What are the dangers of night terrors in children?

Children will sometimes be frightened, that is, they will be startled, especially at night when they will have night terrors. Parents must pay attention to observation and seek medical treatment in time, otherwise it will cause other complications. But what are the dangers of night terrors in children? Children will have a variety of symptoms when they have night terrors, such as waking up, crying and shouting, etc., which can cause great harm to the child's mental health.

Night terrors are quite common, so parents generally don’t take them seriously, let alone take their children to the hospital for treatment. However, we should still pay attention to the dangers of night terrors. This is a sleep disorder that sometimes causes sleepwalking and puts children in danger in their sleep.

Night terrors, also known as dream fear or night terrors, often occur within 30 minutes to 2 hours of falling asleep at night. They are more common in children aged 3 to 7 years old and occur once a month or several months. The sick children are often awakened by nightmares, suddenly sitting up with their eyes wide open or closed, yelling loudly, talking to themselves, but others cannot understand what they are saying. Some children move their hands and feet around, or jump off the bed, with nervous, fearful expressions, sweating, dilated pupils, rapid breathing, pale complexion, palpitations, and sometimes auditory and visual hallucinations, confusion, and not recognizing family members. Generally, the attack lasts for 1 to 10 minutes, and then the patient continues to fall asleep. When a nightmare occurs, the child cannot recall the situation during the attack; if the attack occurs before awakening, he may recall a feeling of oppression, stuffiness or suffocation. However, most children cannot recall what happened before they were fully awake or can only say that they seemed to be very scared.

Generally speaking, night terrors are caused by certain factors in the process of development and maturation, with an incidence rate of about 1% to 3% in normal children, and will disappear on their own after adulthood. The causes of this disease may include:

Genetic factors: About half of children with night terrors have a family history, with one of their parents also having the condition, so it is speculated that it may be related to brain development defects. Such children are more likely to suffer from illness due to psychological factors.

Psychological factors: Some psychological stimulation factors, such as children seeing or hearing terrifying things, being harshly criticized, being frightened, being suddenly separated from their parents, parents quarreling, accidents happening, etc., can all cause night terrors. For example, a child who is rescued from a house fire may later dream about fire scenes and suffer from recurring night terrors. The degree and frequency of night terrors are related to the age and personality of the child. Sensitive and timid children are prone to them and they will occur frequently. Even if the psychological factors are eliminated, the phenomenon will still occur. But over time, it will eventually ease and disappear.

According to the self-limiting nature of sleep terrors, the patient is easily awakened and has an increased heart rate during an attack, but continues to fall asleep after the attack and has a normal EEG, which can be distinguished from epilepsy. This syndrome is easily confused with nightmares. Children who often have nightmares may be unwilling to sleep, but this phenomenon does not occur with night terrors. Somnambulism, also known as nightwalking, is also a type of sleep disorder. It is characterized by a large range of activities and often involves some seemingly purposeful repetitive activities, often outdoors, such as opening windows, moving things, running, walking back and forth, going out, climbing up the house, and even jumping from the upper floors. The range of activities of night terrors is much smaller than that of sleepwalking. Children with this disease mostly move indoors and rarely leave the room.

Based on the causes of night terrors, parents can take measures to prevent them. In particular, do not scare children. This has been a long-standing educational malpractice among Chinese parents. Threatening children when they are disobedient not only easily induces night terrors, but is also very detrimental to the formation of their character.