Nightmares and Night Terrors

Dreams occur during all stages of sleep. Nightmares and night terrors are distressing dreams that actually can lead to poor sleep and decreased performance during the day.

Nightmares

Nightmares are something that everyone has experienced—dreams that cause you to wake up frightened and upset. Sometimes they indicate that the sleeper has a psychological disturbance of some kind or is going through a period of extreme anxiety, especially if the sleeper has recurring nightmares with the same or similar themes. For example, a common theme among people with nightmares is being chased.

Everyone has nightmares occasionally. There are any number of causes, including certain drugs, medications or by rapid withdrawal from them; physical conditions such as illness and fever; the struggle to learn to deal with normal childhood fears and problems; a traumatic event such as surgery, loss of a loved one, an assault or severe accident.

Some of the frequent feelings associated with nightmares include anger, guilt, sadness, depression, fear and anxiety. There is no specific treatment for nightmares, but psychotherapy may help if they are caused by an underlying psychological disturbance.

Night Terrors

Night terrors are a sleep disorder that is common in childhood, usually occurring between the ages of three and five. Episodes usually occur within the first third of the night. The sleeper screams and wakes up terrified, but is unable to explain what happened. The terror may last for 10 or 20 minutes and can be extremely upsetting to the child’s parents or caregivers. However, the child usually cannot remember the episode in the morning.

Children generally outgrow night terrors. The disorder seems to run in families and can occur in adults—often, adult sufferers are experiencing extreme stress or anxiety in their lives.

A night terror is the result of increased brain activity. Symptoms may include sudden awakening from sleep, persistent fear or terror at night, screaming, sweating, confusion, rapid heart rate, inability to explain what happened, usually no recall of “bad dreams” or nightmares and may have a vague sense of frightening images.

The Sleep Center at the Heart Lung Vascular Institute offers medical evaluation to patients who are concerned about their sleep. Some sleep disorders are hard to diagnose, having multiple causes. Doctors at the Sleep Center evaluate and order specific tests for individual circumstances, avoiding unnecessary delays and costs. Evaluation and treatment are available for sleep-related disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia, narcolepsy and restless leg syndrome.

For more information, call the Sleep Center at 865.305.8761.