Many expecting parents work to research and prepare to help
ensure the health and success of their newborn child. For some parents, they come
across the topic of sleep disorders and fear that their children will
experience the dreaded ‘night terrors’. These are commonly referred to as a “parents’
worst nightmare” and occur between the ages of 4 to 8 (Gigliotti et al., 2022).
Night terrors were given this title because they randomly present themselves while a
child is sleeping and are described as abrupt disturbance in sleep with autonomic
hyperactivity and inappropriate behavior (Gigliotti et al., 2022). In other words, they typically result in a child rapidly ‘waking’ from their sleep screaming and terrified
of something in the room that is not there. The child typically can’t speak or hear
but will display severe fear and can even act out (Leung et al., 2020). The
length of these terrors can last anywhere from 30 seconds to 40 minutes and are
full of screaming and an extreme stress response (Richarde, 2018). However, this is not always
the case. Children can also sleep through their night terrors, so they may never
present themselves to the parents or guardians, but the child will still
experience the stress response of severe fear (Webb, 2011).
These night
terrors can have various effects on the body including affecting the HPA axis
(cortisol levels), increasing blood pressure, and causing sleep deprivation (Richarde,
2018). Of course, these terrors are extremely stress inducing and can cause a
cascade of health problems like cardiovascular diseases and diabetes further down
the road. However, sleep problems, like sleep terrors, have also been linked to high intelligence (Webb, 2011) (Guignard et al., 2020). This link is extremely strong
amongst boys who experience sleep disorders (Webb, 2011). Experiencing sleep disorders,
like sleep terrors, could also be linked to the reduced sleep times
observed in gifted children (Guignard et al., 2020). Many argue that this pattern is observed becuase these intelligent children are experiencing sleep disorders, even if they are not observed by an onlooker, and therefore sleep less. However, it is important to note that
gifted children actually spend more time in REM sleep compared to ‘normal’’ children
despite the fact that they sleep for less time overall (Guignard et al., 2020).
This presents a possible connection between REM sleep and learning, but
research in the field has yet to come to any conclusions about the effects of night terrors.
References
Gigliotti, F., Esposito, D., Basile, C., Cesario, S., &
Bruni, O. (2022). Sleep terrors-A parental nightmare. Pediatric Pulmonology,
57(8), 1869–1878. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppul.25304
Guignard-Perret, A., Thieux, M., Guyon, A., Mazza, S.,
Zhang, M., Revol, O., Plancoulaine, S., & Franco, P. (2020). Sleep of
Children with High Potentialities: A Polysomnographic Study. Journal of
clinical medicine, 9(10), 3182. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm9103182
Leung,
Alexander K.C.; Leung, Amy A.M.; Wong, Alex H.C.; Hon, Kam L. (2020). Sleep Terrors: An Updated Review. Current
Pediatric Reviews, Volume 16, Number 3, 2020, pp. 176-182(7)
Richarde, S. (2018). Night Terrors and Sleepwalking in
Children and Adults: Pathophysiology and Potential Therapies. Journal of the
American Herbalists Guild, 16(2), 59–67.
Webb, J. (2011). Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of Gifted
Children. Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted. https://www.sengifted.org/post/misdiagnosis-and-dual-diagnosis-of-gifted-children.
Your post was extremely insightful. As someone who suffers from night terrors, it is very interesting to hear about how it may be linked to higher intelligence. I read an interesting article about night terrors as well and that maybe our evolution has caused more children to experience night terrors. In The Scary Truth About Night Terrors, Phil Starks talks about how as children grow up, they are constantly watched throughout the day time and then at night are put in a dark room by themselves to experience night terrors (Starks, 2018). It is scary to think about the psychological impact for these children to experience night terrors and have vivid memories of what they see and hear. Sadly, I have had night terrors my whole life, and I can remember several of the scary things I have seen and heard throughout the years even though you are not even considered awake during this time. Although night terrors may indicate a gifted child, at one point is there too much psychological damage done during the night that maybe that giftedness can't even be used any more (Starks 2018). If children are losing sleep, have increased stress and anxiety at school, I believe that their school and study habits might be impacted as well. Thank you for such an eye-opening and thought-provoking post!
ReplyDeleteStarks, Phil. During the day. (2018, June 25). The scary truth about night terrors. OUPblog. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://blog.oup.com/2018/06/truth-about-night-terrors/
This is a very interesting topic to bring up and it is interesting to see that there is research saying that night terrors can induce long term health problems but may also be correlated with intelligence. This got me thinking about how night terror may have evolved. One study looking at sleep patterns of humans from various cultures and other primate's sleep patterns and they suggested that night terrors are a result of humans no longer co-sleeping (Boyden 2018). This is common for many primates and non-western cultures because it provides safety and comfort to the family members sharing a room or bed. This study actually suggests that children under a year should co-sleep with parents or siblings to reduce night terrors. The evolution of night terrors is an interesting topic that relates to the stress and fight or flight response that is induced when an individual experiences a night terror. This would be very interesting to look into from different approaches.
ReplyDeleteBoyden, S. D., Pott, M., & Starks, P. T. (2018). An evolutionary perspective on night terrors. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 2018(1), 100-105. doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoy010