Night terrors

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

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