What You Need to Know About Night Terrors
Key takeaways:
A night terror is a type of sleep disorder, and it’s most common in children.
People who have night terrors don’t remember them. But night terrors can be frightening for parents and loved ones.
Stress, illnesses, caffeine, and a lack of sleep can trigger night terrors.
If you’ve ever witnessed someone having a night terror, you’ll know that the condition is well named. To put it simply, a night terror is pretty terrifying to watch, especially when it’s happening to someone you care about. Witnessing a night terror can leave you shaken and unable to get back to sleep. But bizarrely, the person having the night terror will calmly drift into a deep slumber. If your loved one is having night terrors, here’s everything you need to know to make sure everyone in your household gets a good night’s rest.
What is a night terror?
Night terrors, or “sleep terrors,” are a type of sleep disorder. There are several different types of sleep disorders, including parasomnias. Parasomnias describe situations when someone has unusual behaviors during sleep, like talking or walking.
Night terrors can happen in adults, but they’re much more common in children. About 5% of children under 12 years old experience night terrors. They’re most common in children between 5 to 7 years old.
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Night terrors usually happen during the first part of the night, about 1 to 2 hours after you fall asleep. This is usually when you move between the later stages of non-rapid eye movement sleep.
The cause of night terrors isn’t known, but some triggers include:
Fever or illness
Too much alcohol intake
Too much caffeine intake
Sleep deprivation/lack of sleep
Emotional stress
Intense physical activity
What does a night terror look like?
During a night terror, a person will suddenly “wake up” from sleep. They’ll often sit up in bed or jump out of bed and start crying or screaming uncontrollably. They often look frightened or panicked.
Some people will talk during their night terrors, but usually their words don’t make any sense or aren’t actual words. They won’t respond to you or even notice that you’re there. Most people have their eyes open but will look right through you.
During a night terror, you may also experience:
Rapid heart rate
Rapid breathing
Sweating
Flushing
Shaking
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Night terrors can last anywhere from 5 to 90 minutes. When the episode is over, the person usually just falls right back to sleep without remembering it in the morning.
What is the difference between a night terror and a nightmare?
Unlike night terrors, nightmares happen during the later parts of sleep, called “REM” (rapid eye movement). Another difference is that you may remember nightmares, but that’s not the case with night terrors. You may also wake up and have trouble falling back asleep after a nightmare.
Nightmares and night terrors do have something in common: They both tend to happen more often during times of stress or extreme tiredness.
Are night terrors harmful?
Night terrors aren’t harmful. They don’t lead to seizures, brain damage, neurologic problems, or other illnesses. Most children outgrow night terrors between their tenth and twelfth birthdays.
Adults who experience night terrors are more likely to have a history of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or another mental health condition. While the night terrors themselves don’t cause harm, the effects of an untreated mental health condition can affect your health.
What should you do if someone is having a night terror?
While night terrors aren’t harmful to the person experiencing them, they can be quite frightening to a parent or loved one. Here’s what you should do if your child or loved one is having a night terror:
Take a deep breath and remain calm. Remind yourself that the event isn’t harmful and that the person won’t even remember it in the morning.
Ask everyone else in the house to go back to bed (unless you want someone to keep you company). Having a crowd of people won’t help the situation and may even increase the tension in the room. Plus, there’s no reason for everyone to lose sleep and be cranky in the morning.
Keep the area safe. If the person tries to get out of bed, try to gently restrain them. If you can’t, remove any objects from the immediate area that they might trip over or walk into. Close the bedroom door so they don’t walk out of the room or fall down the stairs. Steer them away from furniture, windows, mirrors, or anything else that might easily break. Consider “night terror proofing” their bedroom if they have recurrent episodes of night terrors.
Don’t try to wake them up. Never try to wake someone having a night terror. Remember, the person doesn’t know it’s happening. People who are woken up from night terrors are confused and disoriented. Afterall, suddenly they’re awake, in a bright room with people all around them with no idea how they got there. They often accidentally hurt someone in an effort to protect themselves. Also, being woken up in a startling way makes it harder to fall back asleep. And since sleep loss makes night terrors worse, waking someone can actually bring on more night terrors the next night.
Give others a heads-up. If a babysitter or another adult is going to be watching your child while you go out at night — let them know your child has night terrors. Go over what to expect and what to do if one happens.
Is there treatment for night terrors?
Most people don’t need treatment or any kind of tests (including sleep studies) for night terrors. In extreme cases, your provider may recommend clonazepam for a short period of time.
There are a few things you can try to help minimize night terrors:
Make sure your child or loved one is getting enough sleep. Encourage good sleep habits and a restful sleep environment. Remember, not getting enough sleep is a major trigger for night terrors.
Keep a sleep journal. Write down when an episode happens and what may have triggered it that day. Make note of any increased stressors, caffeine, medications, exercise, and screen time. If you notice a pattern, you’ll be able to target a trigger and help relieve it.
Try anticipatory awakening. Night terrors usually happen within the first 2 hours of falling asleep. You can try waking your child or loved one up about a 30 minutes before they usually have a night terror. There’s no real evidence to support this practice, but many people have reported that it helps interrupt the night terror cycle.
The bottom line
Night terrors are events that people (usually children) experience during the early stages of sleep. These events are different from nightmares and can be frightening to watch. But the person experiencing the night terror doesn’t remember the event. Night terrors themselves aren’t harmful, but it’s important to keep the surrounding area safe so they don’t accidentally hurt themselves during a night terror.
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References
Guilleminault, C., et al. (2003). Sleepwalking and sleep terrors in prepubertal children: What triggers them? Pediatrics.
Leung, A. K. C., et al. (2020). Sleep terrors: An updated review. Current Pediatric Reviews.
Llorente, M. D., et al. (1992). Night terrors in adults: Phenomenology and relationship to psychopathology. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
Van Horn, N. L., et al. (2021). Night terrors. StatPearls.
