- [!] The first line treatment for night terrors is [scheduled awakenings](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123815224000341). > [!quote] [Science behind preventing and handling night terrors](https://www.reddit.com/r/sciencebasedparenting/comments/m5ncsi/science_behind_preventing_and_handling_night/) via rScienceBasedParenting > > Anxiety, trauma history, dissociation, and baseline vagal tone accounted for 39% of the variance in nightmare distress. Anxiety and dissociation were positive predictors of nightmare distress in the multiple regression. Nightmares were highly heritable and attributed to an additive genetic influence (51%) and nonshared environmental effects (49%). According to parental report, children who experience nightmares have significantly higher levels of anxiety than children who do not experience nightmares. The results also indicate a relationship between nightmare distress and trait anxiety. Dissociation associated with nightmare distress in children (and adults). Treat like anxiety? > > night terrors are functionally different from nightmares. It’s a NREM disorder (deep sleep) related to sleep walking. It can be genetic but often happens if a kid is sleep deprived (dropping naps, etc). Night terrors happen in the first third of the night and kids don’t remember it at all - it’s more distressing to the parent. don’t wake them, just try to get the sleep cycle back on track. These [worksheets](http://pubs.apa.org/books/supp/meltzer/?_ga=2.83631122.549350998.1615862638-1051747891.1615862638) are great resources - the companion book is for clinicians but they are parent friendly; ## Further Reading - [Coping with nightmares](https://www.anxietycanada.com/articles/coping-with-nightmares/) - [Kidshealth summary on nightmares](https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/nightmare.html) - [Doctor's advice on how to help with bad dreams and nightmares](https://www.ahaparenting.com/ask-the-doctor-1/bad-dreams-and-nightmares?A=SearchResult&SearchID=11503514&ObjectID=783802&ObjectType=35) - [How to deal with fears of going to bed](https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/b/bedtime-fears) - [Convincing kids not to be scared of monsters](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2804532/) - [Why children have nightmares](https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/media-spotlight/201807/why-children-have-nightmares) - [Symptoms and causes of nightmare disorder](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/nightmare-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20353515) - [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10519-009-9310-z](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10519-009-9310-z) - [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2214.2002.00274.x](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2214.2002.00274.x) - [https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-30344-001](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-30344-001) - [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30697860/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30697860/) - [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6850667/pdf/JSR-28-na.pdf](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6850667/pdf/JSR-28-na.pdf)