Can Adults Have Night Terrors Too?

[juggalette]

Help With Night Terrors

I'm 20 years old. For my whole life, almost every night, I have night terrors.
When I was younger, I got dignosed with night terrors and they just told me that I would grow out of it when I get older. Well, I'm 20 now and still can barely go to sleep without having a night terror. I wake up with random cuts and injuries. So if anyone can help, please do; I really want to stop having them. Oh, and if this has anything to do with it, I also have panic attacks and vertigo and anxiety. Thank you.

 

[disenchanted]

I don't know about the defintion of night terrors being waking up in terror. I used to wake up in terror too, not knowing what I was dreaming but those were panic attacks. Big ones. I'd be sweating, heart hammering, shaking, tummy roiling, and it wouldn't go away. The intense fear, with no reason behind it would hang around all night until I puked my guts out. Eventually I'd tire myself out and sleep. Those were paic attacks.

My night terrors would make me scream or cry for help in my sleep, but someone would have to wake me, and when they did, I had no recollection of dreaming anything and I wouldn't be frightened.

So those two things seem different to me. Waking with fear and other symptoms being panic, and being woken for scaring the household to death without symptoms being night terrors. Am I splitting hairs?

Cat

 

[disenchanted]

Hi juggalette.

Sorry you're having so much trouble sleeping. There is a thread here about this subject and lots of people seem to have night terrors and are loking for the same answers.

Night terrors seem to be connected to trauma. Have you a diagnosis? Have you seen a doctor or therapist recently? You might get some answers there.

Welcome to the forum.

Cat

 

[Perdido]

Although I'm pushing 40, I have night terrors a couple of times a year. But in my twenties, I had them several times a week, and sometimes, several times a day. Would be happy to pass along a more detailed description of my experience if you're interested.

 

[Anton]

I wake up about every other hour.
I don't really suffer from nighmares but my dreams definitely are decidedly unpleasant.

 

[Die Hard The Hunter]

I do have those. Not every night, but frequently enough to be a nuisance. They go something like this:

1. I have no idea who I am, where I am, or how I got there. I don't remember any of the events leading up to me waking up in my room.

2. I'm convinced that I am either being shot at, surrounded by water, about to be attacked, or about to get hit by a train or truck. Or, there is just an evil presence in the room that I can't describe.

3. I will see my alarm clock, or any other red or yellow light in the room, and flip out trying to unplug it thinking it's evil. I think I'm trying to defuse a bomb.

4. My heart is going faster than it ever does while I'm awake.

Good luck figuring it out. This kind of thing is hard to understand and can be easy to misinterpret.

 

[SpringRain]

Trapped, yes, I get night terrors as well. So, adults must be able to get them. Spring Rain

 

[madjon]

yes was what i thought when i read the title, had them for many years, not so much lately,

 

[Perdido]

My night terrors, when I have them, go something like this:

I'm in a dark place and I'm paralyzed in the dark. I can hear, but I can't move. My body is heavy and I'm using all of my energy to try to wake up.

In the dream, I'm attempting to wake myself, and panic becomes more and more pronounced. Then, I awake, within the dream, and catch my breath. But there's only a brief reprieve before I'm sucked back into the horror and am paralyzed once again, in the dark, struggling to free myself.

This cycle may happen two times or five times before I awake in reality. And I'm usually only able to wake myself in reality once the terror becomes precipitously worse, after a few cycles.

The crazy thing is this: if I don't get out of bed and walk around the house upon awaking from a night terror, as soon as I close my eyes, the cycle will start again.

One time, within a 15 minute period, I had night terrors that woke me five times during a nap. But I didn't get out of bed, and was sucked back in each time.

Naps once were a proven way of having night terrors -- these days, when they do happen, they happen only when I'm going to bed for the night.

 

[ams]

night terrors occur during sleep stage 3 transitioning into 4, while night terrors occur during REM. It's very rare for individuals to remember any part of the dream/nightmare during the night terror because of the sleep stage it occurs during. Night terrors occur around 90 minutes after falling asleep. Nightmares occur during REM which means you're essentially paralyzed and you are able to remember them. Night terrors you're not paralyzed so you can thrash around in your sleep, you can scratch yourself, you can sleepwalk, you can scream, you can hyperventilate, you wake up in a panic, etc.

Night terrors are not common in adults but it is possible to have them as an adult. They are more common in children. The average adult has two nightmares per year. Also, just like sleepwalking is more common in children, so are night terrors.

Personally, I get both. Often. When I have night terrors, I wake up hyperventilating and have to get out of bed and walk around. It takes a bunch of benadryl to get me to sleep again. I wake up with cuts and bruises and am usually on edge for a while afterwards. Nightmares make me stressed because of the context of the dream, but because you're body is paralyzed during the nightmare, you don't move around until you're in the next sleep stage.

 

[2notbedefeated]

I have nightmares where I would wake up choking, as if someone really was actually choking me, or demons being in my room trying to kill me.

I'm not sure what this state of sleep this is, whether a night terror, nightmare or a flashback, but it happens sometimes in the afternoon when I try to take a nap, or it happens at night.

I don't know what this is, maybe someone here would know, it's like a half asleep, half awake state. It is very much like my flashbacks in that I am reliving some aspect of the abuse, but at the time this starts to happen, it seems like I am awake. I can see my room and everything in it, I can hear the person walk and around in my room, but I can't move and I can't scream. It's awful. I try to wake up but can't.

Last night I had one of these experiences that really freaked me out, because I haven't had one so intense and real like this one was in a while, but I had gone to bed and not soon after, I was in this werid state where I could see my room, and hear his movements, and I saw a figure (I assume to be my past abuser) coming at me to rape and torture me. I tried to move and could not and I tried to scream and could not. I had such intense fear. I tried so hard to get up out of bed to flee safetly but couldn't move. Man it was scary.

There are times when at night I can feel the ""heaviness" of fear and panic, I have anxiety and sweat or shiver on occassion. Are these experiences night terrors?

 

[helena]

My sufferer gets night terrors. They are not as bad or as frequent as they used to be but only last week he had a particularly bad episode and was drenched in perspiration, shaking etc.

It made it difficult for him to want to go to bed (although he doesn't admit to that) and I notice whenever they happen that for a period after the episode he just stays up really late watching tv or drinks heavily. He finds it hard to talk about things to anyone so he won't really say what he is feeling or how frightened he is.