my dd has decided not to sleep any more!!help!

Here it is - I see that actually my son was round about the same age as your daughter. Does this sound familiar? ------------------------------------------------- Night Terrors On Thursday my 8-month-old and I hit the city, taking advantage of the last week of the shopping festival. After a long day trogging round the shops and the Global Village (during which time my little one was an absolute angel), we got home at about ten (way past his bedtime), and both went straight to bed. 45 minutes later he suddenly woke up screaming, eyes full of tears looking straight through me. Nothing I could do would console him – walking, cuddling, rocking, unsuccessful attempts at breastfeeding. I was about to head for Emergency, thinking that there must be something terribly wrong with him, when all of a sudden he just went back to sleep. Night terrors (so called, I believe, because they scare the parents witless) are more common in toddlers and pre-schoolers (ages 3-6), but can begin in babies as young as 6 months and in fact occasionally (though rarely) continue into adulthood. They occur during the first part of the night, in non-REM sleep (the deepest phase) and typically come on suddenly. Although the child appears to be awake, only one part of the brain is in fact awake and the rest of the brain asleep; thus a state of confusion arises as the body is unable to respond to messages sent by the part of the brain which is awake. The child will behave as if they are terrified of something. They will not recognize parents, and will not respond. They may thrash around, screaming and crying. Night terrors are as a rule harmless, and although difficult to believe, the child will have absolutely no memory of them in the morning, unlike nightmares (which occur during REM sleep, and are often recalled upon waking). Experienced by anything between 3% and 38% of all children, night terrors are usually outgrown within a couple of years, and almost always by the age of 11. They are similar in many ways to other non-REM sleep disorders such as sleep-walking, sleep-talking and possibly bed-wetting. What causes night terrors? No-one knows exactly, but there are a number of contributing factors. Like sleepwalking and bedwetting, they are more common in boys than girls, and all three sleep disorders tend to run in families. Overtiredness can trigger terrors (presumably the cause of the terror in my little one after his long day out). A recent traumatic event in the life of the child can also be a cause. It has even been suggested that an extremely high IQ can cause the brain to keep working at night when the body has shut down, thereby triggering a terror. What can parents do? During a night terror, there is very little that a parent can do. Although it may go against every parenting bone in your body, many experts advise leaving the child alone as interference can prolong a terror (the exception is if your child is either thrashing or running around and likely to be harmed) . If the terrors only happen occasionally, however, the best thing to do is probably to cuddle your child (if they will let you) and reassure them verbally. It is highly unlikely that you will be able to wake your child, although there’s probably nothing wrong with trying. There are a number of ways to tackle repeated night terrors. - Try to remove any likely triggers from your child’s life. Avoid letting your child get over-tired by making sure they get enough sleep/naps (and don’t let them stay awake in the bus on the way back from the Global Village!). If you suspect that medication is triggering the terrors, try and switch to an alternative. Work to remove any identified sources of stress. - Leave a light on. Some parents report that sleeping with a nightlight, or other dim light, can help. This enables the child to identify their surroundings when they stir, and thus reassured they can fall back to sleep. - If the terrors occur at a regular time, fully wake the child up fifteen minutes before this time (get them out of bed), and then tuck them back into bed; this interruption of the sleep cycle can be very effective in preventing the terrors. - If nothing works, and the terrors are of such frequency and severity you cannot ignore them, then ask your doctor for medication; mild sedatives or anti-depressants can be prescribed (but since night terrors are almost always harmless, many doctors prefer not to medicate unless absolutely necessary).

My son also had night terrors when he was even younger than your little one. It's unusual for them to occur in small babies, but it is possible. At the time I did a write-up of night terrors for our community magazine - if I can find it, I'll post it here in case it helps.

I have a friend whose son started having night terrors at this age. They're basically a form of nightmare, but the child can get really quite animated and/or violent but is still asleep, even though their eyes may be open. Very strange. If she's doing this at around about the same time every night, then it *could* be this - I wouldn't know. A trick to help is apparently to give them a bit of a prod about 15minutes before they usually kick off because it stops them going into the sleep stage that in occurs in.