Nightly anxiety attacks, which occur especially in children between 3 and 5 years of age, are terrifying episodes that differ from ordinary nightmares. Here's what you need to know about these anxiety attacks and how best to respond to them.
Symptoms of nightly anxiety:
- Falls usually occur in the first hours of the night, as opposed to nightmares that occur earlier in the middle or at the end of the evening.
- During an anxiety attack the child wakes up screaming and sits upright in bed, with open eyes but actually still in sleep. It is difficult to calm the child and your words barely penetrate.
- The child sweats, is restless and can kick, but after a few minutes until half an hour the weather falls asleep.
- The child usually doesn't remember the attack the next day.
Why aren't children responding:
- During an anxiety attack, the parts of the brain that are responsible for memory, hearing and feeling in sleep are active while the parts responsible for movement and language are active. Therefore, it seems as if the child does not respond to reassuring words.
Causes of nightly anxiety attacks:
- The exact triggers are not known, but tensions, sleep deprivation, fever or medication can play a role.
- The brain still needs to learn to develop a stable sleep pattern.
What to do:
- Nightly anxiety attacks are not treatable. The advice of doctors is not to wake the child during an attack, because comforting can exacerbate the unrest.
- Stay in the same room and wait for the child to enter another sleep phase, which stops the attack by itself.
- If the child always has an attack at the same time, it can help to wake it up a quarter of an hour before.
Most children grow out of these seizures after their fifth year of life, and it doesn't cause permanent damage to the brain, but some children may sleepwalk later, although this is rare.
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