The Night times.....fidgets

The bad dream, the nightmare whatever it is that causes him to wake up. It doesn't matter what the cause, once he is awake in the middle of the night, the fidgets start. His hands move, his legs shift, he feet slide back and forth, he fidgets. He can't get it to stop. He will call for me and I will respond immediately because I know his body is at war with itself. I can't begin to imagine the battle he fights, but I know he fights.

Sometimes the fidgets last only 15 minutes, sometimes it is hours. I can wrap him in his weighted blanket, and hold him, that at least calms his fears. He will snuggle in and ask to rock, rocking can sometimes help him get back to sleep quickly sometimes we will rock for almost two hours before the fidgets stop. Before his little body calms and allows him to sleep.

I have tried so many different things, sometimes I hold him the entire time, sometimes I just lay down with him, and sometimes I turn the light on and let him play. I wish I had found a "magic" fix to help the fidgets stop, but we are working on it. Besides the two-hours of awake in the night, the part that is hard is how tired he looks that next day. Like even though he got back to sleep it was not restful. I feel helpless.