Sleep Disorder ?

  My son is eight years old and ocassionally he falls asleep while watching TV in our living room.  When he is awakened to go to his bed he sometimes starts screaming and crying.Sometime he says he sees things in the room.  He is unresponsive to us trying to awaken him.  It takes about five minutes before he is back to a normal awakened state. Is this sleep terror ?  He seems like he is awake during the episode but he remembers nothing at all of the episode after it is over.  Can you please explain this situation to me along with possible soultions to the problem.  Thank You !
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The episodes you describe are textbook for sleep terrors, the key point
which differentiates them from nightmares is the fact that the episodes are
not remembered subsequently. The occurr when awakened from deep (stage 3/4 )
sleep unlike nightmares which are associated with rapid eye movement sleep.
There is little which can be done without resorting to pharmacological
therapy which employs drugs which selectively suppress the sleep stages in
which this occurrs. Children grow out of this disorder by late childhood
but if this continues to be a severe problem you may wish to have a consultation
with a pediatric neurologist who specializes in sleep disorders.
We have one such specialist here at the cleveland Clinic Dr P. Kotagol,
Appointments number [phone]