Battle Your Child's Night Terrors

May 5, 2004 -- Since almost the day he was born, 10-year-old Kasey McGregor has been plagued by sleepless nights.

At night, he experiences a strange condition called night terrors in which he cries out and moves around wildly, even though he is fast asleep.

"It's as if he's a different person when he has the night terror," said his mother, Kim Vanderklis. "He physically looks different, he sounds different."

The Pearl River, La., woman actually videotaped her distressed son in a desperate search for answers to his bizarre nighttime behavior.

The boy's father has been equally puzzled.

"You'll hear him making noises, and he's just wandering around and trying to pick up imaginary things," said his stepfather, Eric Vanderklis. "And you tell him to go back to his room, and as long as you stay calm with him, he'll go back to his room."

But the family has found an even better solution from an unexpected place: another mom, in a different state, whose son suffered from the same disorder.

Many Sleep-Challenged Children

For a long time, Kasey said he felt like he is the only one who has the problem.

"I thought I was like one of the rare 20 kids who have it," he said.

But Kasey is hardly alone. More than 2 million children experience some type of sleep disorder. Last year, Good Morning America met Cody Gross, a New Jersey boy haunted by night terrors. He would jump up in bed with his eyes wide open, breathing rapidly — even banging his head — all while deeply asleep. He would have no memory of his actions in the morning.

The story on night terrors resonated with distraught families across the country. After seeing Cody's story, Niki Mathis of Elkland, Miss., connected instantly, having dealt with her own son's night terrors. She sent Good Morning America an e-mail outlining a solution called "scheduled awakenings," which involves waking the boy after he goes to sleep. "When you're up with a screaming child every night for two years, you're pretty much at your wits' end," Mathis said. "You're willing to try anything."

Her solution requires no medication, no testing and no doctors.

"It's just you and your child," she said.

The Vanderklises, initially told that medication was the only way to help Kasey, began scouring the Web for other answers.

"I think that there should be a natural way to solve something like this," Kim Vanderklis said. "And I would rather try that then have my son put on drugs."

A Mother-to-Mother Connection

That's when she found a mother-to-mother solution, with the help of Good Morning America, which connected Mathis and Vanderklis.

The first order of business was for Kim Vanderklis to keep a nightly log of when her son went to sleep, and at what time his night terrors started. Once she pinpointed when the night terror was likely to occur again, she woke her son up 15 minutes to 30 minutes beforehand.

Under Mathis' method, the boy did not have to wake up totally. He can sit up, and parents can maybe wipe his face with a wet washcloth or just get him to roll over. He might moan a little bit in his sleep, but parents can then let him go back to sleep.

Good Morning America left its cameras rolling for two weeks to capture Kasey's activity at night. Kasey was hopeful that it would be good for him and his mother.

"Because she'll get some sleep. And me, when I wake up, I won't feel a little exhausted like I always do," he said.

Since his mother started doing the scheduled awakenings, Kasey has only had one night terror in two weeks, and it was very mild. He even went on an overnight trip without a problem.

Night Terrors Q & A

Good Morning America's parenting contributor, Ann Pleshette Murphy, offers some extra advice for parents of children with night terrors.

Q: Would this technique work with any child who is having night terrors?

A: No. In fact, it only works if the child has night terrors at least three times a week and if they occur at the same time each night — say, perhaps, an hour after the child falls asleep.

Q: How does this technique work?

A: Well, we know that children who suffer from sleep disturbances seem to have problems at the point in their sleep cycle when they're transitioning from one stage to another. If you wake your child just before he's making this transition, it seems to smooth the way.

Q: If you miss the moment and the child has a full-blown night terror, should you try to wake him then?

A: Absolutely not. It's very hard to stand by and not wake your child when he is having a night terror, but you need to just make sure he is safe, and gently try to get him back into bed and wait it out. First of all, you won't be able to wake him and if he wakes up to your shouting, 'Wake up! Wake up! What's the matter?,' you will upset him unnecessarily. A night terror is not a nightmare; he will not remember a thing the next day.