Night terrors (or sleep terrors) vary extensively from common nightmares and can be especially dreadful for the sufferer and their family.
Although night terrors can be absolutely frightening, they are not usually a sign of anything more serious and tend to desist of their own accord.
What are night terrors?
Night terrors, as per Medical News Today, are nightly chapters where the sufferer experiences intense fear, the sufferer may beat their limbs and scream and shout. Sessions are often linked with sleepwalking.
Night terrors are most prevalent in children, however adults can also suffer from them. A natural attack basically lasts between 30 seconds and 3 minutes, but can be considerably longer.
Night terrors are undesirable for those involved, but in general they are not a source for having medical concerns.
A study administered in Norway looking at different parasomnias (a class of sleep disorders) asked 1,000 randomly picked participants if they had also experienced night terrors. The findings revealed that 10.4% of respondents had experienced night terrors at one point in their life and 2.7% in the last 3 months.
A related study was also administered in the UK. Of the 4,972 participants, 2.2% stated having experienced night terrors.
Signs and symptoms of night terrors
Night terrors vary from nightmares. In a nightmare, the dreamer may wake up, but during night terrors they will mostly stay asleep.
This distinction is most likely because of the phase of sleep in which they happen. Nightmares likely occur during rapid eye movement sleep (REM), towards the end of a night's sleep.
In addition, night terrors take place in the first third of the night during deeper sleep, also called slow-wave sleep or non-REM sleep.
What causes night terrors?
There can be several possible causes or additional factors where night terrors are concerned. Below is a short list of some of the most common:
Fever (in children especially)
Sleep deprivation
An overfull bladder
Light or noise
Possible genetic component
Spending the night somewhere unfamiliar
Together with these additional aspects, night terrors are often related with other latent conditions such as migraines, breathing problems while sleeping (e.g. apnea), head injuries, restless leg syndrome and other treatments.
Home remedies and simple solutions
If you or your child are having discomforts from night terrors, there are various simple mediation you can try. These process may help lessen the terrors or at least minimize their impact:Make the environment intact; lock and close all doors and windows at night. Consider alarming them. Get rid of trip hazards and remove delicate and dangerous objects.
Look for patterns: keep a sleep diary. Record what time the night terrors starts. If the terrors happen at a regular time, try to wake your child 15 minutes before they are subject to occur, keep them awake for 5 minutes and then let them go back to sleep. This procedure has been discovered to be very efficient but can, reasonably, be difficult to achieve.
