How To Treat Night Terrors

Anticipatory Awakening

As a general rule, night terrors are creatures of habit, meaning if the cycle of the terror can be broken there is a considerably decreased likelihood of it occurring again. The use of a specific practice known as anticipatory awakening draws upon this knowledge to break the cycle of night terrors. Through a variety of means, whether a professional sleep study or a patient simply looking at their alarm clock upon waking, the approximate moment of the incident is timed relative to when the patient falls asleep. Additionally, another person in the household, be it a spouse or a parent, could periodically check on the individual in question for signs of a night terror, such as excessive tossing and turning or heavy breathing. From there, the individual is awoken a few minutes before the night terror and asked to stay awake for a few minutes. Afterward, the patient is allowed to go back to sleep. Usually this is enough to prevent the onset of a night terror in a given evening, and is an ideal way of breaking the cycle of night terrors for individuals who suffer for them rather sporadically.

Learn more about how to treat night terrors now.

Relaxing Routine Before Bed

While individuals who live relatively high-stress lives may not be able to remove considerable amounts of worry from their existence, simply limiting the amount of stress before going to bed has been proven to help eliminate night terrors. In other words, even if an individual's life is completely stressful, finding a relaxing routine before bed can help to limit the onset of night terrors. For different individuals this will take different forms. Some may prefer to enjoy conversation with a loved one. Others may prefer to read, or to sip hot tea or meditate. For most individuals, watching an action-based television show does not qualify as such, and can be counterproductive. The general theme is such an endeavor should reduce brain activity while also lowering breathing rates. No matter what methodology is used, the idea is to take the stresses of the person off their shoulders long enough to let them get sleep without the specter of a night terror.

Get the details on more ways to treat night terrors.