sleep terror

inappropriate places), sleepwalking, and night terror. These symptoms are not necessarily evidence of emotional disturbance or of some other mental illness. Behavioral methods of treatment are usually effective.

Sleep terrors (pavor nocturnus) typically are disorders of early childhood. When NREM sleep is suddenly interrupted, the child may scream and sit up in apparent terror and be incoherent and inconsolable. After a period of minutes, the child returns to sleep, often without ever having…

Night terrors are characterized by abrupt awakening, sometimes with a scream; a sleeping child may sit up in bed, apparently terror-stricken, with wide-open eyes and often with frozen posturing that may last several minutes. Afterward there typically is no recollection of dreamlike experience. Night terrors…