My 2 Year Old Has Night Terrors Almost Every Night

by Ashli
(Florida, U.S.A.)

For the past month and a half my 2 year old daughter has woken up about 1 hour after she has fallen asleep screaming, crying, eyes open but non-coherent or even aware that my husband and I are there with her. She is screaming illegible words and saying "Get me out of here!"

The longest night terror has lasted about 10 minutes and the shortest about 2 minutes. When the night terror is over she says "I lay down my bed" and falls right to sleep. She has even vomited because she was inconsolable.

We talked to her pediatrician who urged us to find out what might be stressing her. Nothing has changed in our home life recently. She has been in her new room and big girl bed for well over 3 months. We are expecting baby number 2 in February but she has known about baby since the start of my second trimester and is genuinely very excited about baby's arrival.

We thought it might be caused by her stuffed animal bin in her room, so we removed it. No change. We thought maybe the closet doors which are tri-fold mirrors might be causing them so we covered them up and still no change. My husband and I have exhausted all of ours and others ideas and are in desperate need of some help.

Although her sleep terrors have slowed down recently and are not occurring every night she still has 3-4 per week. Her sleep schedule has not changed. We lay her down about 7-7:30 pm she falls asleep on her own at around 8:00 pm. She wakes up every morning 6:00 am regardless of what time she goes to bed the night before. She used to nap about 2 hours but since the night terrors started she only naps an hour and wakes up screaming and crying. We have limited her television watching. We don't even have the T.V. on an hour before she goes to bed. Any suggestions would be well accepted.