Hi
My 2 year old boy takes one nap a day. He goes down well at night time. The problem comes after he is asleep. It starts anytime from 10pm and continues until he gets up in the morning. He moans or what sounds like whining in his sleep and often yells out Mommie and No! When I check him he is tossing and turning but seems to be still sleeping.
After having him I am a very light sleeper so when this starts I then continue to stay up and hear all of his noises. I was thinking it was night terrors but he does not wake up screaming so now I am wondering if it is something else.
Beacuase of this he wakes up cranky and more than anything I would like suggestions on how can I help him get a good night sleep so I can get one myself!!
Thanks a lot!
J.
Have you talked with his pediatrician? My daughter was also having sleeping issues, which is a concern since I have narcolepsy. However, her pediatrician said that night terrors are common in young children but they can out grow them. Do some reading on them because it tell you how to deal a child having these nightmares.
Sounds like your little man is having night terrors. Some kids get them around his age and outgrow them in time. The best way to help with these is to have a night light on in his room and play some light elevator music in the back ground. Also read him a story at night that is uplifting and not at all scary.
Otherwise if its not night terrors, I am thinking it could be something that is happening at daycare that he saw that might be scaring him and just doesnt know how to say it. If he is in daycare, maybe take him out for ice cream and just ask him how his day is going or what has been going on at daycare.
google confusional awakenings. like night terrors these occur while the child is still asleep but unlike night terrors the emotional is more agitation and whimpering than shear terror. there are ways to limit the number of events and their length. being overtired seems to invite episodes and through reading i was able to find some methods to shorten the length of episodes. i found that not holding her but laying next to her and talking quietly was what worked best for us. she grew out of these in a bout a year. good luck!
This is a copy (below) of my reply to a similar question this week from another Mom. I think it applies in your situation as well as it seems like much more than typical night terrors. From the time I was a small child I was always known to make tons of noise while asleep, talking, crying, yelling out, etc. and also thrashing about while asleep. I wish I had been assessed by a sleep doc decades before I was, as on the worst nights I was always tired and had a lack of energy the following day.
Best wishes ~ J
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Hi,
I suffer from a sleep disorder (a hereditary one) called parasomnia. It is as she described, that during REM sleep when most people are 'paralyzed' I have full motor function, see things that aren't there, talk, walk around the house, etc. While it has provided much content for family jokes over the years, I wasn't diagnosed until my mid-twenties. It's a simple medication taken at bedtime (and anti-convulsive) which doesn't make me drowsy but simply helps the part of my brain that needs to tone itself down to indeed do so at the correct time during my sleep cycle.
When I was diagnosed (during an overnight sleep study) and started the treatment I never realized how much of my energy and life I had been missing since I was a child. Since my Mom has been subsequently diagnosed (10 years after I was), it seems we both thought that our many awakenings during the night and strange vivid dreams were just normal, and what everyone has! How wrong we were :)
My suggestion is to get to a sleep specialist, typically they are also neurologists. If you are in the DC area, the best of the best is Dr. Helene Emsellem's practice, in Bethesda. It's called the Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders, and their website is www.sleepdoc.com. It is a nice practice, and they treat many children - I would not hesitate taking my daughter there, but so far at 7 months she seems to have gotten her sleep habits from her father :) {if you are not able to come to MD, then I would suggest asking this doc for a referral to a practitioner in your area.}
It sounds more like dreams than terrors really. I agree with those who say watch what he watches. My daughter started having nightmares and was afraid of her toys around age two. Turns out her daycare was showing Toy Story without my knowledge. It gave my daughter nightmares and she was afraid of dogs and her toys. Just because it is animated doesn't mean it's okay. Also try to think of something else that he might be afraid of and speak with him about it. Try to give him happy things to dream about! :-)
He's apparently having dreams of bad situations. Are you cautious of the programs he's watching on TV...especially before bedtime? Perhaps read him a happy, funny little story when you get ready to put him in bed. Don't let him eat anything before bed either. Our one daughter used to refuse to eat supper when the rest of the family did, and would decide 20 mins before bedtime that she finally wanted to eat. I'm not sure why, but she never slept well during those times. When we forced her into eating with the rest of us and wouldn't allow her food before bed, everything strange stopped. Good luck!
