Tags
A to Z Challenge (2016), blogging101, Creative Writing, Family, Journaling, Memories, Night terrors, Writing 101, Writing Prompts
(I FORGOT we didn’t need to post on Sunday! So please just pretend this is Monday’s post… Then pretend that the post I posted today — Monday — is actually Tuesday’s post. Thank you! 😉 )
In my post for the A to Z Challenge yesterday I mentioned that even as a young adult I suffered from night terror after Drollery and I were married. Night terror leaves me feeling totally IRRATIONAL. To lie awake in the middle of the night staring at the bedroom door because you think someone is coming to get you is just that, IRRATIONAL. But AM I awake when that happens? I honestly don’t know.
What IS night terror? The Mayo Clinic says:
Sleep terrors differ from nightmares. The dreamer of a nightmare wakes up from the dream and may remember details, but a person who has a sleep terror episode remains asleep.
Children usually don’t remember anything about their sleep terrors in the morning. Adults may recall a dream fragment they had during the sleep terrors. Also, nightmares generally occur in the last half of the night, while sleep terrors occur in the first half of the night.
During a sleep terror episode, a person might:
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Sit up in bed
Scream or shout
Kick and thrash
Sweat, breathe heavily and have a racing pulse
Be hard to awaken, but if awakened be confused
Be inconsolable
Stare wide-eyed
Get out of bed and run around the house
Engage in aggressive behavior (more common in adults)
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The worst episode I ever had happened about 3:00 a.m. I sat bolt upright in bed and started screaming. I’ll save you the gory details, but tell you that Drollery could NOT get me to wake up. And every time he came near me to try, even to just put his arms around me, I’d start swatting at him to get him away from me.
Finally he called my very good friend Lynette and held the phone up on speaker so I could hear her voice, and she was able to talk me out of it. I think that’s about the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. I was awake, but I wasn’t.
So I have a lot of empathy for folks who suffer from nightmares and such. But I’m also left with an insatiable curiosity about my night terror. Some folks have suggested when that’s happening we are remembering past life experiences. I’ve never believed in reincarnation or anything like that. But when I’m in the middle of one of those episodes that seem so real, I can almost believe it…
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The Blogging A to Z Challenge — I
Picture Credits: www.healthcare-online.org
Impromptu Promptlings 
I know I almost never remember my dreams. I do remember once, I think I was on the road, driving out to Colorado, that I woke myself up because I was yelling in my sleep. I know I was ranting at my father, but I don’t recall, right now, what about. Is that a night terror, or is it a night mare? I am clueless.
Still, there is one specific situation of which I am still frightened of it happening. If I wake up before two hours of sleep, I’ll automatically spiral into a full blown panic. But if it’s 2 hours and 15 minutes, or more, I won’t. I don’t get what that is all about, but that two hour window after falling asleep, is terrifying. Is that Night Terror? Something other? It’s not happening while asleep, but rather being startled awake (phone – which is why we turn the ringers off at night). I also am not comfortable taking naps during the day because I’ll spiral into a panic attack upon waking.
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It almost sounds like it’s related to night terror since it’s the first of the night before you really settle into sound sleep. But who knows? Waking with anxiety does make sense.
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I didn’t know there is a difference in having nightmares and night terror. Now I know that. Thank you so much for a great explanation. I can say that I cannot read horror books. When I do, I have a nightmare, so I have stopped reading horror.
Excellent post.
Shalom,
Patricia @ EverythingMustChange
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I didn’t realize it either until our son started having them at ten when we adopted our daughter. The social worker explained a lot to us about it all. He had developed a fear that we would have to send her back to India. Long story… Thanks so much for stopping by! I appreciated your comment.
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That is scary. I thankfully do not even remember my dreams lately so rarely have nightmares. I used to hate being alone at night but I have adjusted to it and hope now that I have said that hope no nightmares darken my sleep
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You’re by yourself often if I remember right. Right?
