Night time awakening

My niece, who is almost 2 years old, recently began waking up between 1:30-2 am and screams for a long time.  She calms when comforted, but begins screaming and thrashing as soon as she is put back down. She is well loved anbd cared for, and in excellent health.  Her parents recently had another child. Any ideas?

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Dear Joel,

Your niece's behavior sounds like normal nighttime arousals as she moves from one stage of sleep to another. The appearance of such arousals does not usually have much significance from a psychological point of view.

Rather than go into details here, since we write about this phenomenon fairly often, I'm going to refer you to the SEARCH function in this forum. There you will find a number of entries on sudden partial awakenings, sleep terrors, nighttime awakenings, etc. Let us know if you have any additional questions after you take a look at those entries.