Night Terrors

Factual Questions
1

Is there a physiological explanation for Night Terrors? It seems odd that I’ve never had them in my whole life, and now, at 30, my husband has had to physically shake me awake from screaming, thrashing nightmares and I am unable to sleep for hours afterwards.

My doctor says just to ‘try a warm bath before bed’ and ‘not worry about it’. I have a prescription or Klonopin, but I don’t want to have to take that all the time.

Anyone have experience or thoughts on this? Seen any studies? I thought Night Terrors were mostly in children, not adults…and it’s making me afraid to go to sleep.

2

I’m so sorry your going through this. And I wish I could help. I only have anecdotal answers, sorry.

Rarely had bad dreams as a kid. But I have night terrors now because of the medications I’m on. Not.Fun.At.All. Screaming, Crying, Trying to get out… Hubby has had to move the phone to his side of the bed, because one night I started trying to call 911 because the mob was trying to break in the house. I never woke up, and needless to say, there was no mob.

I try to make the bedroom a “safe” place. No TV. No yelling in the bedroom. Dim Lights, clean smells etc. Nothing abrupt. And I spend about 30 minutes before I go to bed as still as possible, praying or meditating. Then I slowly brush my hair, which also calms me. I also try to go to bed at the same time every night. Routine seems to help. AND no pizza! For some reason, pizza dreams seem to be worse - more vivid.

Good Luck! I hope this helps a little.

3

Thanks! The research I’ve done has actually said that taking sleeping pills or tranquilizers can actually make it WORSE, which is good to know. I mostly feel bad for my husband, who gets freaked out trying to wake me up.

I guess I can expect to ‘grow out of it’ from what I’ve read.

4

jarbabyj - Oh I feel for you. I have had several people over the years come to me with similar tales of woe during the night. I teach Interviewing & Counseling to students every spring semester. Those who have night terrors are always asking me how to get rid of them. I guess being a psychology instructor allows me that.

There are several things I can say about them, and you can deduce what you will from what I have to say. Also, feel free to email me and I can direct you in a positive direction for healing…

First of all where do you live? Not city and state but region?

During this time of heightened vigilance against terrorism, war in the mid-east, and lot’s of big decisions being made on a worldly scale, it is not uncommon for people to experience night terrors.

Some studies suggest a physiological basis for the event’s however, I have seen little research to suggest that it is anything more than your body reacting to stress.

Are you a packer? In other words do you have a tendency to pack away emoton rather than deal with it? This can mean a stressful situation or emotional situation.

If you aren’t, if you are a well adjusted normal 30 year old woman, what else is going on? You need not get into detail, on the boards of course, but you may want to stop, and take a look around you and see what is affecting your moods. Kids, world politics, husband, work, religion? All play a deep seated role in your psyche, and can affect it even when you are unconscious.
Night terrors, or horrible nightmares, is usually the bodies way of getting rid of pent up stress about any number of subjects.
Many times people are reacting to Unspoken in the family, or work environ.
Here are a couple wondrous stress reducing tactics that may help you night terrors, they will at least make you more calm in a stressful situation.

Background -> Most people think that if they have a high tolerance for stress that they are really strong people, that they can handle anything. When infact this is quite untrue. The higher your tolerance for stress the more stress you need to let in, to be that tolerant right?
So try this:

Limit the amount of stress you let in on a daily basis. Essentially Lower your tolerance for stress, the less you let in the less will affect you physically.

Example: You are on deadline at work, you work feverishly to make the deadline. Your boss is checking in on you constantly making sure you are going to meet the deadline. Everytime he/she checks on you you say “yes, sir, I’ll make it, I’m almost done”
When in fact you are far from done and will only just barely make the deadline.
So instead of increasing your tolerance, lower it. Say to yourself…Thats enough! No, sir I am lagging a bit, this is a tough project. But I’ll do my best to finish on time, and I suspect I’ll be done a little before.
You may or may not believe this, but it tells your boss you are thinking of yourself, and the important work you need to complete.
Does this make sense? Try it with other aspects, of life, and you may notice to your surprise your night terrors decrease and you may start to feel a little better.
Please email me if you would like some resources and I’ll be more than happy to help you out :slight_smile:

5

Are you sure you’re having night terrors and not really bad nightmares? Night terrors occur when you’re not dreaming, during the NREM (Non-rapid eye movement) stages of sleep (same with sleep walking).

http://www.nightterrors.org/sleepstage.html

I’ve heard that for night terrors, you don’t want to shake the person awake.

I’d recommend checking out the message board and some other resources on that page.

I wish you well. Night terrors are really nasty.

6

I do believe it IS night terrors because my husband says that I look awake, and it’s hard to come out of them. And it usually happens only an hour or two after I fall asleep.

