Nightmares and Night Terrors

08/05/2024

Dreaming is one of the most complex and puzzling level of sleep. They can contain magnificent visuals of bliss, but they can also be threatening and sinister. When a stressful dream causes you to wake up, it's known as a nightmare.

What Causes Nightmares

There are no united answer to why we have nightmares, for the ongoing war of words in neuroscience and sleep medicine. Dreams and nightmares helps the brain process emotions, as a number of researchers believes. Many points contribute to the risk of nightmares:

- Trauma and apprehension

- Sleep deprivation

- Mental health disorder

- Particular drugs and medicine

Research suggest that even though strong feelings, medications and more, the what really triggers a nightmare is when a person progresses irregularly through sleep stages. A nightmare disorder, a parasomnia, is also a key aspect. People who has a nightmare disorder's sleep, mood, and daytime functioning will change. While from time to time, nightmare disorders are more abnormal.


Night Terrors

When you cry, scream, and wave your arms and legs wildly when not awake, it's known as a night terror. They may also lead to sleepwalking. Night terrors generally happen during the first stage of sleep. Even though night terrors can scare people around the one with night terrors, it usually lasts a few minutes according to research, and there's no need to be too concerned.

A night terror isn't the same as a nightmare. Children generally don't remember the event when they wake up in the morning, while adults may recall the dream they have during the night terror.

You can tell if someone's having a night terror when they:

- Thrash around sharply

- Get out of bed and run around and be aggressive when held back

-  Hyperventilating

- Shrieking and crying

Night terrors might need treatment if they cause difficulty with sleep or cause a safety risk.


References

Suni, Eric (2024) Why We Have Nightmares

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares<br>

Rosario, Fransisco J. R. (2024) Night Terrors

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/night-terrors/ar-BB1nfqHw?ocid=BingNewsSerp<br>

Mayo Clinic (2024) Sleep Terrors (Night Terrors)

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sleep-terrors/symptoms-causes/syc-20353524<br>

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