Night Terrors?

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I am a 24 year old female, for the past 15 years I have had nightmares. (Night Terrors) It's getting to the point where I'am waking up at 1:00 am in the morning and not being able to go back to sleep. I wake up at 5:45 every morning for work, so you can imagine how tired I am. My dreams usually consist of monsters, terrible things happening to me and my family, etc... (Do not watch scary movies at all!!!) I could go on and on, buts it's depressing. When I wake up I just stare at my bedroom door freaking myself out. My husband works at night so it's just me and my four month old home alone every night. I need answers PLEASE! HELP!
it sounds as if you are just having nightmares. nightmares and nigh terrors are totally separate things...trust me i've had them since i was born, and still have them to this day. with night terrors you don't wake up. you may just be having a lot of stress being that you have a 4 month old and your husband is working at night. talk to your doctor, they can give you meds to help calm you down before you go to sleep and help you sleep thru the night. good luck, and i hope things get better for you.  (+ info)

night terrors?

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I am a 26 year old lady.I have a funny condition in that i can have bad dreams and get scared at nite to the extend that i scream.I have searched on the net and found out the condition is called night terrors.Would a doctor or anyone who has experinced this condition explain to me and posibly tell me how to get over this.I feel so bad and at times dont look forward to going to sleep.
I would speak to your doctor if i was you he could point you in the right direction  (+ info)

Night terrors?

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My boyfriend is 23 years old and has night terrors. He has been to doctors and been put on medication but nothing helps. They are so violent, that when he has dreams he's being tortured, he will wake up bleeding on various parts of his body. Or he might wake up choking on his own blood. Does anyone know any help for this?
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What's the difference between night terrors and nightmares?

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Or is it the same thing? I was watching House reruns and the fact that one of the patient's symptoms was night terrors was a huge red flag for them and they admitted him right away. But don't we all have nightmares? What's the difference?
Mick! Where the heck'ya been? Hope you're doing good. It's been a long time.
Night Terrors Symptoms: Sudden awakening from sleep, persistent fear or terror that occurs at night, screaming, sweating, confusion, rapid heart rate, inability to explain what happened, usually no recall of "bad dreams" or nightmares, may have a vague sense of frightening images. Many people see spiders, snakes, animals or people in the room, are unable to fully awake, difficult to comfort, with no memory of the event on awakening the next day.

Night Terror or Nightmare?: Nightmares occur during the dream phase of sleep known as REM sleep. Most people enter the REM stage of sleep sometime after 90 minutes of sleep. The circumstances of the nightmare will frighten the sleeper, who usually will wake up with a vivid memory of a long movie-like dream. Night terrors, on the other hand, occur during a phase of deep non-REM sleep usually within an hour after the subject goes to bed. This is also known as stage 4. (A link to a sleep stages chart can be found on the navigation bar to the left) During a night terror, which may last anywhere from five to twenty minutes, the person is still asleep, although the sleepers eyes may be open. When the subject does wake up, they usually have no recollection of the episode other than a sense of fear. This, however, is not always the case. Quite a few people interviewed can remember portions of the night terror, and some remember the whole thing.

http://www.nightterrors.org/

I had to look this one up but apparently night terrors are much worse than the run of the mill nightmare.  (+ info)

What are the causes of night terrors when it doesn't run in the family?

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I am 27 and I have had sleep paralysis for about 5 yrs but since a few months I have started to get night terrors. It's been really terrible, with sleepwalking and screaming at the top of my lungs.
Neither of my parents have this or had this when they were younger and my sibling doesn't either.
Does anyone know why I could start to have these severe night terrors? I think it's quite rare to have them as an adult.
I do yoga on a daily basis already.
you may be under stress. in which case you need to take care of yourself. take time for yourself. make sure you are taking care of your physical health. also your mental, emotional and spiritual health as well. i recommend yoga, meditation, counseling to get in touch with your issues (everyone has issues).  (+ info)

What is the youngest age for night terrors ?

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I wanted to know if there had been any documented cases in children with night terrors around the age of 18 months. If so, what were the distinguishing symptoms of night terrors versus bad dreams in general.
"Night terrors are distinct from nightmares in several key ways. First, the person is not fully awake when roused, and even when efforts are made to awaken the sleeper, they may continue to experience the night terror for over 10 or 20 minutes. Unlike nightmares, night terrors occur during the deepest levels of non-REM sleep. Furthermore even if awakened the subject can often not remember the episode except for a sense of panic, while nightmares are easily recalled.

