How Do You Understand, Cope With, And Alleviate Night Terrors In Children?
Television commercials and parenting magazines are full of images of babies and children sleeping peacefully. For many parents, their reality is quite different. Their sleeping children wake up screaming for no apparent reason. Eyes wide-open, and seemingly terrified, the child appears to be awake, but he/she is not. What the child is experiencing is not a nightmare. It’s called a night terror, and if not understood, it can be quite terrifying for the parent witnessing it. Night terrors are not fully understood, but are thought to be an outward manifestation of an overload on an immature nervous system. (This is not to say that the child is immature or developmentally delayed by any means.) Understand that most night terrors are caused by over-stimulation during the day. Start taking note of what your child is experiencing throughout the day. Try to adhere to a schedule, if you can. A child prone to night terrors finds changes in their days too stimulating. Of course it’s impossible to
