A while ago, while working on The Other Realm: Book Three of the Utgarda Trilogy, I posted an article from Things that go “Ahhhhh!” in the Night on PsychCentral.com about night terrors.
Many years ago, on one of my first encounters with my niece, who was a toddler at the time, I experienced her night terrors first hand. It was a terrifying experience for me.
It seemed to me as if she were possessed. Her eyes were wide open, and she was screaming, and flailing, crawling around the living room crying, completely unresponsive to her mother, grandparents or anyone else in the room.
Night terrors, also known as sleep terrors or pavor nocturnus, are not dreams. Pavor nocturnus is a frightening sleep disorder in which a person becomes terrified during a sleep episode, then has no memory of the event after they fully awake.
To help parents suffering through these episodes with their children,
Mom Loves Best, a research-driven parenting blog, has compiled a
comprehensive resource of tips to help manage them their kids night terrors.
If you have, or know of someone who has, a child suffering from night terrors, please pass along this information.