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Everynight, in the middle of the night my 5 y/o son wakes up terrified. How can i help him?

Everynight, about 2 diff times each night my son wakes up absolutely terrified! He will be 6 in feb. If he sees that I am there, he'll go right back to sleep. If he wakes up and im taking a shower, in another room, not right next to him, he gets this awful panic look on his face and starts screaming his head off and running around looking for me. Its as if he only wakes up to make sure mommy is still there, mommy hasnt left him. ******** With this being cafemom i need to state right away, I HAVE NEVER LEFT HIM ALONE, EVER, TO GO ANYWHERE. THE ONLY TIME HE IS NOT W/ ME IS WHEN HES IN SCHOOL OR HIS DADDY, GRANDMA, ETC ARE WATCHING HIM. I dont allow him to watch scary movies. His teachers says he comes to school tired, does he get any sleep? Of course my son gets sleep!

Asked at 2:34 AM on Nov. 20, 2008 by:

kahala

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Answers (4)
Answered at 4:38 AM on Nov. 20, 2008 by:
- nyteowl
It sounds as if your son is having night terrors or bad dreams. He may be waking up scared. Anyways what I did to help with our son when he had a similar problem. I talked to him and learned that he was dreaming bad dreams of bad guys. SO I created a spray{vanilla and water| We sprayed that around his room every night. It was the anti bad guy serum. Then I gave him a flash light and we hung Christmas lights around his room{he really liked that} and told him bad guys won't pass into this room because it is well guarded with the lights and spray. It helped a great deal and made him feel tons better knowing he was safe from his dreams. Kids don't have to watch scary movies to have bad dreams. Their imaginations can run wild with every noise shadow and bad dreams, Hope this helps!
Answered at 7:13 AM on Nov. 20, 2008 by:
- LoriLou75
I think the last answer was really good. I just want you to know, from my experience, this is nat AT ALL unusual. At one point or another all of my kids went through a time where they had irrational fears at bed time. Be supportive of him, let him know it is OK to be scared, and see what you can do to "protect" him. Good Luck. Don't worry too much, he is just a kid acting like a kid. If it does continue to interrupt his sleep though, you may want to bring it up at his next physical.
Lori
Answered at 9:25 AM on Nov. 20, 2008 by:
- KnoxvilleDoula
I have a friend whose daughter would wake up at the same time, not necessarily from a night terror, but they tried using a sound machine... this helped prevent the problem 50%. It was set to white noise. You never know, maybe something makes noise that is either triggering a dream or waking him up? Then they gave her a little radio that she could play a tape to fall asleep to, along with a flashlight as mentioned. Hope all of this helps!
Answered at 3:24 PM on Nov. 21, 2008 by:
- ozmom2005
My son also had night terrors. He had sleep apnea because his tonsils and adenoids were so big. He was not getting a restful night sleep because he was waking up to breath. We had his tonsils and adenoids taken out when he was four and the night terrors stopped. I don't know if this will help or not I hope things get better.