Do you ever have night terrors or similar experiences?

I go through phases of having them. Usually when some intense life change happens. I must be entering another phase because I just had one last night after going months without one. I was stuck in a building with a bunch of terrorists with machine guns. They were gunning us all down one by one. I got wounded and played dead and one if them came over and took my shotgun. (No clue where that came from!) I felt the barrel on the back of my head and heard a loud click just before I woke up in a total panic.
You’re not alone at all!

what’s the difference between a night terror and a nightmare?

@La_chica_gomela Night terror’s are so intense they can paralyze you in your sleep.

@DominicX I’ve had lots of them. For years I would get them every night. It came to a point I almost looked forward to them at bedtime. I began working out 5 to 6 days a week and they stopped. Not sure if working out had anything to do with them going away. I haven’t had one in quite awhile.

Also, when I did have them, I would wake up in the middle of the night with my heart pounding hard and fast in my chest. Do you get the same?

My wife experiences similar occurances.

Sometimes she’ll stay asleep and moan and wail. Once in a blue moon she’ll wake straight up, practically screaming.

These episodes are very scary, but harmless, from what I can tell.

I get them on occasion. Sometimes so bad I wake up with a scream on my lips. Most of the time they are so intense that I am unable to go back to sleep. You are not alone, they are scary as fuck and even with my sleep meds, I still get them. Not much you can do about them, unless you believe in meditation or some other form of latent mind control.

I usually have messed up dreams and the occasional night-terror. I find though, if I play some very soft meditative music as I fall asleep I have nicer dreams.

I’ve been having night terrors almost all my life. I know the exact feeling you describe. It all seems so real. If I tell anyone what I can remember of the dreams people look at me like I’m absolutely insane. It’s just so graphic. I often feel like I’m being choked while I scream, like I can’t get it out. I can’t get away, I can’t breathe, I’m stuck. I wake myself up because Im so loud. My body shakes, sometimes I throw up, and the fear doesn’t go away sometimes for hours. I scare the crap out of my kids when it happens. Sleeping pills have been helping cut down the frequency but not the intensity. I don’t have any great advice to give you but it seems to help me if I really wear myself out before bed. I will use my treadmill or wash the floors. Then I can pass out and sleep through the night.

I got very heavily involved with religion a number of years ago, started praying and going to church and people were casting demons out of me and all sorts of weird shit… anyway, I started waking up at exactly 3:03am every night/morning and I couldn’t move…paralysed…this happened a number of times but one particular night I woke up and saw a black symmetrical shadow sat on my knees and once again couldn’t move…

shortly afterwards I stopped believing fervently in God and Christianity, started drinking and smoking again, stopped praying, stopped watching the God channel! The night stuff went away and I managed to sleep soundly. It has not happened since.

@lynneblundell obviously god didn’t want you to believe in him.

@La_chica_gomela

The difference is that a nightmare is a dream that is scary; it contains scary images or experiences in it and it occurs during REM sleep. A night terror can sometimes be caused by an element of a dream, but other times it’s just a random feeling of fear that has no origin and it occurs during non-REM sleep. I remember seeing on Unsolved Mysteries a woman who suffered from sleepwalking and one time she experienced a night terror and it caused her to run out of bed and run into a wall. She couldn’t remember anything causing the feeling of fear, just that the feeling was stimulated somehow. It’s the same thing for me, except I don’t sleepwalk. Luckily, since it really doesn’t happen that often, I don’t consider it a problem. Also, I think for me it might be less intense, since I only feel scared for about a minute after I wake up and then it quickly goes away.

@Deepness

Yeah, I get the heart pounding thing. But not the frequency. Before the one on the 20th, the last one had been so long ago I couldn’t even remember when it happened. But I do get them ever year.

To be honest, I’m kind of dreading living in the dorms because I’m afraid I’m going to have one and then wake up my roommate (whom I know ahead of time…it’s a friend) and scare the crap out of him.

@evelyns_pet_zebra I thought so too :-)

@DominicX Dont worry about your roommate. He is a friend, so he will understand. Just tell him you have nightmares and might make some noise. If he expects it he won’t be as shocked. Also you said it doesn’t happen often so maybe it won’t even happen while you are dorming.
Anyway, if your roommate does make fun of you, pour water on his bed at night and convince him he wets himself. ;)

I’m a sleep thrasher, talker, walker so yes, I’m familiar though it’s not frequent, more when I’m stressed or sleeping with a new person. Give a light humored warning to your friends and lovers and you’ll probably find you’re not alone in going through these bouts.

I’ve never had night terror but I have had this reoccurring nightmare as long as I can remember. I dream I stand in between two mirrors and my reflection is cackling at me. Laughing it’s ass off, making fun of me, like I’m so pathetic. The reflection has deep black heartless eyes. Since I’m between two mirrors there’s infinite reflections and there’s nowhere in the room to turn to get away from them. This is one of the only things in my life to give me such a scare. It freaks me out to the bone.

@Clair poor you…that sounds horrendous!

@Clair That’s pretty imaginative. Sounds like torture though.