over this soon. our son did. its rare now that he ever has a night terror.

According to our pediatrician these are night terrors and are very normal. He told us NOT to wake her up since it makes it worse. We stay next to her gently touching her in her tummy or back until it stops.

It's not easy of course because all we want is to hold her =( but so far every time she wakes up the next day she acts like nothing happened.

Hope it helps.

It is called "Night Terrors."
Look it up online.
It is developmental based.
Normal.
Most all kids, do that.