# "Confusional arousal?"



## kkfum (Aug 14, 2005)

Anyone ever hear of this? I was just researching circadian rhythms and sleep issues for toddlers and came across this on a couple of sites, one being Dr. Greene's: http://www.drgreene.com/21_1148.html
He thinks they are really what people call night terrors in young children.

My 12 mo DD has not slept more than 2 to maybe 3 hours since 12 weeks, we started cosleeping then. Now, she sometimes will sleep an hour or 1 1/2 hrs. to start, then wakes up sometimes every 1/2 - 1 hour for the rest of the night. I guess I wouldn't mind if she wasn't very upset when she wakes-- begins by moving around like she's uncomfortable, immediately goes into a crawl and just wails. I feel like I have to force her to nurse, which usually works to calm her down and get her back to sleep quickly. Sometimes it takes a struggle, though.

We've noticed lately that more often than not she crawls up to our headboard and just faces the wall (?) until we "rescue" her. She sometimes will say "mama mama". DH doesn't think she is really awake during these episodes. The more I think about it, I don't think she is either.

Anyone else think this may be affecting their DC's sleep at night?
I'm going to be reading more into this...thought it might be useful to someone else.

Also found info here--though i don't know who the dr. is, or advocate meds--but the description in the article fit my DD to a tee:
http://www.drhull.com/EncyMaster/C/c..._arousals.html


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## Ambyrkatt (May 27, 2005)

I read the link and I am not really sure if my DS is going through this or not....maybe a mild bit of it. Starting in the last month, he's had nights here and there where he will just sit up and then fall over. Sometimes he'll stay where he falls and sometimes he'll keep sitting up and falling over. I'm usually able to wisk him into the crook of my arm and snuggle him and then he'll calm down and sleep more peacefully. We've noticed that when he does this, he isn't awake at all. It's quite odd. However, he doesn't cry or act upset at all and certainly isn't having night terrors. He might thrash around for a minute or two before the sitting, though.

That was an interesting link, though. I'm going to pay attention and see if the nights where he does this are after days of poor naps. He has had a harder time getting 2 naps lately because we have been waking up too late in the morning....gotta work on getting up for the day a little earlier so things go smoother.


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## shamesa (Apr 19, 2005)

My three year old has this. It started last Thanksgiving. Basically the symptoms show up whenever we alter his routine at all -- even something as simple as going to bed 1/2 hour late will result in 3-4 night waking episodes, typically all before midnight, and lasting 3-5 nights. He's always woken at night, but these episodes are different -- he's confused, crying, and seems only half-awake. He may be able to talk a bit, and doesn't remember them in the morning, but it's not as extreme or bad as night terrors, where kids aren't able to be comforted. The only thing we've found that works is keeping his routine very, very predictable -- no more staying up just a little late to go out to dinner sort of thing. I read that kids usually outgrow this by 5 or 6.


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## krizzanne (Jun 19, 2006)

My 16mo old ds had that!
KKFUM--I had to 'force' breastfeed him as well.
It has just slowly gone away; happening less and less. My husband and I were always bewildered. I'm glad you found the link, thanks!


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## catgirl1007 (Feb 9, 2005)

My DD has this, too. I talked with her Ped about it at her 2 year appt and he thought it was night terrors. After I did some research I think that's it's confusional arousal based on when it's happening and what the episodes are like. For about 3-4 months she was having them 3-5 times/week. I just recently changed her nap routine to her going down somewhere between 12:30-12:45 and sleeping for 1 hour 45 minutes - 2 hours. At nighttime I go upstairs and lay in our bed with her shortly after 8pm and she's asleep by 8:30-8:45. She sleeps until 7am. This seems to be working for us. We had a few *very, very* rough weeks prior to this though.

Today she decided she didn't want to take a nap, despite me trying for an hour and 10 minutes to get her down. I have a feeling she'll have several episodes tonight.









From what I've read, the only things you can do are:
(1) wake them up shortly before you anticipate the first episode. This alters their sleep pattern. There's NO WAY I'd do this with DD b/c she's so hard to get down in the first place.

(2) when they're having an episode, don't talk to or comfort them b/c it seems to prolong the episode. I wait about 10 seconds and end up comforting her b/c I can't stand to hear her moans and cries - it breaks my heart. If she can't snap out of it I say her name loudly and say "Mommy is here". She usually snaps out of it after that. Dr. Sears also has info about it on his web site.


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