Night Terrors...

I shared Iron Mountain shelter with a couple from Deland a couple days ago. They had a young boy with them, about 10. I was warned that sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night with nightmares and will scream. Ok, I thought. I often wake up at various points in the night, so no pressures.

We all went to sleep at about 9pm, to the sound of the forest in the background...something people pay $15.95 for when they purchase a "Sounds of the Forest" environments CD. But I got something you can't get on a CD.

At around midnight, the silence of the evening forest was broken by the screams of this boy, "Aggghhhh!!! Dad....Help me....Agghhhhhh!!!!" After almost wetting myself thinking that he was being torn limb from limb by a rabid bear colony, I woke up and realized that this was one of the nightmares I had been warned about. The man and woman did their best to comfort the boy and after a few minutes, he went back to sleep, as did the couple. I, on the other hand, was still trying to get my pulse rate back down below 200 beats per minute. But eventually I was fine.

At around 2am again, silence was broken with "Aggghhhh...help me, aggghhhhh!!!" Again, the couple did their best to comfort the child and they all returned to a state of rest after a little bit. Then about an hour later, it was time for round 3... "Agghhhhhh!!!!"

I really felt bad for all of them, but didn't remember until the next day, long after I left them seeing an episode of "House" on TV months agon, in which they addressed a medical condition called "Night Terrors" which I wondered if this child had. I mostly felt bad for the child as I can't imagine going through that every night.

I gave my website card to the boy's father and if by chance he happens to read this blog entry, perhaps he can Google(tm) the term "Night Terrors" and see if this applies to his son. The symptoms certainly seem to fit.

If nothing else, it was a new shelter experience for me.

Ron