"Children from age four to six are most prone to night terrors, and they affect about three percent of all youngsters (although people of any age may experience them). Episodes may recur for a couple of weeks then suddenly disappear. They usually occur during the first couple of hours of sleep. Strong evidence has shown that a predisposition to night terrors can be passed genetically. Though there are a multitude of triggers, emotional stress during the previous day is thought to precipitate most episodes. Ensuring that the right amount of sleep is gained also seems to be important.

"While each night terror is usually different, all episodes of the same person will generally have similar traits. One seemingly universal quality of night terrors is a strong sense of danger - there is always a being, tangible or otherwise, who wishes to hurt the sleeping person. Many sufferers of night terrors are loathe to speak of them because of their violent, graphic, and sometimes disturbing nature."

If I were you, I'd take your kid in to see a doctor. They will *hopefully* be able to tell you more.  (+ info)

How do i stop night terrors about babies?

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I recently lost a child to misscariage and have been having night terrors about finding dead babies everywere. I dont want them anmore andi feel like am am going into depression.
go to a psychologist. you are probably supressing some sort of feelings that are reavealing themselves subconciously when you are sleeping.  (+ info)

How do I deal with the aftermath of night terrors?

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I used to get night terrors when I was 8 or 7 years old and I am now 15.
For years I've been getting a 1 second deja-vu that brings me back to those nights.
And it feels like for 1 second I can feel all the stress and emotions from my night terrors.
I used to get night terrors to, they are terrible. now i get anxious when it's time to sleep. the only thing I can do is do everything I can to make myself really tired by the end of the day. even if it means staying awake on a night I can't sleep, I at least know I'll be tired the next night if I don't nap. When I do sleep it's usually with the tv on or a light on. it's easier when it's not so quiet.  (+ info)

How long does a child have night terrors?

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My 2 year old daughter wakes up from night terrors every night around 2-3am. How long will it last? Anything to help it?
Oh, my sympathies to you! My son had those for months and they just suddenly went away when he was 3, I think. He started at about 18 months so we endured it for a long time. It was freaky. We tried everything to bring him out of the episodes and nothing worked. Sometimes the screaming would go on for 40 minutes, others, only 5. You just have to ride it out, be there to hug them when they wake, and remember they have no idea they're doing this.

Good luck!  (+ info)

Is there a connection between sleepwalking and night terrors?

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My almost three year old daughter has either nightmares or night terrors. She sometimes also sleepwalks. Can someone explain the difference between nightmares and night terrors? Is there a connection between nightmares/night terrors and sleepwalking? Finally, what causes sleepwalking?

Thanks.
Night terrors are most often experienced in childhood, and taper off by early adolescence (so your daughter would be in her prime for having them). It is a kind of parasomnia, along with somnambulism (sleepwalking) and confusional arousals. Most experts believe that sleep disorders in children are usually caused by poor sleep habits or poor personal hygiene. However, they do believe that comorbid (or, co-existing) sleep disorders may indicate that the child is depressed or anxious.

The idea behind parasomnias is that the person experiencing them is not getting a good rest - they don't go through the stages of sleep like other people do. They sort of stay in a stage that is in between sleep and awake, which causes them to experience the parasomnias.

So to get right down to your questions: what happens with a night terror is that the child's sleep becomes disturbed during stage 4 of the sleep cycle. When the child has a night terror, they will usually sit straight up in bed, wide-eyed, with a racing heartbeat (around 160 to 170 bpm). They will panic, and that may last up to 20 minutes. People who remember the night terror usually describe seeing a person or animal they thought would hurt them (like a shadowy figure or a spider or snake). However, they also say they weren't really scared by the dream, but by something else. Many times, the child will appear to sort of throw a temper tantrum during their panic.

Sleepwalking happens when a person is in a deeper stage of sleep where your brain sort of reviews the past few days' events. Most people's brains release a chemical into the spinal cord that temporarily paralyzes the body so that you don't injure yourself in your sleep. However, some people's brains fail to do this, which causes the sleepwalking - the sleepwalker will then act out all of these daily events that they are dreaming about. They may try to use the toilet, brush their teeth, get out some milk and cereal, etc.

The best advice I can give your daughter's sleep problems are most likely connected, and will most likely wear off in just a couple of years. Make sure her bed is comfortable, that she doesn't watch much TV an hour or so before bed, and that her hygiene is kept up (which I'm sure isn't an issue). If you want, you could always consult your family doctor about it as well.   (+ info)

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