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10-Year-Old Daughter Waking Up Aggressive At Night

by Missy
(Michigan)

My 10-year-old daughter used to have night terrors when she was younger, but she grew out of them years ago. She has always taken a long time to fall asleep, however she has a good bedtime routine and all screens are turned off an hour before bed.


Recently she has been dealing with stress at school and since then has been showing signs of anxiety. She wakes up in the middle of the night saying her legs feel tingly or her chest feels tingly. It is worse if she stays up late or is sleep deprived.

She has woken up being aggressive in her bed kicking and thrashing around, inconsolable just like when she was smaller with the night terrors. This time she's awake, knows who we are, and can have a conversation with us.

She remembers it all, too. We are having our first session with a child psychologist that her pediatrician recommended. We gave her melatonin on school nights and it helped with her falling and staying asleep. On the weekend we didn't give it to her and it took her awhile to fall asleep and she woke up early saying she felt jittery inside. I'm wondering if this is a sleep issue or a psychology issue?

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