Sleeping patterns!

I often wonder, as I put my family to sleep, why I am unable to lay down and fall asleep with the same ease that my husband does! I have always had an overly active imagination that I have so proudly passed on to my girls.... And I think that has to do with why, as an adult I am unable to just shut my brain off and go to sleep!

Now on to another lovely subject related to sleep...
Nightmares and Night terrors!
They are seemingly alike but in fact, there are many differences. They both create a feeling of horror or fear. But where nightmares are common.... Night terrors affect approximately 15% of children.
Amazing how all these years later I can still remember some of the feelings I had as a child as my subconscious was wracked with a nightmare. Terrifying and almost crippling with fear as a child, I often had trouble going back to sleep!

As for night terrors.... I had those too. Luckily enough, they do not stay with you and there is absolutely no recollection of what transpired in the middle of the night. But my parents remember and often describe the episodes as me waking them up with my screams and how I could have very well been under attack with the fear in my voice!
There are no known causes but some believe it is vaguely linked to the REM sleep cycle. There are believed to be triggers such as stress and even high fevers. They are hereditary and I passed them on to Gigi. Thankfully they DO grow out of them and she hasn't had one in quite a while.

Night terrors can be very difficult to deal with. It is highly recommended not to wake a child having an episode, which of course is your first instinct. The child will often be sitting up, eyes wide yet unreponsive to you. They usually will cry out or scream which is usually how you know what is going on. You sit with your child, sometimes unable to touch them or hug them, as they interpret your help as a threat in their semi-conscious state. You feel helpless but eventually find out what works best for your child.
When Gigi had her episodes, talking to her calmly and singing to her helped most of the time... But sometimes all you could do was wait it out.
Most often then not, the episodes would not last beyond 15-20 mins.... But every once and a while, it lasted for much longer. Sometimes I was stuck in bed with her because she had multiple episodes in one night.
So far... We have only had 2 or 3 episodes with Bella.... Hopefully she has missed them altogether! We can only hope!

But don't mistakenly intentions. his blog is not meant to cause an alarm! I have no intention to scare you whatsoever. However, I hope you can read this, take the knowledge and store it in the back of your mind. Knowledge is power. If one day your child has one of these episodes, you can think back to this moment in time and hopefully remember a little of the information I have chosen to share with you.


After all this sleep talk.... Looks like it is finally time for me to say goodnight to the sandman and head off to dreamland!

Till next time,

Aly