Can Adults Have Night Terrors Too?

[Pixie]

This is actually a very interesting thread to read and really made me think about my sleep patterns. I get bad dreams, nightmares and "daymares" (a waking nightmare type thing) but one thing that I haven't considered before is the fact that my hubby will often shake me awake because I've been hitting and kicking in my sleep but when I wake, I have no idea of what happened and I don't feel frightened or anything, perhaps a little disoriented from being woken up suddenly and very very tired.

I'm not sure that these are really night terrors as has been described here in this thread but I just wonder what they really are...

Rell

 

[ams]

2notbedefeated - sounds like lucid dreaming, which is closer to when you wake up. Nightmares happen closer to when you wake up too. thats partially why we can remember them. dreams and nightmares only last about 14 seconds long, but because they happen prior to us waking up (if you have a normal sleep schedule), we remember them. Even though nightmares are scary, they aren't night terrors. We can't physically move while we're having nightmares, so there is no thrashing around or anything. Night terrors we can't remember but we CAN thrash around/sleep walk/yell/etc.

Lucid dreams we are conscious and aware we are dreaming.

 

[cheddar2000]

I do have them but got some help

I had to reply to this. I am going on 50 and have had night terrors and nightmares all my life. My night terrors are as described above. I have them within 1-2 hours of going to sleep. I wake up the whole house. My children (grown and at home) have lived with me/them all their lives. And occasionally the screams of terror are still unsettling to them as well as me.

I found a great psychiatrist about 3 years ago and the medication she prescribes have cut the terrors down to about 1 per week. I used to have them every night. I still am having nightmares and right now they are along the same line as my flashbacks i.e. I am dreaming about my flashbacks as well as repeating them in my waking hours.

My psychiatrist prescribed seroquel 50mg 3x a day and 400 to 600 mg at night depending on how much I am having panic attacks. Seroquel is the first medication in my life that effectively cut way down on my panic and anxiety. This is not an endorsement for seroquel as you should always talk to your doctor about what may help your individual case. I just want to say don't give up like I almost did. I took me years to find a good psychiatrist who would think outside the box and help me.

 

[MrMonday]

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.

Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, YES! This is EXACTLY what happens to me. I registered just to rafffirm that this post sums up my experience with night terrors word for word. In fact, the original poster worded it better than I ever may have.

I'm 20 years old, by the way. I've noticed that when I have a night terror: paralyzed, sensing a evil presence in my bedroom (usually directly in front of me in my doorway), and scared out of my mind (even now when I KNOW in the moment that a night terror is happening, I still have the same reaction, consciously I know it is not real but I am scared out of my mind nonetheless); when this happens, after I regain control of myself I have to get up and move around otherwise it will start over again. Its a very creepy feeling of premonition, as I'm laying in bed, sometimes before it has happened, say I am half-asleep after waking up in the middle of the night, I can sense "If I fall asleep its going to happen". And I have to get up right there, and certainly after it happens it will continue to happen unless I get up and go get a drink of water or something.

And the part about using all of my energy trying to wake up, is dead on. That's exactly my experience. I am aware now that the night terror is happening and I'm just trying helpless to move my body, tell myself it isn't real and to snap out of it. I just try to come out of it as quickly as I can. There's no way to tell how long this lasts for unless someone was there as a witness to time it.

 

[Mareah]

:hug: I had night terrors often as a child, some of the sexual abuse was at night so I still think of night
time as a bad time.

I still have night terrors, at age 44 I would hope not(guess age has nothing to do with it).
I can not remember what happens, but when I wake up I am feeling overwhelming fear and
terror.

I try to think good thoughts before bed or read, but sometimes that does not help.I wish no one would have to suffer this way.

When I am really, really stressed out I see spiders, I know they are not real but I am still freaking out(hate spiders). My therapist said it was ok and it was just my mind dealing with stress in a visual way.

I really miss my therapist(no health insurance right now) anyway, I will pray for everyone suffering from this and other sleep problems. It is hard enough to deal with every day life,but with no sleep,it's a hundred times more stressful.

 

[Anna]

It is bad how it is brushed off as something only kids get.

I also have had nightmares that I have woken up with bruises on my arms, obviously self inflicted. They look very bad like someone has been holding me down. I feel exhausted as well like I didn't sleep, also I wake up not knowing where I am and have kind of a panicky feeling.

I wish I could give some advice, I too would like to know how to stop them.

 

[Malynn]

I know I'm very late here, but I wanted to chime in. I'm a 26 year old female, and for the past seven months I have been suffering from night terrors. I slept very well as a child outside of a few random nightmares or two every few months or so. Now that I'm an adult, I have developed these........things.

I have had 5 in a seven month period, with the latest, and probably the worst one occuring just this night past. Freya, your experience of night terrors is exactly the same as mine, except I get up and run out of my bed and try to go down the stairs. I sleep upstairs, separate from my parents in my own room. I don't know that I'm dreaming and I don't remember what I WAS dreaming prior to the terror. They seem to happen in the early hours of the morning, between 2:30 and 3:00. I can recall waking in a state of absolute HORROR. Just with the feeling that something incredibly awful has happened. I usually compare it to the feeling and the sound of a major earthquake (I live in California so i've definitely experienced a few of these in my day and it truly is one of the WORST things I can ever think of going through) or that I've gone into hell. I can also recall the feeling that my grandfather (who I am extremely close to) has died and that I've missed it or that there is an evil voice whispering to me over and over again that he has just passed away.

Anyways, I seem to wake up in a state of horror and terror, throw the covers off of me and bolt upright, screaming as though I'm being killed, and then I run out of my room and attempt to get down the stairs. Normally it's the act of running that wakes me. Everything before that is just a horrific blur. The only thing that registers when I 'snap out' of the terror are the feelings I had going into them.

My mom was thinking for some time that these were nightmares, but they are not. In a nightmare I cannot move until the nightmare is completely over. I'm seeing scenes that frighten me inside my head. The night terrors seem to be about the feelings. I don't know what has triggered these, as I had a very pleasant childhood. I am wondering if they are tied to my current job. I started the job seven months ago, and it is very high stress most days, and also involves a daily four hour commute, part of which is done on the subway. I am not comfortable with being underground at all. As a child I was terrified of the dark. Being on the subway for nearly thirty minutes every day.......

I wake my parents who sleep downstairs, and I have woken the neighbors several times so that they have called and asked if things in our house are okay. I need to figure out how to stop these as I don't really cope with them, I ignore them until one happens again. They ruin my sleep and my peace of mind. I'm always afraid of when the next one will hit. It is cathartic to write about them and to realize that I'm not the only adult who has to suffer through this.

 

[Meri]

I have nightterrors a lot. I wake up with bruised knuckles, or bruises, all over. I can't remember what they're about, but I know they're bad.

 

[Sasapooh]

I had night terrors regularly as a child, but they lessened as I have gotten older. I hadn't realized how long it had been since I had had one until I scared the crap out of husband one night screaming my head off. I had not had one since we had been together so he had no idea what was going on in the middle of the night. So yes adults can have them. Although, I do not seem to walk around while in the grip of mine.
I also sleep like crud, waking often during the night. I realized a few years ago that I actually get a great sleep if I can do it during the daylight hours. I feel safer then, I guess.