I had my first night terror for the year about 40 minutes ago. It’s no fun waking up screaming.
I’ve experienced at least a couple a year since I believe 2006. I thought they were getting more manageable, but this one is the worst I’ve had in a while.
Night Terrors are Hard to deal with man, I have read that certain foods can cause them before you go to sleep, whether or not this is true, I cannot say man, but I used to always have the same one for countless nights after nights, mine was the memory of my fathers funeral, it would play over and ocher like grounds hogs day like clockwork. What ended up finally working was one of those relaxation sound apparently, before bed and turning all media devices off and reading a magazine or book 30 minutes to an hour before bed to declutter,detox and just do me. Also I started working out about 3-5 times weekly. Hope that helps man.
Mine are just that feeling of fear, there is no dream to go with them. That’s what messes with me the most I think. I’ve had a couple mild ones where I wake up screaming involuntarily even though I know that it’s just my night terror. The fear subsides quickly with those and I can stop screaming within a couple second. The one today, I was screaming for a good half minute.
Oh lord. Night terrors suck. My oldest son started getting them when he was about 9 and it lasted for about a year. He had 3 or 4 a week but with his he wouldn’t wake up screaming he would get up and run and try to get out of the house and you could tell he was terrified of something.
When we would get to him he would be shaking and mumbling all sorts of weird stuff and we would put him back to bed and he would remember none of it in the morning. In fact he didn’t believe us when we told him. At first I didn’t know it was night terrors, I thought it was more sleep walking but the doctor told us for some sleep walking is part of night terrors.
I am anti drug so I wasn’t about to put him on anything unless absolutely necessary so I hit the medical library to figure it out.
I will share what I discovered for my son and maybe it will help you discover why you are having them.
Stress was a major factor. My son played baseball for the little league all star team that year. His father was the coach and he was the pitcher so this put a tremendous amount of stress on a 9 year old.
He was very into sports and this was the year OJ Simpson allegedly killed his wife and it was on the TV 24/7 so he saw it all the time. At the time you could not get away from news about OJ if you had any media in the house. When he was mumbling he mentioned OJ a lot. Being so into sports this bothered him so we turned the news off and hid everything OJ from him. OJ was banned from our lives LOL.
Caffeine was another factor, Usually he would have a snack before bed and soda at dinner. For him caffeine didn’t keep him awake but it made it harder for him to fall into rem sleep. Stop ingesting anything 3 hours before bed except water.
From what I read something is stimulating the brain when its moving from stage 4 sleep into rem sleep. This stimulation can be related to any of the 5 senses. Touch, auditory, visual, smell or taste (something you ingested)
For my son it was a combo of the stress and eating to close to bed time. However I still needed to find the trigger and which of the senses where causing the trigger. At first I thought it could be the posters on his wall scaring him. We open our eyes before rem sleep we just don’t remember it. We have natural wood doors in the house to and on his bedroom door the wood made a design that to me looked sort of spooky.
I took down his posters and also had my husband change the door. No luck he still had them. I sat in his room at night in the dark and looked around and meditated trying to see if something made a weird shape in the dark that could set him off but no luck.
However sitting in his room I did discover something. We live in the woods and have a bug zapper towards the back end of the house. It go’s off with that zapping noise all the time and you get used to it and don’t really notice it after a while. However I noticed it always went off right before his night terror started. Zap it would sound (almost like the crack of a bat on a ball) and he would fly out of the bed and start running.
So I unplugged it and he never had a night terror again. That was what was stimulating his brain between sleep stages. That was the trigger. He is 23 now and he bought his own house last year. His girlfriend called me and mentioned she was worried about him because he was having nightmares. She bought and put up a bug zapper LOL I told her take it down now and we bought them a pheromone bug catcher which works much better anyways and is quiet. They had also been eating really late because of there schedules and of course being young and taking on all the responsibility of a new house stressed him out. They made the adjustments and he hasn’t had a nightmare since.
So you need to find whats stimulating your brain and what your trigger is. It can be something so simple.
Side note >>>> If your using Ishine don’t use it close to bed time or remove any residue with some witch hazel and a cotton ball before bed. In fact I would remove all of them before bed. It may be stimulating your brain while you are trying to move into rem and if your stressed on top of it that can set off the NT’s
When you spray them on don’t do it where you sleep and keep your bottles in a zip lock bag. I am not saying mones are causing it. However they do stimulate the brain and along with other factors can act as a trigger.
Work on stress levels. If something is bothering you deal with it. Dont watch the news. We dont ever watch it. All they report is bad news and even if your not conscious of it its stimulating fearful parts of the brain.
Dont eat close to bed time and make sure you dont ingest caffeine close to bed. Remember soda coffee tea and chocolate have caffeine.
Start looking for your trigger. Hell film yourself sleeping if you have to. If you dont have them often keep a journal of things you notice around the room. Smells you smell, if something could have touched you like a cat jumping on the bed or a breeze frrom the window, What you ate and when, noises.
It may take some time but its going to be ok. You will figure this out.
Tisha
Thanks, I’ve read about them before. First time I had a really bad one I looked it up, this was spring of 2007, I’ve had at least a couple a year since then. I recall reading about the stress and caffeine part, I doubt it’s caffeine for me, since I’ve never had one when having ingested caffeine. Without a doubt, it’s stress. I’ve been too high strung recently. I believe it’s a visual trigger, at least for the milder ones. It’s really dark when I have my bad ones.
My milder ones I just bolt upright in bed screaming, and depending on plans for the day, go right back to sleep. Last night I had a bad one, where I flew out of bed screaming. I turned on the lights to my room, opened my door, turned on the hall light, then finally calmed myself enough to stop screaming. I did all this without much thought. I laid back down in bed, but I was gripped with fear that I couldn’t get back to sleep, finally I forced myself up and went out to eat before going to work for the night.
Now that I think about it, I think the first one I recall is back in 2003 when I moved to the general area, I woke up kicking and screaming thinking some dark figure was trying to get me. Then there’s a time I was startled out of bed thinking a spider was coming down on me. I’m thinking these apply since I read that hallucinations are possible when having them.
Edit: My nerves are still on edge, almost 24 hours later.
Had another night terror. They’re emotionally draining 
just when I thought I finally calmed down from my last one. Haven’t been able to sleep well recently.
Makes it hard to focus on testing mones, lol.
Well the move could have been the stressor that triggered it back in 2003.
What is stressing you now ?
Is your bed different then before you had these. The blankets being real heavy or to many pillows ? What you mentioned of the two dreams you had above it seems like the sense of touch. Like maybe you feel smothered. Do you get them more in the colder months or the warmer months ?
Just trying to help you think of possiblities. I hate to see anyone go through these. hugs>>> (((zelos)))
Tish
I have multiple stressors right now, between school, being tired of working over night at Walmart, mixed feelings for multiple girls, money, etc. There were two extra pillows on my bed when the night terrors happened, which they were up against the wall on the edge of the full size bed. I don’t think I’ve ever felt cold when I’ve had them, so maybe it’s the thermostat setting right now?
Thank you 
They are definitely not fun, hell, I don’t have anything to compare the level of fear to, lol. hugs