Normal to wake up shaking for a period during the night??

[crunchy_mommy]

DS does this on & off -- kind of forgot about it for a while until he started doing it again the last couple of nights, once or twice a night.

His eyes slowly open. He looks confused or startled. Then he starts shaking like a leaf. He talks but it's all jumbled and I can't quite understand what he's saying, I think something to do with Mommy & milk... I'm not quite sure if he's awake or asleep during this -- he seems to sort of see me but not really. Then he goes back to sleep (usually in my arms), and sometimes the whole thing reoccurs seconds or minutes later, while other times he stays asleep.

It sort of seems like night terrors but he's not screaming or anything, he might cry though. And I've never heard of shaking during night terrors. But I can't quite comfort him, though I sense he'd cry more if I wasn't right there. I am worried it could be a seizure or something, but I've only seen real-life people have absence seizures and what's I've seen of videos of shaking-type seizures, this doesn't look like it. It's more like uncontrolled trembling, like when you're terrified. And of course google has me freaking out! He does twitch randomly while fully asleep too.

Just wondering if anyone else's kids do this... and what your doc has said if you've brought it up...

[NiteNicole]

This sounds like low blood sugar.  My daughter used to do this sometimes (and will do it now RARELY).  She's wake up shaking, kind of mumbling, and confused.  Usually she'd go back to sleep but if I could get some milk in her, I would.  Have you tried having him eat something with protein before bed? 

My guess was that my daughter had low blood sugar but it really could just be that she was waking up...just not all the way.  Or maybe she was waking up but not all the way, due to low blood sugar. 

I used to have incidents where I would wake up but be unable to open my eyes or move.  It was terrifying.  When I could finally force my eyes open, make a sound, or move even a finger, I could wake up and move. I read that it was everything from astral projection to low blood sugar.  I started making sure to have some protein before bed (usually nuts and cheese or a glass of milk) and I haven't had an issue since.  My daughter is more balanced eater now and she sleeps more soundly through the night so it's rare that she wakes up shaking and confused...she's told me about doing it once in the past several months and she says it's the only time she can remember (I'm guessing that she can't remember when it used to happen more often because it was so long ago).

Obviously, I'm not a doctor and it could be who knows what, but low blood sugar seemed to be the most likely answer so I tried fixing that first.

[crunchy_mommy]

Hmm that could be it. I've been hypoglycemic pretty much my whole life and I do wake up mid-night very disoriented and jittery (no shaking though)... And DS did have more sugar than usual the past day or two (went berry picking & he ate lots of those & had a few bites of the pie we made and then potatoes with dinner last night...) Six months ago I cut him off from nursing for the first 5-7 hours of the night but this makes me wonder if I should start night-nursing again... Though I REALLY don't want to *shudder*... I will think more about this & experiment with his bedtime snack, DH handles that so I'll have to see what he's been giving him. I guess I can handle hypoglycemia, I'm used to that, not sure if I could handle seizures or something...
Edited by crunchy_mommy - 7/24/11 at 10:25am

[tessie]

He's right at the age when they do seem to have more vivid dreams, night terrors etc so it is more likely to be linked to that than be  a seizure. Maybe monitor it and if it doesn't ease off or gets worse then speak to your dr to put your mind at rest?

Adding protein at bed time probably wouldn't hurt but if he seems find in the morning it seems doubtful that it's a blood sugar issue.