Causes Of Night Terrors

Also, out of those same children, for 100 of them (67.1%), the night terrors disappeared during that age range – ages 3-10 years (Laberge, et al 6). There were no gender differences noted for night terrors in this study – they appear to affect boys and girls almost equally (Laberge, et al 7).

Dreaming is yet another state of consciousness. A dream is simply an unfolding episode of mental images that involve characters and events. Dreams usually tend to occur during REM sleep but can occur during NREM sleep as well. We dream on a variety of topics, subjects, and individuals. No dream can be exactly interpreted or defined, therefore people have always been fascinated with what, why, and how we dream. An unpleasant and almost terrifying type of dream is a nightmare. This is a very vivid, almost real

Suddenly you wake up in the middle of the night. Something is keeping your brain working as if it was in the middle of the day, awake and full of energy (but is not like that happens, anyways). You really don’t know really how it feels until it’s happening to you and now I know how it feels. There is difficulty in falling or staying asleep. Then, the waking up in the morning early and being extremely tired. This is a sleep disorder when you cannot sleep and you are awake; it's like the awake cycle is turned on and so the sleep cycle is turned off. The strength of something being so powerful keeps you awake without the ability to have a peaceful sleep; it is exhausting.

As stated in a previous statistic, sleep disorders unfortunately target a wide variety of ages. Children are commonly affected by Sleep Apnea, teeth grinding, Night Terrors, Nightmares, sleep walking, Restless Leg Syndrome, bedwetting, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Adults tend to be affected by Insomnia, Hypersomnia, Sleep Apnea, Narcolepsy, Sleep Paralysis, Hypopnea Syndrome, and Noctoria. Sleep disorders are very common and also very dangerous in some circumstances. Ill treating or ignoring sleep disorders can lead to lethargy, poor mood, lack of motivation, and may negatively impact

Also known as night terrors, these episodes are often paired with other prarsomnias, such as sleepwalking. A Parasomnia is an undesired occurrence during sleep, such as sleep talking, sleep walking, and night terrors. During these sleep terror episodes, an individual might kick and thrash around while still unconscious, stare wide eyed, scream or shout, and so on. Night terrors are said to be able to occur for a period of up to 30 minutes, once about that much time has passed, the person will once again lye down and go to sleep. Once the next day comes around the corner, usually the child or adult will not have any recollection of the event, but they at times remember small fragments of the

Dr. Ishaad Ebrahim is an MD, MRCPsych, and Neuropsychiatric Specialist in Sleep Disorders at the Constanta Sleep Centre. An MD is any type of medical doctor. An MRCPsych is a “Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.” A neuropsychologist specialist essentially has a scientific aspect and a medical aspect. Dr. Ebrahim believes that almost anyone is capable of having a nightmare during the REM stage of sleep. He said, “If we consider only attack dreams, which are one of the most common nightmare themes, the lifetime prevalence varies from 67% to 90%. Pursuit, a closely related, highly disturbing theme, has a lifetime prevalence of 92% among women and 85% among men.”

Sleep paralysis is a common condition with a prevalence of 5-62%, although most affected people have single or infrequent episodes (Dahlitz). Occasionally sleep paralysis is found to run in a family, and it can be associated with other disorders of hypersomnia, such as sleep apnea (Becker 81). Narcolepsy has also been linked with sleep paralysis; both are thought to be REM sleep disorders (Siegel). Gender and race do not seem to be a factor of risk for this disorder. The episodes of sleep paralysis seem to range from ages 5-35 (Dahlitz). The use of anxiolytic medicines, psychiatric disorders and high anxiety can also contribute to sleep paralysis (Larkin).

I found an interesting article written by the Harvard Medical School Department of Neurobiology. In 1721 nightmares was defined as a "disease when a man in his sleep supposes he has a great weight laying upon him” (Edwards, n.d.). This definition completely differs from today's definition. are more Today, the different is completely different nightmares affect many adults, however, it affects children more. The reason for this is because children are smaller and more vulnerable more threats than adults (Edwards, n.d.). Nightmares can be caused by a number of factors, however, Edwards states that the most studied cause for nightmares is post-traumatic stress disorder. As a result of trauma and negative experiences, individuals typically

The sleep cycle is often the first symptom to pre-schizophrenia. "Infants were reported to ‘sleep almost constantly' during the first few months, yet by the age of six months, they refuse to sleep at all". (Cantor, 1988) Severe nightmares are very common in the first two years of life, where the child is unable to be awoken, or the child wakes spontaneously, vomits, and falls back asleep. (Cantor, ‘88) By the time the child is three or four, serious sleep disorders begin to develop. "The child just can't fall asleep, and it seems like they just can't relax". (Cantor, ‘88) These children are more likely to sleep walk, and have no fear in doing anything while in this state. "Both sleep behavior and understanding of danger improve as the child matures; in fact, schizophrenic children become cautious and fearful as the awareness of their alien world

A night terror or sleep terror is a very frightful event that a child and parents go through. Many parents who have a child who experiences night terrors have many questions. What is a night terror? How did he/she get night terrors? What are the symptoms? What can I do to stop night terrors? Those are many questions that parents and family members want answered by a doctor, psychologist or therapist. Unfortunately, they won 't receive many answers

Parasomnia refers to a wide variety of disruptive, sleep-related events or, "disorders of arousal." These behaviors and experiences occur usually while sleeping, and most are often infrequent and mild. They may however happen often enough to become so bothersome that medical attention should be sought out. "Parasomnias are disorders characterized by abnormal behavior or physiological events occurring in association with sleep stages, or sleep-wake transitions."(DSM pg. 435)

As with sleepwalking, it can be hereditary. But thankfully our bodies change as we age, which is why we see children who no longer sleep talk or have night terrors. There are still some teenagers and adults who suffer from sleeping disorders, and in certain cases (such as narcolepsy, a brain disease where you have uncontrollable sleep attacks) some may never grow out of their illness. Either way, I am very fascinated by sleeping disorders and will educate others who suffer the new information that I

Things that pop and crack populate the house. Hearing sounds in the middle of the night that send chills down my spine. A sense of alertness occurs when standing there frozen, waiting, and thinking, “What could it be?” Waiting for the next noise or ignition of thought that makes the heart beat a little faster and breathe slower to limit the noises made in the darkness. When the lights go out you ultimately assume the worst scenarios for example a burglar, paranormal activities, or critters in the night. Even the tick tock of the clock seems like a loud bass drum in the vicinity of catching another sound to reassure that the noise was not something or someone. I often ask myself “Why me?” questioning why I have these fears. I remember how watching horror movies generated fear even at the young age of eight. Movies such as Puppet Master, IT, and Children of the Corn come to mind as well as the infamous Chucky movies. In those movies only bad things happened at night.

of me. I remember how I felt after being awoken by the fear of death.

At night, you lock the house down, tuck the kids into bed, clean your home, and you might even finish some last minute work. I bet you never thought about the things that can happen at night. As we kiss our children goodnight, our favorite line is “Goodnight, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite”. You never thought about your son sleepwalking through the night or even your daughter screaming out her sleep. What about your twins, who are both, having nightmares! Let us think about one more thing, did you even know that this could happen to anyone at any age, even you. Many Americans around the world lack the knowledge of realizing how important sleep really is. The lack of sleep can cause short-term and long-term health problems.