Randy, I know how helpless you must have felt when your daughter Finley had her first night terrors. Dr. Greene and I definitely went through those long nights with our four children. As many as 15 percent of toddlers and pre-schoolers may experience “confusional arousal,” frequently when they’re overtired and off their sleep schedule.

Luckily an episode usually lasts less than ten minutes. It breaks our hearts to resist, but parents should hold back on sweeping in to cuddle because that may prolong the episode. With our youngest son, Austin, we recognized that his episodes started occurring when he was working on staying dry through the night. Although he wasn’t cognizant when we guided him to the bathroom to urinate, emptying his bladder seemed to relieve the episode! I don’t think there’s scientific evidence of this yet, but it’s worth a try.

At any rate, I hope you sleep better knowing that Finley will very likely outgrow this phase soon.