Night Terrors

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Night terrors, also known as sleep terrors, occur more often in children, who tend to outgrow them by adolescence, Honaker said. She also clarified that they are not the same thing as nightmares. "When a child has a sleep terror, they're asleep, so typically what will happen is they will be inconsolable, seem very upset, crying, screaming, and don't even seem to recognize the parent when the parent comes into contact with them," Honaker said. Sleep terrors can go on from 2 minutes to 20 minutes or longer, and they can be very scary for parents, she said, but parents should rest assured that sleep terrors are not at all harmful for the children. "They're asleep, so there's no lost sleep, and we don't see them feeling fatigue the next day," she said. "There's typically no recall, and that's a hallmark with a sleep terror." Honaker said that anywhere from 1 to 6 percent of children will experience a sleep terror, with the typical age of onset being between 4 and 12 years old. For parents, the best thing to do is not wake the child up -- "it can actually make the episode worse because the child doesn't see them as a parent," she said.