Parents are often troubled when their child experiences what are known as night terrors. Is there anything we can do to stop them? Experts note that night terrors are a severe form of nightmare that is neurologically in origin. In a way they are a kind of mild seizure that the child eventually outgrows. Children are not awake when they have them and cannot be comforted until they wake up. Speak with your pediatrician. If the doctor identifies the child's sleep disturbances as night terrors, medication may be necessary. It could be more likely that the child is going through a perfectly normal 4-year-old stage in which nightmares at night and fears during the day grow out of new, aggressive feelings that start coming to the surface between the ages of 3 and 5. Once the child learns safe and acceptable ways of dealing with his feelings of aggression, the nightmares and fears subside. Parents can move this process along by helping the child recognize his or her feelings and showing him or her ways to express them safely.