Night Terrors or Nightmares?

Question

A couple of times a week my 3 and a half year old gets very upset and cries out for me. When I go into his room he is thrashing around in bed and crying but is still asleep. He will not let me hold him to comfort him - all I can do is sit by his bed and whisper to him "shhh, Mummies here" "You're safe" and stuff like that. In the morning he has no recollection of it.

Is this night mares or Night Terrors and is there actually a difference between the two?

Answer 1

http://www.babycenter.com/0_night-terror...

read the whole page

Answer 2

this is night terrors, they are king of like a nightmare gone bad...you should not wake the child just continue what you are doing. they do not harm the child and tend to cease in a few months/years. they baby will not remember a thing...a little like sleep walking.

nightmares are dreams that are vivid and the baby remembers some or all of it when theyy wake, they tend to be worse for thar reason

Answer 3

you know my son does the same thing, but he only cries in his sleep. he only starts thrashing a little bit when i go in there to hold him. but yes this whole time he is sound asleep. but after a few minutes he is fine and back to sleeping peacefully.  i believe they are night terrors...now whether or not terrors and nightmares are the same or not...im not really sure. but i was once told that anything and everything that a child sees or hears during the day gets all jumbled in their little heads and can become pretty scary to them sometimes and that is why they have night terrors. dont know if they is true, but makes sense to me. my son used to have the night terrors all the time, sometimes several times a night....but now its only once and a while...he used to have them alot before his baby brother was born too....i guess he was afraid of being replaced.  but now that he has a baby brother, he just loves him to death.

Answer 4

sadly night terrors, those are much worse than night mares, night terrors are when you can't be woken up and if u are u are still in dream world for a minute or two taking that bad thing from your dream in to you room, if you wake them up they see you as the bad thing breifly. night mares are just bad dreams, night terrors are worse

i have night terrors still at 19 my mom has them still at 52 and my son is developing them now. your son is at prime age for them and will probably grow out of them in a few years, its rare and genetic to have a case as long lasting as my family gets

just gently touch him (never grab, he will feel that in his dream) and sofly and gently let him her your loving voice.

and make sure he doesnt fall out of bed or hurt himself if he thrashes