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My daughter is 10 months old and recently has been waking up consistently at 4 AM screaming and flailing. She is not consoled by us coming and patting her or picking her up. She shows no signs of being sick, but I am not sure what to do. She has been sleeping through the night very well until this. This has been going on for a week and a half.
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My daughter is 10 months old and recently has been waking up consistently at 4 AM screaming and flailing. She is not consoled by us coming and patting her or picking her up. She shows no signs of being sick, but I am not sure what to do. She has been sleeping through the night very well until this. This has been going on for a week and a half.
Sounds like she is having night terrors. most importantly, these are benign and as you have noticed, she is otherwise well. They are not associated with psychopathology or "bad parents". children with night terrors will awake from sleep abruptly and cry inconsolably for 5 to 30 minutes typically. they will often sweat and have increased heart rate and breathing. they will seem to not know you are there because they are, in fact, still in rem sleep. on the bright side, your daughter seems to be having them at the same time each evening. You can set an alarm and awaken her prior to the episodes in the hope of altering the sleep cycle and preventing the episodes.
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Find the trigger
My daughter also has night terrors. It is extremely worrying for us, but she doesn't seem to remember them afterward. We can't wake her up. The only thing to do is to make sure she doesn't hurt herself.
The best advice we were given is to try to find the trigger. Start a log: what did she eat? What time did she go to bed? Has she napped well today? For how long? Is she getting a new tooth? Is her diaper wet?
For us, bedtime was the trigger. If we kept her up until she was tired or willing to go to sleep, there would be a night terror at 3 am. But, if we forced her to go to sleep at 8:30 p.m., whether or not she wanted to, she would sleep fine.