Nightmare or Night Terror
Kira just woke up screaming. I went into her room to check on her and she was trembling (and crying). Both arms were outstretched and shaking! Poor thing! I immediately picked her up and did my best to soothe her, but she continued crying. I was a little bit alarmed, so I took her into my bedroom where Trevor was just about to fall asleep. I said to him, Kira is shaking! And he just drifted off to sleep...what a big help he was! After a minute, Kira stopped crying, picked up her head, and started looking around. Eventually, she went back to sleep.
I was curious to know whether she had a bad dream; I found these articles:
The difference between a nightmare and a night terror is that the former happens during REM sleep while the latter happens during "light non-REM" sleep (a stage of sleep following "deep non-REM sleep", which occurs about 15 minutes after falling asleep). Furthermore, a nightmare is something the subject will remember the next day, whereas a night terror occurs without the subject having any recollection. I think Kira had a night terror because her crying started very suddenly (without buildup [e.g., whimpering, moaning]), was more intense than usual, and continued despite my picking her up. The articles I found go on to say that night terrors are suspected to result from lack of sleep, so I'm going to be better about putting Kira down for naps. Today she had all three of her naps, so that does not explain tonight's night terror. But, yesterday, she had only one nap in the morning, various short naps in the car, and an extended evening with no nap. It's difficult keeping the napping schedule when we go out. Well, I guess that's one good thing about winter coming; we'll be at home most days giving us the opportunity to keep schedules.
Comments