To a child, the nightmare is real, and it won't help to say it was just a dream. A child may have trouble separating the dream from reality. This is when parents must be very supportive and reassuring. In contrast to nightmares, night terrors occur earlier, most commonly during the first two hours of sleep before the REM stage begins. Night terrors can be frightening to the parent since the child may appear to be awake and is often combative and unresponsive to attempts to arouse or console him or her.
Night terrors can last from a few minutes to a half-hour and often end abruptly.
During the episode, the parent should try to prevent the child from hurting himself. Afterward, the child will not recall the episode and will usually want to go back to sleep. The parent should try not to talk about the incident the following morning since the child will not remember what happened, and discussing the incident may cause the child anxiety. Night terrors are often related to lack of sleep or an emotionally stressful period in the child's life, such as a divorce or illness in the family. Nightmares, on the other hand, are usually caused by specific anxiety-producing situations or events that occurred recently in the child's life, such as a scary movie or an incident at school.