Nightmares / Night Terrors?

When do these start? What's the difference? For the past week DD has been sleeping much later than usual and is very jumpy and clingy during the day. She's 14 months. Last night she cried out in her sleep probably every hour. She would cry, but not sit up or wake, and then stop 30 seconds later. Could she be having nightmares? And could those be causing her to be jumpy during the day? All of a sudden she's just break into hysterics and run over to me to be picked up. Noises scare her to the point of tears. I'm at a loss.

Re: Nightmares / Night Terrors?

when ds was younger we had this issue. he'd literally just start crying though - it was awful.

then it progressed to the point of we could tell he was having nightmares, because, like you said, the next morning & day, the way he acted was VERY different. He'd cling to me, literally, holding my hair, not letting me out of his sight.

now that he's a little older, it has gotten better, but it's still not perfect...he still has those days where we wonder what he dreampt about (and have even asked him and he has no idea).

i don't have any solutions, but wanted you to know you are not alone. these were awful years for us - when this was happening... what our pediatrician told us was it's because of the brain fighting with itself. part of it wants to sleep and part of it wants to be awake & playing. it can happen when they are overtired.

Re: Nightmares / Night Terrors?

We have been dealing with that on and off for almost 2 years here... It seems that if he goes to sleep later then usual, then he has bad dreams and is crying, whining, and moaning most f the night.. It also happens if he has had an exciting day....

Nightmares / Night Terrors?

sounds like night terrors. My ped told us the worst thing we could do is wake them, pick them up or try to calm them down during it. I think they will out grow it but its sad to watch them like that. I've come to pay attention to what my DD did or watched during the days that it was happening. Realized that there was one particular characther that she didnt like on a show she watched - I swear she had nightmares about it and it was nothing bad just a grumpy fish, lol. but she stopped watching the show and it got a little better. I read that kids that age dont really "dream", their dreams are kinda just playbacks of things that went on during their day.