Night Terrors

 Last night, my son woke up around 10:30 screaming and crying. When we went up to talk to him, he had a blank look on his face. We would ask him questions and he would just ramble the strangest things that didn't make sense. The only thing we could figure, was that he was still asleep. My husband tried clapping, and shouting his name to try and wake him up, but it still didn't work.
It was kind of a scary experience. After he laid back down, we looked up night terrors on the internet. It described his behavior perfectly.
Has any one else out there had this happen with your child?
The website said that this is most common in children ages 3-11 and that it usually will go away on its own as the child ages. It said that it happens for many different reasons: if a child is overly tired, if they are experiencing emotional stress, anxiety, or a poor diet, it also mentioned that it can be hereditary.
The site said that you should not try to wake your child by shouting or making loud noises, because this will just confuse them. ( That is exactly what happened with us, the more we tried to wake him up, the more upset he got.) Instead try to soothe them by talking calmly, hold them if that helps. Try to help them go back to bed.
This has happened a few times before with my son and I didn't realize what was going on- it really made me worry about him. It was good to know that this can be a normal thing for children to experience.
I just wanted to pass this information on in case any of you ever experience this with your child.
If you have had this happen, please comment and let me know what you did to handle this kind of thing.