Night terrors occur in deep sleep or NREM stage three. During night terrors, the front part of your brain that controls executive functioning and memory is asleep while the back part that controls motor movement is awake. This is similar to sleepwalking.
Night terrors can occur in adults however it is rare. This may be indicative of underlying neurologic disorders that require more work up and investigation.
The limbic system in the mid-brain deals with emotions in both waking and dreaming and includes the amygdala, which is mostly associated with fear and is especially active during dreams.
Also called "night terrors", these episodes are characterized by extreme terror and a temporary inability to attain full consciousness. The person may abruptly exhibit behaviors of fear, panic, confusion, or an apparent desire to escape. There is no response to soothing from others.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects many people, especially military veterans. Symptoms can be severe and interfere with normal life. One of those disruptive symptoms is night terrors. They cause a person to thrash and scream in terror in the middle of the night.
Night terrors are caused by over-arousal of the central nervous system (CNS) during sleep. Sleep happens in several stages. We have dreams — including nightmares — during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage. Night terrors happen during deep non-REM sleep.
In particular, nightmares (and night terrors, discussed below) are associated with the type of trauma that can cause post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. This level of trauma is due to a person having either experienced or witnessed a terrifying event.
They aren't something you can wake up and brush off, like you would a nightmare. Often, the hallucinations brought on in a night terror appear entirely real, and adults who experience night terrors can see whatever it is for several minutes after waking up.
Similarly, experiencing night terrors doubled the risk of such problems, including hallucinations, interrupted thoughts or delusions. Younger children, between two and nine years old, who had persistent nightmares reported by parents had up to 1.5 times increased risk of developing psychotic experiences.
Kids with symptoms like these don't necessarily have (or develop) a mental illness or disorder, and many times those experiences means nothing, Thompson says. But symptoms like these, especially on the more severe end of the spectrum, may be forerunners of psychotic illness like schizophrenia.
Unlike nightmares, which kids often remember, kids won't have any memory of a night terror the next day because they were in deep sleep when it happened — and there are no mental images to recall.
Since adult night terrors are so closely associated with life trauma and psychological disorders, many of those who endure this bedtime battle will often also exhibit signs of aggression, anxiety, memory loss, and inward pain that are often expressed in the form of self-mutilation.
These trauma related elements may be content and or affect (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Both sleep terrors and nightmares can occur in PTSD. That is they can be co-morbid with each other. Nightmares may be restructured through imagery rescripting, this includes PTSD related nightmares.
Differentiating sleep terrors from nocturnal seizures can be challenging. In both instances, patients seem to awaken suddenly from non-REM sleep; they may scream, appear agitated, and move their arms and legs. However, there are important differences to look for when making a diagnosis.
Nightmares occur more frequently in patients with schizophrenia than they do in the general population. Nightmares are profoundly distressing and may exacerbate daytime psychotic symptoms and undermine day-to-day function.
People with bipolar disorder also commonly face Night terrors. Disparate nightmares, night terrors do not occur during REM sleep. A night terror isn't a dream, but rather sudden awakening along with the physical symptoms such as intense fear feeling, screaming or thrashing, and increased heart rate and blood pressure.
Beginning around puberty, people with ADHD are more likely to experience shorter sleep time, problems falling asleep and staying asleep, and a heightened risk of developing a sleep disorder. Nightmares are also common in children with ADHD.
What causes nightmares and night terrors? If you have chronic nightmares, they could be due to stress, anxiety, a traumatic event or lack of sleep. Night terrors have a strong genetic link, so you are more likely to experience them if someone else in your family has them.
In general, there is no significant association between night terrors and psychological disorders, in contrast to what has been suggested in other types of parasomnias. While the conditions described above can predispose someone for parasomnias, a number of factors have been shown to trigger them: Fever.
While children may remember having a nightmare, they do not remember having sleep terrors. Sleep terrors occur most often in children 1 to 8 years of age. They usually go away by 12 years of age.
A child who is having a night terror is stuck halfway between being asleep and awake. They are awake enough to get out of bed, talk or scream and have their eyes open; but they are asleep in that they do not respond to a parent trying to console them. They usually don't remember the episode in the morning.
Stress can begin the cycle of sleep terrors or it can exacerbate it by causing fatigue or sleep deprivation. Sometimes, but not always, abuse, molestation, or other trauma can cause sleep terrors.
Night terrors are most common in children ages 3 through 7, and much less common after that. Night terrors may run in families. They can occur in adults, especially when there is emotional tension or alcohol use.
Night terrors are a disruptive sleep disorder (parasomnia). A person experiencing a night terror has symptoms like those of a nocturnal panic attack. One key difference is awareness. People experiencing night terrors are often unaware they're having them.