Night Terrors as a child

[EebyJeeby]

At the height of my anxiety a few weeks ago,I had a really rough time which included waking every 15 mins or so with a jump, with a feeling of impending doom and various other anxiety symptoms. The state of confusion and the inability to describe what I had been dreaming about (it made perfect sense at the time but just deconstructed as soon as I tried to explain it) reminded me of a feeling I had in childhood.

I suffered with night terrors - would be found in different parts of the house at night, crying, terrified and babbling but was not actually properly awake. I distinctly remember the same doom-laden feelings and the numbness in my hands. I grew out of that, fortunately.

However, I was wondering if there was a link between night terrors and anxiety in later life? Did anyone else experience night terrors when they were young? I'd be interested to know.

[Alexa85]

Hiya.
Night terrors are horrible. I've had them, woken crying and sometimes shivering like I'm cold or something.
I can only advise you to perhaps go to see your doctor. Depending on the type of night terrors you suffered, there may be a link to the anxieties you have today.
I hope you overcome them soon.
Good luck

~ ALEXA ~

ATReYu – “Demonology and Heartache”
Love kills, romance is dead and I don’t even trust myself but I love you. And you can pull my wings apart and pin me down under glass until the end of time if it can help you discover that we share the same pain. I just hope you write your thesis before your subject is dead

[Shadowwin]

Hi There!

This topic truly intrigued me because it's something that i've been wondering myself. I suffered from terrible night terrors as a child, in fact I remember vividly waking up at the age of 10 crying, gasping for air and praying that i would see the next morning... this went on till just about puberty for me..

I brought this up to my therapist in a recent session he said while there is no proven connection as of yet alot of his patients did suffer from night terrors when they were children.. which leads me to wonder if night terrors are nothing more than panic attacks with a different name slapped on them.

If you come across any information on it I'd really be interested in reading it or hearing about it.

~Shadowwin

[Meg]

I think they are similar episiodes with different names resulting from stress.

Children cannot cognitively process thoughts so easily and rationally rationally so at night their dreams try to make sense of all the images and thoughts that have been whizzing round all day.

Meg
www.anxietymanagementltd.com

Your anxiety is the human representation of the pictures that you paint using your many vivid colours of revolving and reoccurring thoughts.
How big is your gallery ?

[EebyJeeby]

Thanks for your replies!

Night terrors are entirely different from nightmares as they occur in deep sleep not REM sleep. In a night terror, the sufferer may appear awake as they may have their eyes open or be walking around, but they are, in fact, still in deep sleep. They certainly display some of the same physical symptoms as panic attacks, like rapid shallow breathing, racing heart (up to 170bpm!) and sweating.

Interestingly, sleepwalking and bed-wetting also only occur in deep sleep. I was a bed-wetter until I was about 7 or 8, much to my parents' inconvenience, and had night terrors until I was about 10.

It looks as if stress is a factor all round, so a relationship between childhood night terrors and panic attacks/anxiety in later life could be possible. I must have been a stressed child - no doubt due to years of enduring parental arguments, before they eventually divorced.

It appears that night terrors are more common in children aged 3-5 and these children often scream out in terror, still asleep. It also runs in families.

More info available at http://www.nightterrors.org/ for anyone interested.