Global Courant
Olivia García thus remembers the moment when her son Juan -then 4 years old- began to manifest night terrors, at the beginning of 2020.
“My son transformed into another person, said unintelligible things, screaming and crying. I hugged him, he tried to give him love but he was as if possessed, with his eyes open, his pupils dilated… it was terrifying”, says Olivia, who lives in Santiago de Chile.
Fernanda PaúlOlivia with her son Juan, who is 7 years old today.
Juan’s case is not isolated.
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), although the prevalence of night terrors “has not been thoroughly studied,” rates have been reported to range from 1 to 6, 5% of children. However, AASM has studies that state that up to 25% of children under 5 years of age have intermittently suffered this type of episode.
Other studies and reputable health centers, such as the Mayo Clinic, speak of up to 40%.
The figure varies from country to country and depends largely on the age of the children being studied, with the highest prevalence among those between 1 and a half and 5 years of age (despite the fact that the range that is considered “normal” ” ranges from 6 months to 12 years).
In adults it is much less frequent, with rates of 2% (and only 1% among those over 65 years of age).
Why do they occur and what are the symptoms?
Night terrors normally occur in the first third of the night, in a stage known as N3, that is, in deep sleep. They last between 5 and 15 minutes, but in some cases it can be longer.
Although the exact cause of this disorder is not known, there are some contributing factors, such as extreme tiredness, sleep interruptions, and high fever.
There is also a genetic factor. They are more frequent if the boy or girl has relatives with a history of having had them, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Child neurologist Tatiana Muñoz explains to BBC Mundo how a child reacts when they are suffering from this type of disorder:
“The child wakes up abruptly from sleep, sits up in bed or jumps out of bed, screams in terror and intense fear, has a frightened expression,” she notes.
“Occasionally, the child may run frantically against furniture or walls in an apparent attempt to avoid harm or escape from unseen danger. The child is confused and incoherent, verbalization is usually present but disorganized. Speech is often incomprehensible and monosyllabic, ”she adds.
The specialist affirms that, on a physical level, it can manifest “tachycardia, tachypnea, sweating, facial flushing, dilated pupils, agitation, tremors and increased muscle tone.”
Getty Images Children who suffer from night terrors can manifest very different symptoms.
Children with night terrors usually do not remember these episodes the next morning. And after experiencing them, they return to a peaceful and deep sleep.
This is the case of Juan, who, according to his mother, “did not understand anything” if someone told him what had happened the night before.
Terrors don’t usually have sequels either.
“To put it simply, it is like a short circuit in the brain with a benign characteristic,” Pablo Brockmann, a sleep expert at the Christus Catholic University Health Network, explains to BBC Mundo.
“The vast majority of night terrors do not have an organic cause and are not due to any type of epilepsy or disorder in the child, or to having a problem. In 90% of cases it passes on its own and it is much more common than is believed, ”she indicates.
they are not nightmares
This disorder is completely different from nightmares or sleepwalking.
“The terrors are not associated with any type of trauma or experience or something that has happened to them during the day, such as nightmares, which normally have to do with the most psychological sphere,” says doctor Pablo Brockmann.
Getty Images Night terrors are not the same as nightmares or sleepwalking.
“In addition, nightmares occur in REM sleep, terrors, instead, in deep sleep,” he adds.
As for sleepwalking, Brockmann states that these episodes involve “more motor activity and much more elaborate behaviors.”
“Sleepwalkers walk, talk, sit, can spin around the house, without fear or panic. Night terror is not like that, it is a crisis of agitation, with a lot of adrenergic discharge, very distressing and they are totally lost ”, he indicates.
The specialist, however, says that there is a relationship between the latter. “There is a percentage of those who experience night terrors who then, over time, become sleepwalkers.”
What can be done?
In the face of an episode of night terror, there is little that can be done beyond accompanying the child.
“I tried to keep him close to me, I told him: ‘Mom is with you, everything is fine.’ But he kept calling me, desperate, as though he thought I was a strange agent,” Olivia recalls.
In this sense, the neurologist Tatiana Muñoz affirms that it is “difficult to wake up and comfort the child” and that, in fact, these attempts can end up “increasing their state of panic and can prolong or intensify the episode.”
Brockmann, for his part, explains that there are some relaxation techniques that can help.
Getty Images Faced with an episode of night terror, there is little that can be done beyond accompanying the child.
The sleep expert also states that there are formulas to avoid them, such as not interrupting your sleep during the first part of the night and avoiding stimuli such as television before going to sleep.
In some cases -for example, when it is too frequent or they are outside the most common age range- it is advisable to see a specialist.
So did, in fact, Olivia after Juan began to have more and more intense night terrors.
“We decided to take him when the situation began to get out of hand. They were very close and he made uncontrolled, involuntary movements, so he was very strong”, says Olivia.
Juan underwent an electroencephalogram (EEG), a study that measures electrical activity in the brain, in order to observe his sleep patterns and rule out related diseases.
The results showed that Juan -like most of the children- had a normal sleep and there was no presence of other pathologies.
Increasingly common?
Juan began to experience night terrors in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic.
“I am sure that the pandemic had an influence. Juanito was in pre-kindergarten, with online classes all day, locked up at home. It was a very difficult situation,” Olivia recalls.
Getty Images The pandemic increased sleep disorders in the population.
His words coincide with various studies that have been carried out around the world and which conclude that the coronavirus increased sleep disorders in people.
Some experts even adopted a term for it: “coronasomnia” or “Covid-somnia”.
In the UK, for example, an August 2020 study from the University of Southampton showed that the number of people experiencing insomnia increased from 1 in 6 to 1 in 4 since the pandemic began.
And children were no exception.
“The pandemic changed sleep pathology a lot. The disorders are becoming more frequent in children”, explains Pablo Brockmann.
“There has definitely been an increase in night terrors and why is being investigated. But there is a coincidence that it is an increasingly common disorder ”, adds the sleep specialist.
