sitting and crying in his sleep

[musicalmumma]

during the night my son sits up crying but he's not awake and i just have to lay him back down most times but others he just cries in his sleep for ages, does anyone know or have gone through this as i have no idea what to do about it

[Wivi]

My DS has always done this. It's incredibly annoying I know. We tried ignoring him but 90% of the time that didn't work so we just go in and lie him down and he stops.

When I chatted to a nurse about it (Tresillian) she felt it was probably dreams and to persist with what I was doing. He goes through waves of it now - some weeks hardly at all, the next it is every night!

[studyingECS]

It has happened to my god-daughter quite a few times...well when I am over anyways.........she cries, sits up cries abit more than stops cry and basically goes back into a deep sleep sitting up so I just lay her back down and she is usually fine after that....might be a bad dream or something?

[musicalmumma]

Thanks, so hopefully he'll grow out of it:fingerscrossed: would it lead to sleep walking? hope not but is that how it starts?

[mischief79]

DD used to do that regularly, but now only every now and again. She would start wailing in her sleep, with a high pitched cry which threw me out of bed! Then I realised she was still asleep. I just pat her head and put her dummy back in if I can, and then she quietens down. I think it's some kind of nightmare....
She's been doing it since the hospital though. What could she have bad dreams about at 2 days of age? Maybe being pulled out like a rabbit in a hat!?!?:laughing:

[~Kimba~]

Does it tend to happen around the same time every night, usually in the first part of the night? It sounds like 'night terrors', my DS has had them since he was around your son's age. If you do a search for night terrors on this forum and also on google you'll find lots of info.

It's distressing isn't it? Especially when you can't console them, and there's not much you can do except try to soothe your bub and make sure they don't hurt themselves EG if they're throwing themself around the cot like my DS does at times.

If you pick them up or talk to them they often get more distressed - my DS acts like he doesn't know me and fights me off like I'm 'attacking' him :(. Apparently because they're asleep and not aware of what's happening it's not recommended to try to wake them during a night terror, as that can scare them/ make it worse - just like sleepwalkers.

Although, my DS seems to calm down if I turn on a small (not-too-bright) lamp, or if take him out into a dimly lit different room, but this doesn't work for everyone and can scare some bubs more.

One thing that the experts suggest to help break the night terror 'cycle' is to go into your child's room about 15 min before they usually have a night terror and gently stir them so that they half-wake, then let them go back to sleep. If you do this for a week it's meant to stop it happening. I couldn't actually try this though, because unfortunately my DS's terrors happened at different/ random times every night!

[musicalmumma]

yeah they usually do happen in the first part of the night but not at the same time last night he had a really bad one and he was screaming at me, he was trying to push me away so i might try to not pick him up and pat him but its hard coz i dont want him to get upset.