Q: What's the difference between nightmares and night terrors in babies?

A: Nightmares usually occur in the second half of the night when sleep is lighter, known as Rapid Eye Movement (REM), and babies wake up scared, crying, and have a hard time falling back to sleep.

Night terrors occur during the deep sleep phase, also known as Non-rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep, and most babies can fall asleep immediately after a night terror and do not remember what happened the next day.

Compared with nightmares, baby night terrors are far more worrying, which may occur only occasionally and can be calmed down by parents. But the performance of baby night terrors will be much more intense, such as suddenly sitting up from bed, suddenly waking up crying, trembling, shortness of breath, pupil dilation, dull eyes, even struggling, screaming, kicking and so on. If the baby has night terrors for a long time, it means that the baby may have sleep disorders, which need to be treated by a professional doctor.