History: As most of you know, Paige suffers from Night Terrors. It has been a long, hard road for us. She started having them, oh, about 18 months to 2 years ago. She has had them EVERY night, TWICE a night since then, minus a few short time periods in which we thought maybe we would be done with them.
What are they: They are like nightmares, only she has no recollection of them in the morning. From everything we've read it happens when she transitions from Stage 3 into Stage 4 of the sleep cycle right before they go into REM Sleep.
What do they look like: We usually hear her start to cry with the first one about 45 minutes to an hour after she goes to bed. Most nights by the time we get to her she is standing at the top of the stairs. Don't let this fool you... she is NOT awake. She is wide eyed, crying hysterically, and usually looking off over your shoulder. Sometimes she'll say something, but most of the time I can't understand what she is saying.
The second episode is usually 45 minutes to an hour after the first one and we are usually in bed by then, so we find her sitting up in bed, wide-eyed, and crying hysterically again. Sometimes she is batting at things, sometimes not. If she is understandable it is usually her saying "no" over and over and swinging her arms.
What do we do: We scoop her up into our arms, assure her of our love and God's love, pray with her/over her, and stay with her until she is calm enough to go to sleep. I don't know that she ever wakes up. There have been times when she is so hysterical and inconsolable that I just turn on all the lights and that seems to help snap her out it. Most of the time she calms down as soon as we pick her up and start talking to her. Though, remember, I truly don't believe that she ever wakes up during any of this.
Does she ever not have them? On rare occasions. It seems that if we are away from home, she won't have one the first night or two we are gone.
Is there any way to make them stop? Nothing we have tried has worked. We have tried waking her up after 30 minutes of sleep as this is supposed to disrupt the sleep cycle and possibly help. We found that no matter what time we would try to wake her up, she would go right into one as soon as we attempted to wake her.
We've also read that the more tired they are, the more likely they are to have a terror. We do still have her "rest" on occasion and maybe we should be more diligent with this, but even when she napped everyday she still had them.
We pray like crazy. We pray before bed with her that she will have a peaceful night's sleep filled with happy dreams. We also pray for the Holy Spirit to fill her and God's angels to protect her mind, thoughts, and body. We have prayed over her room and bed.
How long will these go on: I HAVE NO IDEA! Everything I've read says kids usually out grow them by adolescence. And right now that seems SOOOOOOO far away.
How am I holding up? I'm going to be brutally honest here. I am angry! I am angry that my child gets up terrified every night. I'm angry that God has not taken these away no matter how much I pray. I'm even angry that my evenings, when I should get to relax because my girls are sleeping peacefully, get interrupted twice a night. Selfish, I know, but I'm just being real.
How can you help? Pray with us! I know there is power in prayer and God is bigger than this and can heal her! Pray for Mark and I that we can stay strong in this and for Paige. Right now she has no idea that she has these, but even though she doesn't remember them, she still has something dark and fearful enter her mind every night. Thanks for standing in the gap with us!
