Sleep terrors, also called night terrors, are a very disturbing problem in children and adults. They are characterized by extreme terror and a temporary inability to regain full consciousness. The person may wake abruptly from sleep and be accompanied by gasping, moaning or screaming. It is very difficult to fully awaken the person.Â
Here is a fasinating study showing 5HTP as a potentially effective treatment.
Eur J Pediatr. 2004 Jul;163(7):402-7. Epub 2004 May 14. L -5-Hydroxytryptophan treatment of sleep terrors in children. Bruni O, Ferri R, Miano S, Verrillo E. Centre for Paediatric Sleep Disorders, Department of Developmental Neurology and Psychiatry, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Via dei Sabelli 108, 00185 Rome, Italy.
To test the hypothesis that the administration of L -5-hydroxytryptophan (L -5-HTP) might exert beneficial effects on sleep terrors, we carried out an open pharmacological trial in a group of children with sleep terrors compared to a group of children with the same disorder but without L -5-HTP treatment. Participants in the trial were 45 children (34 males and 11 females; age range 3.2-10.6 years), referred to the Sleep Centre of the Department of Developmental Neurology and Psychiatry of the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, affected by sleep terrors. All subjects underwent: (1) complete medical and sleep history; (2) complete neurological examination and EEG recording whilst awake and sleeping, (3) a structured sleep diary for 2 months, (4) after 1 month, all subjects were examined again from the clinical and EEG points of view and (5) after 6 months, a structured interview in order to evaluate the clinical outcome. After the first visit, L -5-HTP was administered (2 mg/kg per day) at bedtime to 31 randomly selected patients for a single period of 20 consecutive days. After 1 month of treatment, 29/31 (93.5%) of patients showed a positive response. In the comparison group without drug therapy, after 1 month, the episodes disappeared only in four children (28.6%) while ten children (71.4%) showed the persistence of episodes with the same frequency as before. After 6 months, 26/31 (83.9%) of children treated with L -5HTP were sleep terror-free, while in five children (16.1%) sleep terror episodes persisted. Of the children in the comparison group, ten (71.4%) continued to show sleep terrors at 6-month follow-up. CONCLUSION: to our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating the efficacy of a new drug treatment for sleep terrors. These results confirm our initial hypothesis and represent evidence that treatment with L -5-hydroxytryptophan is able to modulate the arousal level in children and to induce a long-term improvement of sleep terrors.
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7 Comments
I am an adult female, age 64, and have had night terrors for more than 20 years. I suffered not knowing what they were until about 5 years ago. At that time I started taking a very small dose of valium, 2 mg each night, and they went away 99.9% of the time. This is really amazing to me and I would not give it up for anything. Having a decent night sleep without having to worry about these horrible awakenings has been a God send.
I find my primary doctors do not have any knowledge of this and when I asked for the valium to try out, my doctor was willing to give it to me. My doctor now fights me every time I request it, even though the dosage is so small and it is only for this one reason. I do not know why the night terrors started about 20 years ago, other than I started living alone after being married for 7 years. I could have an underlying fear of living alone.
Does this leave us with any clues as to why “sleep terrors” are happening? I was plagued for many years on a nightly basis, sometimes several times a night, since about 4th grade until my 30’s. They have reappearing episodes but not nearly as much although I have other sleep disturbances. Also, 2 of my 4 children have “night terrors”.
I’ve had these off and on for years. On more than one occasion, I’ve awakened, jumped out of bed and screamed, “Please, Jesus, don’t let me die now!” This is not thought out; it’s an automatic type of reaction. After the episode, I’m fine. No ongoing anxiety or anything, and I’m able to resume sleeping. I had a sleep study done and, of course, I didn’t have any terrors while there. (Luckily; I would’ve ripped all those wires off me if I jumped out of the bed.) I have had terrors both with and without wearing a “snore guard” appliance to bed. My mother has sleep apnea, but my sleep study showed I do not. As such, I’m not sure of the cause of the terrors, but would love someone to shed light on them. Given what we know about 5HTP, serotonin and restless legs, I wonder if any of the study children had leg issues (restless, cramping, etc.; I had horrible leg cramps as a child and would scream bloody murder during the night).
So what might be the recommended dosage of 5HTP to take for sleep problems?
Sleep terrors seem often due to worry about current life stressors. My husband’s ADHD and sleep are worse when he is stressed.
Do you think this product might help patients with non-essential tremors? My mother-in-law has tremors on one side of her body only, and they started happening just at night but have progressed into happening just about all the time. Her neurologist has ruled out brain tumor, parkinson’s, etc. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
I have a 5 year old son who has HORRIBLE dreams that haunt him throughout the day. He has always had sleep problems…ever since he was born, and although he has never been diagnosed with adhd, he has all the symptoms. I’ve been giving him some vitamins and herbs that have made a HUGE difference in him during the day, but night time is still a problem. I’m going to try the 5HTP and I’ll post my observations with my precious son. Thanks for the suggestion!