There’s not much you can do about night terrors, Leschziner tells me. In children, anticipatory wakening sometimes works, when you wake a child up before they get to the point in the sleep cycle when the night terror occurs, thereby resetting their sleep pattern. In adults this doesn’t work so well and in extreme cases, patients are given sleeping tablets or antidepressants.
“It might be worth trying some acupuncture,” my neurologist suggested, resignedly as I left. It felt like a desperate recommendation, from someone who is used to fixing people, but on this occasion was stumped. “I can’t tell you how it works, or indeed that we have data to suggest that it does actually work, but anecdotally, I’ve heard good things.”
Which is why I found myself a week later, seeing Sarah, a local acupuncturist who had come highly recommended by a good friend. I was feeling nervous. I’d spent my childhood running away from my father, a doctor, who would bring our routine vaccinations home to save us coming into the surgery. I hated needles.
But before they were brought out, I told her about what was wrong, and my terrifying nighttime experiences. She asked cautiously about my childhood, whether I’d experienced anything that might have triggered these awful dreams. I felt awkward as I described an idyllic childhood with horses and sisters, the most traumatic part being when Tarzan, our hamster, escaped, presumed eaten by next door’s cat.
But then I lay on her treatment bed and breathed deeply as the needles were brought out. They didn’t hurt and she chatted away to me calmly as she selected various spots, all over my body, my ankles and knees, my wrists and my head, where she inserted needles and left them there. It was relaxing, if a little dull. I certainly did not emerge a new woman, rather one who was even more cynical about alternative medicine.
But that night I slept as if someone had given me Valium, deep and seemingly dreamless, awaking feeling more refreshed than I had in years. At first it felt too good to be true. But I started seeing Sarah weekly, and as every week went by, I was amazed to find, the night terrors failed to return.
I ask Leschziner if he believes, as I do, that these magical needles could have miraculously resolved my sleep issues. “It’s probably more about relaxing you,” he explains. “Anxiety is certainly a factor and in fact, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been shown to improve sleep generally. One of the most effective things we can do is try to focus on being as relaxed as possible before we go to sleep, basic sleep hygiene which would include less caffeine, avoiding screens before bed, high-adrenaline films, or even books.”
Still, I’m curious about why I should be a victim of night terrors. Leschziner says it’s basically a brain malfunction and there seems to be a genetic predisposition to being able to enter into this state in which night terrors occur. I suddenly remember consoling my 11-year-old son this summer, terrified after he’d sleepwalked and found himself in an unfamiliar room. “I thought I’d been abducted by aliens,” he told me, his voice shaking, like mine used to. Part of me wanted to laugh at the absurdity of his theory but then I remembered how scared I had been all those years ago.
Leschziner reinforces that it’s vital to acknowledge how real and frightening these episodes can feel, but emphasises the importance that children understand that they are part of normal brain development. “Gently guide them back to bed,” he suggests, “and don’t remind them of it the next day.”
It feels good to talk about the thing that has for so many years made nighttime so terrifying. To know that they could be triggered by disruptions such as my husband’s loud snoring, or my phone carelessly left by my bedside – and that a good wind-down routine before bed could reduce their frequency.
It’s 12 years since I first tried acupuncture and 12 years since my sleep was revolutionised. I no longer have weekly acupuncture appointments, but occasionally I’ll find myself waking up distressed – not on the scale of my night terrors, but with my heart thumping and that feeling that something isn’t quite right. At that point, I’ll book in to see Sarah as soon as I can, and the moment I do, it’s like I’m reset, I’ll sleep peacefully again, those awful nighttime demons kept at bay.
