What is a night terror?
A night terror is not the same as a nightmare. A night terror occurs when a child is partially awakened from a very deep sleep. Sleepwalking is also another example of partial arousal from a deep sleep. Night terrors generally happen shortly after a child falls asleep. Sometime during the first fifteen minutes of sleep the body goes into the deep non-REM sleep. This normally lasts around forty-five minutes to two hours. Night terrors happen during this stage of sleep whereas nightmares occur usually during the second half of the night when the child enters REM sleep. Often the night terror will be worse if the child has been in non-REM sleep for a while. Usually during a night terror a child thrash or scream in her sleep, sometimes she might moan, talk or break out in a sweat. A night terror can last any where from five to forty minutes. Unlike a nightmare, a child will fall right back asleep after the night terror and have no memory of what happened. Night terrors can occur in childre
