What are Nightmares/Night Terrors??
Answer:
♥ Nightmares and Night Terrors are different.
A nightmare is a dream occurring during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep that arouses feelings of intense, inescapable fear, terror, distress, or extreme anxiety that usually awakens the sleeper.
Description of Nightmares
A nightmare is a vivid, frightening dream that usually results in the dreamer waking up with full or partial recall of the dream itself. A night terror is an episode of extreme fright during sleep without any recollection of a dream. Both nightmares and night terrors strike children much more often than adults.
Nightmares, unlike night terrors, can be recalled afterward and are accompanied by much less anxiety and movement. These frightening dream experiences, which tend to occur at times of insecurity, emotional turmoil, depression, or guilt, can occur in all age groups.
Nightmares occur exclusively during REM sleep. REM sleep phases grow longer in the latter part of the sleep cycle, and the majority of nightmares occur from the middle of the night onward.
Night terrors, by contrast, take place in non-REM (nondream) sleep. During night terrors people wake up sweating heavily, their hearts pounding, and screaming in fear. They are unaware of their surroundings and unresponsive to attempts to comfort them. They may not calm down for 10 or 15 minutes, although they return to sleep quickly once the episode ends. Generally they do not remember what scared them, but rarely a person will retain a vague image of something terrifying. A few children and adults who experience night terrors will sleepwalk during the episode.
Check out this website for more information on nightmares:
http://www.healthscout.com/ency/52/612/m...
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Definition of Night Terrors
Sleep terror disorder or "night terrors" is a condition that occurs during stages 3 or 4 of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. It is characterized by repeated episodes of abrupt awakening, usually with a panicky scream, and accompanied by intense anxiety, confusion, agitation, disorientation, unresponsiveness, marked motor movements, and total amnesia concerning the event.
Description of Night Terrors
Night terrors usually occur 1/2 hour to 3 1/2 hours after falling asleep. During these episodes people wake up sweating heavily, their hearts pounding and eyes glazed over, screaming in fear. They are unaware of their surroundings and unresponsive to attempts to comfort them. They may not calm down for 10 or 15 minutes, although they return to sleep quickly once the episode ends.
Generally they do not remember what scared them, but rarely a person will retain a vague image of something terrifying. A few children and adults who experience night terrors will sleepwalk during the episode.
Check out this website for more information on night terrors:
http://www.healthscout.com/ency/68/341/m...
Hope this helps! :-)
You should definitely seek help. If you experience extreme nightmares with somnambulism (sleepwalking), than you're in serious danger of harming yourself while sleeping. Whether you remember these dreams or not, they're severe enough to present serious problems in your life, and as with anything that can do so, you should seek help.
I had night terrors for about 9 years. You cannot be woke up while having a night terror and you tend to physically act them out. A chemical that semi-paralyzes you in sleep seems to be missing or greatly reduced in those of us who have night terrors. I out grew mine in my early 20's. Wish I could help more.
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****************DW is correct. I would act act dreams walking and talking screaming all with my eyes open and would wake the next morning and hear about it all from my very tired husband. To this day everything I know about my night terrors are second hand from my husband. Other than being a little tired the next day I was completely unaware anything had happened.
First it sounds like you have a new baby in the house. Nightmares are your subconcious thoughts or worries that bother you throughout the day, week, year even. Maybe you are worried about being a good mother, or worried about not knowing what to expect with a new baby. You do not need psychiatric help you just need to talk about the things that are bothering you maybe with a friend or spouse. Figure out what is bothering you the most and try to find a positive outlook or answer for it. If that doesnt help then definitely ask a doctor or seek some help. They will be able to give you the most educated answers! good luck
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