Scientific studies have found that sleep promotes the synthesis of brain proteins and the development of intelligence in infants and children. If a child sleeps well, he wakes up in good spirits and is able to receive more information during the day. If he sleeps poorly, he wakes up in a poor state and is not easily motivated to take in things around him. I. What is night terrors in children? Night terrors in children belong to a sleep disorder, and both physical and psychological factors may be the cause of the appearance of night terrors in children. Night terrors are mostly seen in children between the ages of 4 and 10. The neurological and brain development during childhood is not yet complete, and the immaturity of the central nervous system, especially the development of the cerebral cortex that controls sleep and wakefulness, can have a certain impact on children’s sleep. Night terrors mostly occur in the first half of the night after children fall asleep. Children suddenly sit up, scream, cry, open their eyes and look straight, some talk to themselves but others do not understand what they are saying, some children touch their mouths with their hands or point their hands everywhere, some children even get out of bed and walk, looking very nervous and fearful, and have rapid breathing, rapid heartbeat, pale face and sweating, but they do not react to the things around them. The child may not respond to anything around him or her, and after a few minutes, he or she may be relieved and go back to sleep. If the child is forcibly awakened or shaken, some of them can be woken up after a few minutes, but if not, the next morning the parents ask the child what happened during the night. At this point, the child will most likely answer that he cannot remember what happened during the night. This kind of seizure is called night terrors, and if it occurs frequently, it is also called night terrors. The seizures usually last from 20 seconds to several minutes and are often triggered after a child is overtired or has an emotional stressful situation. What do parents need to do when a child has night terrors? If a child has night terrors, parents should pay attention to avoiding excessive excitement and fatigue during the day, arrange life reasonably, eliminate various factors that affect sleep disturbance, and develop good habits of sleeping on time; generally speaking, as long as night terrors are not frequent, parents need not be too nervous, because, in general, as children get older, night terrors will slowly disappear. Is there a relationship between night terrors and epilepsy? If your child has recurrent night terrors, or they occur frequently within a short period of time, and you are worried about whether your child has epilepsy, it is necessary to go to the hospital for some related tests, because some types of seizures are associated with sleep and mental behavior abnormalities. The EEG can help the doctor understand the child’s EEG functional status. If available, a nighttime long-range video EEG can be done, as the child’s night terrors often occur at night and the night terrors are recorded at the same time, which is helpful for the doctor to make an accurate judgment of the child’s condition.