Can babies have nightmares?

Marne - posted on 06/24/2009

You learn more in the first year of life than at any other point in your life. A baby has to learn how to understand all the info that their senses recieve. It's a lot to process and you do most of that processing and organizing when you sleep. They get overloaded. It doesn't mean anything bad has happened to them. It's just like when you get to work on a monday and everything has been stacking up all weekend and then there are 3 crisises first thing. You just want to scream and pull your hair out. It's kinda like that for them but they can't understand whats making them feel that way.

Nikisha - posted on 06/24/2009

my two year old son had experience night terrors and it's a very scary thing for a mother to experience her child going through that he had about 4 attacks.a doctor recommended that he has a sleep routine when they tend to have a active day and no sleep they tend to have an attack.

Heidi - posted on 06/24/2009

Does he wake with his night terrors at certain times of the night? If he does, try waking him just an hour or so just before then. The nurse at the GP told me this and it seemed to work, although mine only had the terrors for a short period of time. We all go into sleep into different zones and you get terros within zone 2 or something like that. So if you wake them just as they go into zone 2, it somehow seems to do the trick. Try it?

Jocelyn - posted on 06/24/2009

Quoting Cynthia:

Night terrors are belived not to happen until kids are around 2 or so, but I know from experience that they happen earlier. My son has had them since about 3 months, and they are SCARY! He will cry and thrash around for at least 20 minutes, and as Margaret mentioned, nothing you can do can comfort them. My middle and youngest have had bad dreams that they "talked" or cried during.

my little guy had night terrors aroung 3 months as well, thankfully they would only happen once a night and it only lasted a few months.  but it really is soo unverving that you can't help them, let alone wake them up.

Jackie - posted on 06/24/2009

Quoting LaCi:

I think they can. When I first brought mine home he used to SEEM like he'd dream of falling. Thats what it looked like from the way he moved before he screamed him self awake. Which makes me wonder what those nurses did to my baby. But it stopped after a couple months.

my son was about 16 months when it looked like he was being choked, he was grabbing at his throat and thrashing his body around and then it would just stop. one night he cried for an hour, screaming at the top of his lungs. It's nuts.

Miranda - posted on 06/24/2009

When my daughter was about 3 months old, I remember asking the same question. Turned out she had bad acid reflux that was so painful she cried in her sleep.

LaCi - posted on 06/24/2009

I think they can. When I first brought mine home he used to SEEM like he'd dream of falling. Thats what it looked like from the way he moved before he screamed him self awake. Which makes me wonder what those nurses did to my baby. But it stopped after a couple months.

Jackie - posted on 06/23/2009

my oldest who is almost 3 has had night terrors ever since he was born. They are absolutely horrible. The dr said not to wake them up when they're having them or you make it worse. We did wake him up one night before we knew not to and it was like he was sleep walking all day. Its a horrible thing to watch your kid screaming bloody murder in his sleep and there's nothing you can do about it. My 2nd son had them to but not as bad. Hoping my #3 doesn't get them at all.

Jeness - posted on 06/23/2009

My now 3 year old has been crying and screaming in the middle of the night since birth! I think they do! My friend had a daughter who had night terrors from 1-3 she would just wake up in the middle of the night and scream and cry for hours!!!

Cynthia - posted on 06/23/2009

Night terrors are belived not to happen until kids are around 2 or so, but I know from experience that they happen earlier. My son has had them since about 3 months, and they are SCARY! He will cry and thrash around for at least 20 minutes, and as Margaret mentioned, nothing you can do can comfort them. My middle and youngest have had bad dreams that they "talked" or cried during.

Margaret - posted on 06/23/2009

I should mention though night terrors in children are often a precursor to other issues which become evident when they are older....

for instance my youngest is believed to be ADHD

Ashley - posted on 06/23/2009

My 7.5 month old has woken up screaming in the middle of a nap a few times now and I am beginning to think she may have had a bad dream. It's so sad! I just go in and pick her up and rub her back and she calms down but she seems really upset. It's only happened twice, but still it is so sad.

Margaret - posted on 06/23/2009

I am pretty sure they do my youngest did my eldest cried out and made sounds which seemed to imply she did when she was sleeping...and as my youngest hit around a year of age she began having night terrors...they are REALLY scary she would just scream and scream and scream sometimes for hours and nothing we did could wake her from it nothing would comfort her if you touched her during it she would seriously freak out.....

Kathy - posted on 06/23/2009

I agree with Fatima; I think they do too.



But even if bad dreams are a result of one's experiences, babies also have experiences every day. They experience different situations and people. If they get scared at a stranger, that could manifest into bad dreams.

Fatima - posted on 06/23/2009

apparently they dont because dreams are based on your experiences, but my 3 week old baby sometimes when she sleeps starts to cry and kinda scream all while she sleeps, then she snuggles back comfortably :\ its kinda scary but i honestly think they do.