One of my daycare kids has had night terrors almost nightly for about a year! The parents have occassionally mentioned her having a night terror to me and I thought she just had one on those occassions when they told me about them. But they just told me a couple of days ago that she actually has been having them constantly - almost nightly for about a year! She's almost 4 years old now, so she's been having them since she was about 3. I have had her in my care since she was about 1 1/2 years old. I just mentioned to the dad that she has ALWAYS played that someone was getting 'taken' ( kidnapped) - but she doesn't know that word so she'll say something like "oh no! somone has taken my baby, (or child) and I can't find him/her!" She also plays that someone is seriously hurt - you can tell just by her expressions that she's playing that they're seriously hurt - not just a 'boo-boo or a scraped knee - she's more like "Oh no! my baby got hurt! call the hospital! She'll get really dramatic and say to her 'baby' something like, " It will be alright baby, just hold on, we'll get you to the doctor!" then something like, 'Oh no! We can't find the doctor - he's lost!" This type of dramatic someone is seriously hurt or being 'taken' type of play is how she plays almost ALL the time! I have to constantly tell her to play something nice and fun. I tell her that being taken isn't a nice thing to have happen and she needs to play nice things like - act like the little people are getting in the car to go to the zoo, or the mall. I am CONSTANTLY trying to get her to stop playing scary things. I don't know exactly when she started playing like this - just ever since I can remember! I have no clue what prompted her to begin playing like this. But since her parents just told me a couple of days ago that she has been having night terrors almost nightly, I have been researching night terrors and trying to help figure out how to help her stop having them. Today it occured to me that she has been playing scary concepts for about a year or so and that this type of play might lead to scary dreams - night terrors.
So, does anyone know anything about night terrors - what causes them and how to make them stop are my main concerns here. On some websites, it says stress and being overly tired can cause them. Anyone know anything else and have any advise on how to make them stop?
Even though the websites say being tired might make them come on, I have thought about keeping her up from nap in hopes that she would be so tired at night that she would fall into a good deep sleep at night and not be in the lighter sleep mode when dreams happen. Since she doesn't sleep well at night, she's exhausted here every day. Often she falls asleep in the morning and then sleeps in a dead sleep at naptime and is the first to fall asleep and then I have to wake her up from a deep sleep every day to get her up from nap. So I started thinking today that if I keep her up all day, maybe she will fall into a good deep sleep at night and be so tired that she will actually sleep through the night. I don't know. But now that I know this happens constantly, I really feel bad for her - and the parents!
They most likely need to take her to a councelor or professional along those lines, but I don't know that they will do that. So, I'm trying to help the parents figure things out on our own.
So, does anyone know anything about night terrors - what causes them and how to make them stop are my main concerns here. On some websites, it says stress and being overly tired can cause them. Anyone know anything else and have any advise on how to make them stop?
Even though the websites say being tired might make them come on, I have thought about keeping her up from nap in hopes that she would be so tired at night that she would fall into a good deep sleep at night and not be in the lighter sleep mode when dreams happen. Since she doesn't sleep well at night, she's exhausted here every day. Often she falls asleep in the morning and then sleeps in a dead sleep at naptime and is the first to fall asleep and then I have to wake her up from a deep sleep every day to get her up from nap. So I started thinking today that if I keep her up all day, maybe she will fall into a good deep sleep at night and be so tired that she will actually sleep through the night. I don't know. But now that I know this happens constantly, I really feel bad for her - and the parents!
They most likely need to take her to a councelor or professional along those lines, but I don't know that they will do that. So, I'm trying to help the parents figure things out on our own.
Comment