Contents:
- Medical Video: Nightmare vs. Night Terror
- What are night terrors?
- What are the characteristics if someone experiences night terror?
- Causes of sleep disorders night terrors
- How to prevent recurring night terrors
Medical Video: Nightmare vs. Night Terror
Everyone must have had a nightmare. But, in fact there are more severe nightmares, namely night terrors. What is meant by night terrors? See the explanation below.
What are night terrors?
Night terror syndrome is a sleep disorder, in which the condition appears in the first few hours after a person falls asleep. Patients will wake up and start screaming, panicking, and sweating.
After the sufferer really awakens, he can only remember a terrible picture or not remember anything at all. This sleep disorder often occurs together with sleeping while walking. As well as sleepwalking, night terrors are considered as parasomnias (an unwanted event during sleep).
This sleep terror syndrome is actually very rare and usually only occurs among children aged 3-12 years. Most experience it when it's in its infancy. This sleep disorder can also occur in adults, but not as much or as often as children. Even though night terror is quite worrying for parents who witness their children screaming while sleeping. This is usually caused by psychological symptoms or certain medical conditions.
What are the characteristics if someone experiences night terror?
As long as someone experiences this sleep disorder, many symptoms will appear. For example when tsleep, the sufferer will suddenly scream, suddenly stand up or sit down from the previous sleeping position.
After a few minutes, or sometimes longer when awakened, the sufferer can return to calm and sleep again. Here are some signs of night terrorsthat sufferers will experience when sleeping:
- Scream or scream while sleeping
- Kicking or punching unconsciously
- Sweating and breathing too hard (panting)
- It's hard to wake up, but when you wake up you get confused
- It's hard to calm down
- His eyes will stare wide even though his condition is still asleep
- Get out of bed and walk around the house unconsciously
- For sufferers who are adults, their behavior may be more aggressive
Causes of sleep disorders night terrors
Terror during sleep is caused by arousal from the central nervous system (CNS) during excessive sleep. This can happen because CNS (which regulates sleep and wake up brain activity) still works when the patient has fallen asleep. In fact, some 80% more positive children experience this sleep disorder if indeed their parents also experience it, so it's like a decreased disorder.
However, night terrors can also be caused by:
- The body feels tired and is experiencing a disturbed health condition
- Are taking certain drugs
- Sleeping in a new environment or being away from home (usually occurs in children)
How to prevent recurring night terrors
If you have experienced night terrors before (maybe your family or spouse has seen this happen to you), maybe you can condition your room away from sharp and dangerous objects. Given the aggressive attitude that results from this sleep disorder can lead to anarchism.
Here are some things you can do to relieve sleep terror disorders:
- Before going to sleep, avoid consuming caffeine, foods or drinks that contain sugar, avoid staring at the cellphone screen for hours. These things can cause sleep disorders.
- Make your sleep time be consistent, set the time when to sleep and when to wake up.
- In cases that are already severe, you can usually use antidepressant drugs to reduce the appearance of disturbances during sleep.
- Actually, this sleep disorder has no treatment or therapy to cure it. If so, maybe you need a psychiatrist or expert who can deal with your sleep problems.
