Q. My child keeps waking and thrashing around – please help?
A. Many children experience night terrors, but most grow out of them. They don't cause any long-term psychological harm to your child.
A child having night terrors may scream and thrash around, and may not recognise you if you try to comfort them.
This behaviour occurs on waking abruptly from deep, non-dream sleep.
Your child won't be fully awake during these episodes and will have no memory of it the next morning.
They are common in children aged between three and eight years old and usually occur in the early part of the night and continue for several minutes (up to 15 minutes), and sometimes occur more than once during the night.
It may be triggered by anything that increases how much deep sleep your child has, such as tiredness, fever or certain types of medication or by anything which makes your child more likely to wake from a deep sleep, such as excitement, anxiety, sudden noise or a full bladder.
The best thing to do if your child is having an episode of night terrors is to stay calm and wait until they calm down. Don't intervene or interact with them, unless they're not safe.
Don’t attempt to wake your child when they're having an episode. They may not recognise you and may become more agitated.
It may still help to have a general chat to find out if anything is worrying them and triggering the episodes.
It'll also help if they have a relaxing bedtime routine.