For the past two nights, Quinn has woken up screaming in his sleep. His eyes are open, but he continues to scream and/or cry uncontrollably while his body is rigid and shaking. His eyes look wild and if he says anything at all, it makes no sense. He doesn’t acknowledge my presence. It doesn’t matter how much I hold him, use a comforting voice, shine light on his face — it doesn’t stop until it’s ready to stop. I have to say, it’s really freaky.

I read up on them on Web MD today. Their description fits Quinn’s behavoir perfectly. And their explanation for the cause fits in quite well too. With all the travel and excitement over the holidays, we’ve had a tough time settling back into a calm routine. He’s been going to bed too late and not getting enough sleep. And I haven’t been myself. Having a hard time shaking the post-holiday / post-really-great-time-with-family-that-live-too-far-away blues. Being the little empath that he is, he picks up on everything going on around him.

The first night we had a house full of visiting relatives and everyone heard him. Thor & I went running into his room thinking he’d impaled himself on something in his sleep. After determining he wasn’t hurt, I knew instantly what was happening. Thankfully I remembered Thor’s mom telling me that he used to get them as a child and describing them to me. If I hadn’t had that reference, who knows what I would’ve thought. I’d probably be looking up the number for the closest exorcist.

It happened again last night. This time I was home alone with Quinn. I just brought him into my bed and stayed with him until he calmed down and drifted back into a more peaceful sleep. Web MD says the only thing you can do is make sure the child is safe and can’t hurt themselves. Not too comforting.

As if night terrors weren’t freaky in and of themselves, the other freaky part is that the child has no memory of them. He was happy as a clam this morning. He didn’t even remember that he’d spent several hours sleeping in my bed. (I just kept him there until Thor came home and moved him when he needed his spot back). Although, I guess that’s actually a blessing.

After the first episode I asked Quinn about it in the morning. While he was very intrigued, it was apparent he had no memory of it. However, it did spawn several conversations about nightmares and night terrors throughout the day which led to him getting increasingly nervous about it happening again by bed time. I decided this time it was better not to bring it up with him if he didn’t bring it up. He’s such an inquisitive and intense child and can really get himself worked up. I think that was the right decision. Better not to make too much of it.

And I now have a moral imperative to bring some normalcy and consistency back into our lives.