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Right
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I never experience them…go figure. Even with my past, there were never really bad nightmares at all…at least I can’t remember any….I wonder why?!?!?!
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I would say that’s pretty unusual!
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Well….I wear unusual well..😄
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My 13 year old suffered from night terrors from age 5 or 6 to about 10. They were horrific. Same time every night. He would be sweating, heart beating super fast and we could not wake him. He’d just scream and scream. We tried praying, having him go to the bathroom during the night terror- sometimes this worked but ultimately he grew out of it. It’s genetic my father in law also had them. My son stutters and has a very innate sense of other people and strong emotional intelligence. I think there is something to all that.
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It’s certainly not a field of study they’ve come to any conclusions about, is it… Glad he’s doing ok now.
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Oh, parents hate sleep terrors too, “What is wrong with my child?” And we don’t know, really, nothing is “wrong” that we have found! Our brains are still mysterious….
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When we adopted our daughter, our son began having night terrors at 10 years old. In working with a psychologist we found out he had heard about a difficulty with the adoption and he’d begun to fear we would have to send Stef back to India. We were very glad that’s what it was rather than that he was having a difficult time adjusting to not being an only any more!
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Nice that he loved his sister so much!!
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That had to be terrifying for all involved. I had a couple of instances of sleep walking as an adolescent–woke up laying on the stairs wrapped in my bedsheets one time and another walked outside in the snow barefooted in a nightgown towards the barn (my dad heard the door close and came to get me). I remembered none of it, and it was the eeriest feeling. I understand the curiosity. I think mine was the emotional reaction to some traumatic events our family was going through at the time. The subconscious mind is a little bit scary.
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Yes, the mind IS scary. As much as I wanted to know what was at the root of all those dreams, I think I was afraid to find out. If that makes any sense.
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Especially since your actions are from pure terror. I’d be scared, too!
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One of my kids had a couple of episodes of night terrors as a toddler. The advice I had read was it was best not to wake them up. Rather hold and comfort until they settle and either calm down or wake up by themselves. It was rather like holding an octopus ! Another theory I have read is that it’s being caught up in another dimension or reality. Have you tried journalling it ? Might give you some insights.
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Yeah, I have. I’ve journaled about it till I’m blue in the face. The plain fact is, it didn’t get bad until I was in high school, which seemed awfully weird to everyone. But back then your folks didn’t haul you to a psychologist for nightmares. Know what I mean?
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Yeah – I think sometimes we do that too much and pathologise things that ought to be left to work their own way out. I do wonder whether we create even more layers to that pesky onion by over-reflecting on things. Having said that, distance and time can sometimes lend surprisingly new insights and perspectives 🙂 It seems something triggered it for you at that time, whatever that something was. Could even be as simple as hormones going rampant as they do around that age 🙂
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Well I guess I don’t have to worry about having anymore nightmares like that again then if that’s what it was! LOL
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Gawd, you’ve just woken me up to just how lucky a man…er…fish I am. I was once afraid of the dark. Grew out of that. I am irrationally afraid of heights. I still feel whoozy when I look down from heights, as though I’m going to fall…or as if I remember falling in a past life (if there is such a thing?). But I’ve been fairly lucky with other things like this (in this life). I think this is the best piece I’ve read of yours. Or maybe it just somehow struck a cord.
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I think a lot of people can identify with it. But we just think they’re nightmares. (Or a heavy dinner! LOL) The heights thing, I have that, too. But I also have positional vertigo in my left ear, so that’s kind of understandable. Do you have any sense of a memory about falling? Just curious. If ind it fascinating. You probably have at least a rudimentary understanding of past life stuff since you’re so interested in spiritual practices from where you live. Btw, are you home now? {{{Fish}}}
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Life is just too scary. We should all just stay in doors, not go to sleep, not turn out the lights, not look down from anywhere. I’m home, back to work!!!
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Seriously? This coming from you? That’s the most intriguing thing I’ve ever heard you say. Now I have questions I’d like to ask! Glad you’re home safe and sound.
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