Phlosphr - I think you’ve got me spot on. I’m buying a condo next week, and I’ve just recently lost my job so I don’t know how to pay the mortgage, I suffer from anxiety disorder and panic attacks, I’m completely stressed 24/7 about terrorism/war, I’ve recently found out that I’m having fertility problems, and while I’ve lost my job, my boss is trying to cram in as much stuff as possible into the last few weeks I’m here. So yes, I’m pretty sure they’re stress related.

But what I’m worried about is my physiological reaction, which is a rapid pounding heart, shaking, shortness of breath, sore muscles. It’s almost like…a seizure.

7

Are you on any kind of medication? I recall you posting about yoru fertility problems? Could it be hormonally related (assuming you’re on hormonal medication)? I’ve been on medications before that really screwed with my sleep. Just a thought.

8

Sounds like you are having PA’s or AA’s during sleep. Which in my opinion is a sign your body is subconsciously trying to fix itself. When you wake up are you rested, or completely drained? Or in the middle? Rested would mean your body is doing a good job, drained would mean your conscious mind needs to step in and give your physical body a hand.

Try going to a park or secluded place, lay back in the grass or sand - if it’s a beach - and reflect. Sort things our preliminarily in your mind. Not positive measures on how to pay your mortgage, but preliminary plans on what you want to do. You will ba amazed at the new pathways your minds eye comes to when you do this. And those new pathways will help you when you are asleep. Your mind will look to those instead of a nightmare to feed off of. Do you know how much energy it takes to have a nightmare? It’s like running a mile flat out with little to no physical movement.
Seriously, create those new pathways during the day, allowing for your tolerance for stress to quell a little, so you can get a good night’s sleep.

Also, laugh alot. Buy the Dumb and Dumber DVD or Tape and watch it before bed…Or pick your favorite comedian and watch away. This is an actual behavior modification technique used in clinicians offices around the country…Laughter can help with stress… Or is your husband a good tickler? Foot massager??

9

I had night terrors once. I dreamt or terrored (or whatever) that a Grim Reaper/Nazgul looking thing was coming to suffocate or stab me and I couldn’t for the life of me move an inch. The whole thing probably took 15 seconds, but it felt 135 times longer. The weird thing is, I know I was totally awake for it all. It was the worst @#)$*^! feeling of my life. To this day I don’t know why it happened (stress?) but thankfully, it hasn’t happened since.

jarbabyj, I’m sorry that you’re under so much stress right now. Hopefully as your stress lowers bit by bit, you’ll sleep better.

10

well THAT is none of your business, kind sir :wink:

Seriously, all of this input is very helpful.

Plnnr, I’m on Celexa and Klonopin for depression and anxiety, but i’ve been on them for years (4 months on the Klonopin) and this started just recently.

Anyway, tonight I’m going to see a play about the Holocaust! Should be fantastic :rolleyes:

11

Sounds like sleep paralysis though. Full waking consciousness, unable to move, suffocation, hallucinations? Almost classic sleep paralysis symptoms.

12

Heh. :wink:

Best of luck Jess.

13

Right. Peg is talking about sleep paralysis, which is arguably more frightening to the sufferer than NTs.

jarbabyj, do you remember what you were experiencing during these episodes? If so, it may not be NTs. The people that I know who have been diagnosed with NTs do not recall what they were feeling/thinking during the episodes, except perhaps very vaguely.

My understanding is that the underlying cause of NTs is simply that the mechanism that keeps us from acting out our dreams is for some reason not “switched on” in the NT sufferer. Which is scary because it implies that whatever the person is experiencing is normally experienced by all of us - we just don’t act it out or remember it.

14

I had the exact same reaction to that sentence. :smiley:

Good lord, no wonder I’m terrorized. I’m waking up a Wisconsinite.

:eek:

I remember very vague portions of my dreams from that night, but when ever my husband wakes me up and tells me what I was screaming about, I don’t remember THAT situation in a dream.

For instance, the other night I was dreaming about being on a game show about He-Man (yes, I know…)

and the next thing I know my husband is shaking me violently telling me to wake up because I was screaming for everyone to leave me alone.

15

Sounds like sleep paralysis more than night terrors though. Full waking consciousness, unable to move, suffocation, hallucinations? Almost classic sleep paralysis symptoms.

16

Dopplepost - damn hamsters…

17

jarbabyj- I sure know what you’re going through. I had both re-occuring nightmares and night terrors growing up. Radically different. Nightmares I would wake up by myself screaming and usually alone, but the terrors I seemed to wake up (more like snap out of it) with family members around me trying to get me to come out it. My parents also said that I looked wide awake and it creeped them out greatly. Especially when I would be pointing to an invisible someone/thing who I saw with open eyes and they couldn’t see.

I hope things get better for you soon.

18

Oh great. I got to experience something arguably worse than night terrors. Lucky me. :rolleyes: At least it hasn’t happened again and now I have something to research.

19

[homer] Ahhhhh! Cobras, Cobras!!![/homer]