Sleep Terror Observation Essay

Description of the Observation Still to this day I have trouble sleeping in the dark. Starting off at a young age, I suffered from sleep terrors that seemed as if they were happening right in front on me. I remember some of them still to this day and I could never sleep with the lights off and some sort of background noise. I also always had to have the covers pulled up over my head with a little space for me to breathe. The terrors I had involved characters I had seen in horror movies my brother made me watch. I recall one day I was at my grandmother’s house watching Scooby Doo. This episode happened to feature the abdominal snowman. Consequently, I was so terrified after watching that show I made my grandmother sleep in the same bed with

Spencer Rathus states, sleep terrors happen during the deepest sleep, whereas, nightmares occur usually in the morning hours and during a light sleep (Rathus 2011). A majority of sleep terrors are commonly found in childhood or the beginning state of adolescence and disappears usually when they reach the late period of adolescence (El Shakankiry, 2011). The main cause of these sleep terrors are stress, moving to a new house or neighborhood, stress associated with school, or even a stressful home life (El Shakankiry 2011). Signs a child may be having these are; waking up with an accelerated heart rate, not being able to talk clearly once waking up, and repeatedly hitting something while sleeping (El Shakankiry, 2011). After having these night terrors a child may fear going to bed due to having another sleep terror. I know when I had these I absolutely dreaded bedtime and rarely received a pleasurable night’s sleep since I was constantly worried I would have another night terror. I remember I always waited until my father awaken for work at three in the morning and snuck over to my parents’ room to sleep with her owing to the fact that I felt safe if I was in her room instead of by

Counseling sessions could be helpful to help the child describe what is happening when they have them and ways to possibly prevent from happening often or even at all. Nevertheless, my mother was supportive of my and helped me feel less scared when I went to bed, but my dad on the other hand was not as understanding. One night I remember lying in my bed bawling as I absolutely did not want to proceed to sleep and all he did was yell from my parent’s bedroom to be quiet and quit crying. I wish it was that easy. Moreover, children need their parents to understand their problems associated with sleep terrors and need their affection. My dad wailing across the hall did nothing but compel me to cry harder. Also, it is helpful to have a regular sleep pattern every night (El Shakankiry,