What Causes Night Terrors?

Night terrors are a type of sleep disorder, in which the person awakens quickly from his/her sleep from nightmares. The child or adult wakens in a frightened state of mind. Hasty awakening from sleep causes the person to wake up in a state of fear and terror. Night terrors usually occur at night; there is sweating, screaming, rapid heart rate, confusion and an inability to remember what happened. There is usually no recall of the nightmares, but the individual may have a hazy sense of seeing terrifying images during sleep. Oftentimes, people will see snakes, spiders, people or animals in their room. Many people think they are awake when they are seeing these terrifying images, but in truth, they aren't completely awake when they see them. These individuals having night terrors are usually very difficult to console after waking, but by the next day the person usually has no memory of the experience.

Causes of night terrors

The exact causes of night terrors are unknown, but they may occur due to lack of sleep, fever, stress, or emotional tension, as with family conflicts. Night terrors, or sleep terrors take place during deep sleep; the child or adult may wake up during the middle of the night screaming. Night terrors are more common in children between the ages of 5 to 7 years. This sleep disorder is also relatively common children younger than 5 years of age. Night terrors can run in families; they are also quite common in adults who are under a great deal of emotional tension, or with excessive use of alcohol.

Symptoms of night terrors

The symptoms of night terrors are more common during the first few hours of the night, between 12 midnight to 2 AM. Children frequently shout and are very terrified when they are waking up. Children and adults may whip around violently in the bed, unaware of their surroundings. A child waking up after a night terror may be breathing very fast, have an accelerated heart rate, and dilated pupils. The night terror can last from 10 to 20 minutes, and then normal sleep returns. Most children are not able to express the bad dream, but they continue to be terrified until they calm down and go back to sleep. Many children, having night terrors, may also have episodes of somnambulance, or sleep walking.

My father had frequent night terrors; one night he broke his toe when he kicked the wall violently. His shouting woke me up, and I went to check on him. He did remember that some kind of wild animal was chasing him. He said he turned around and started kicking at the animal and that was when he hit the wall and broke his toe. Sometimes he would shout out and have no memories at all at why he was screaming upon waking

Diagnosis of night terrors

A diagnosis of sleep terrors, can in most cases, be done by questioning the patient or parent of a child. Sometimes a medical doctor will send the person suffering from night terrors to a psychologist or psychiatrist for a psychological assessment. In some cases, a sleep study may be ordered.

Treatment for night terrors

Treatment for night terrors may be done with psychiatric counseling; however, in most cases a child will only need reassurance from the parents. Medications such as Valium and other sedating medications may be used at bedtime to reduce the likelihood of an adult or child having sleep terrors. Most children recover from an episode of night terror within a short period of time. Adults may be bothered a little bit more with their night terrors. Lessening stress and/or psychotherapy can be helpful for adults experiencing night terrors.

Sources:

Medline plus

Night terrors