Night terrors

My now 11 year old son (diagnosed with autism 18 months ago) had severe night terrors from around 14 months old. When i say severe i mean i was convinced he was in actual pain, we had to take him to the largest room, the living room, cushion every wall, fireplace, object. Ive never seen anything like it before and neber wish to again. He would thrash that hard screaming, and recoiling it was so upsetting to me. He would just look right through us, we couldnt help. The longest, lasted 1 and a half hrs!!!! Id never seen night terrors before or knew what they were. They lessened over the yrs, but id hear that piercing scream and just run for him, it couls wake the dwad that scream. I had a chronic sleepwalking brother from 4 or 5 yrs old, bolts had to be put at the top of the doors to outside because he could let himself out. It can be inherited ive been told, particularly in males, sleepwalking, talking, terrors. But nothing prepared me for night terrors, its heartbreaking to watch. I have a 3 yr old son now too, and he has them, not as frequently as my older son did or anywhere near as severe or long, but they are ramping up (i found with my eldest son they came in waves, none for a wk or two, then boom, and we knew it was a 2 to 7 nights before anyone slept again) little one has just had one, is it the male line? But there are noticeable signs of ASD or ADHD in little man too. do agree tiredness, stress and being unwell play a huge part, i could see patterns in that with the eldest son, but from everythingive read and the drs we see, both them and I are yet to come across the extreme violent body thrashing or length of time he'd go for. i have 4 kids, only 2 (the boys) go through this, whatever causes it or if they are linked to certain conditions i hope someone finds a way to at least ease and reduce them. They never remember the next day, but it does affect them in other ways and its soul destroying to watch and affects the whole household 

Hi Intenseworld,

Yes it does, he left school in June (scottish summer holidays begin) and apart from one terror when he had tonsillitis and a high fever in july, nothing!  I am so relieved as i dreaded them, hearing him crying out for me with an awful look of sheer terror on his face, broke my heart every time.  I would make it worse if i spoke or touched him till it had passed, horrible things.  I did also read the terrors often involved either spiders or snakes (those who could remember the nightmares thenext day) so i removed a cuddley snake toy he had in his room near his bed to make sure.

Puffin

Interesting, I wonder whether school was the cause of the night terrors, does the timescale tie in with the reduction in night terrors and home-educating?

Hi All, thanks for your input.

At the moment we seem to be controlling the terrors by not allowing him to overheat when he first goes down to sleep (within the first two hours),  my husband and i keep a check on him every half hour or so and if he is hot pull the duvet down tha bit more till he cools off! he seems very hot alot of the time his father and i could be in bed with hot bottles and a large duvet and he would be fine with a sheet!!  He would always be dripping with sweat when a terror began and i looked up and found a site regards night terrors and overheating seemed a common link.  i could also see the connection if overtired or stressed but we have reduced that by strict bed times and homeschooling (reducing stress).  So we are holding off putting that winter duvet on the bed until we are sure he really needs it.

I know there is moreto it but this definatly seems to have reduced them he has not had a terror in three months.

Puffin

I have Asperger's and I have a history of night terrors.  I have also sleep-walked as both a child and an adult.  It may be stress-related but I think it is that the mind is susceptible to it anyway.

Hello Puffin,

my now 10 year old daughter had terrible night terrors from anearly age up until about 4 years ago. She actually had one last summer when we were camping (Age 10).

she has aspergers. Over the years I could fathom that the episodes were often triggered by a sleep interruption such as- feeling too hot or too cold in bed, needing to go to the toilet in the middle of the night( this was the cause last summer whilst camping) or feeling thirsty in the night. These were the three basic issues which kept recurring. 

my husband would carry her to the toilet but often she resisted most when she most needed to go - sometimes it sounded like niagara falls in there even though she always went to the loo before going to bed! 

she does tend to get overheated under a duvet though is cold at the beginning of the night- going in a couple of hours after bedtime to take off a duvet/check her temperature helped, but not always

She still tends not to drink much during the day and then to catch up by drinking in the evening - nothing much to do about that i'm afraid

incidentally, after the camping issue she did vaguely remember the incident the following morning. She screamed a lot during the night and started kicking out( like she used to when younger) she also told me she hated me ( in fact she screamed it) it was only whenI backed off forcing her to get up that she calmed herself enough to decide to get up herself. She was also frightened she might wet the bed though she has never done this.

a sympathetic adult at the campsite told me the next morning that she used to have night terrors and they were always connected to pressure from her mother. This is perhaps not very reasuuring, Penguin, in fact I inwardly cringed at her words. But there may havebeen truth in there - i may have unwittingly piled more stress onto her already overcharged day.....often theses adys after schoolshe requests that I "leave her be" for a while before I even speak to her- she really needs much more space than I ever realised.

kind regards

AnnaRosa

Hi - I don't know much about night terrors apart from a tv prog I once saw. Also I don't know if they're connected to aspergers or not.  There are sleep clinics based at some hospitals.  It could be worth getting referred by your GP if you haven't already.  I hope others will be more helpful than me!