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where do you think most night terrors come from???

Pease could you define 'night terrors'?

Do you mean nightmeres.. or

Yes, please elaborate.

If you are talking about things that people are afraid of, I think that people are afraid of things that they percieve as evil just because they do not understand it.

there are a great many phobias which illicit adverse reactions such as profuse sweating etc... But I feel you should elaborate further in your query.

Night Terrors are often defined as a psychological trauma that leaves people having wild and even violent sleep coupled with screaming, punching, accusations, and other attacks. The person suffering from night terrors often is unaware of the problem unless someone tells them and they only remember nightmares and a lack of sleep. The accepted opinion is that usually, they are the result of some kind of post traumatic stress like military combat or rape.

good definition of night terrors, but they can be caused by almost anything traumatic, even if it may not seem so at the time, my son used to suffer from them, i never really found out what caused them but some factors may have been moving out of our house coupled with the realization that his father lived elsewhere, its hard to say simply because he was so young. those that have them are not easily woke up, they are usually screaming sometimes violent towards others, alot of times it has nothing to do with nightmares and they almost never remember anything about it.

night terrors are dreams that you somewhat remember but most of all is when you wake up screaming and crying and and then when u drift of about to dreaming the nightmares always come after the night terrors.

That is a great definition of what night terrors are felix. I know that I had a basic definition in mind, but that is great.

Night terrors are extremely common in children.. Growing up I myself had these..As I became older they disipated.. yet I still have nightmares butcan control my own actions in them.. Mentally I think it was a way I wasnt gonna let my dreams control me ..

I didn't mean to imply that Night Terrors were specifically the result of PTSD or violence but they are typically stress related.

I'm unsure of whether this was meant to lean metaphysical or demonic but I think there are usually mundane (non mystical) reasons for them.

yes very ture Felix .. each case would be distinctly different in there own ways.. I am not sure why I hadmine as I was really to young to pinpoint a cause, But I do remember having them .. as I was told how violent they were by my parents.. Not that I can recall there detail..

a persons mind

Re you referring to the dream state where you perceive that you can't move or wake up? - or a more supernatural occurrence like a hag attack?

WynterMourn - I believe your thinking of Sleep Paralysis.

Mainly I think that people are afraid of what they cannot control. Like darkness for example, most people are not able to see in certain darkneses. Therefore the cannot see if someone is staning there do the assume that someone is and flee.

I know that I have had night terrors, because I was told that I was screaming in Ukrainian in my sleep, it hasn't happened for ages

I couldn't honestly say what caused them, I was asleep and dreaming - when I woke up I wasn't aware what had been going on.

I would think most people will be in same boat and simply won't remember

my mother has night terrors... though she hasnt had an episode in YEARS ..

it was always the same .. in her "dream" there would be a man with a knife after her ... and she would kick and thrash wildly in the bed trying to get away fromnhim .... SCARY AS HELL when yer a little kid ..

my dad works on natural gas pipelines and is gone most of the year and as a child i learned early on .. that when Mom was having one .. DONT TOUCH her to wake her up ... because _I_ became the man .. and she would try to bet the hell outta me LOL .. i always turned the light on to wake her up ..

where did this come from ?? im not really sure .. i have nO PROOF>.. but i have always FELT that it had something to do with SOMETHING that happened between her and her father .. he was a REAL BONAFIED SUMBITCH ... and i have always wondered if she was abused or worse as a child ... and THAT might possibly be what caused the night terrors ...

BUT .. she , when questioned .. says theres NO REASON for them ..

You're right Felix, my bad :)

they come from past trammas, fears, and mental disorders.

it mostly depends on what your affriad of or what your subconsious has seen or thought of before you go to sleep and then it takes on its own story the more you stay asleep

My youngest son has had night terrors since he was 1..he will just wake up screaming..and there is nothing a child that young could be so afraid of. The doctor told me that it just happens and there is no real cause for it. He also said it will pass as he gets older. I really hope so since it has been 3 yrs and he still freaks out his siblings.

I was told it's what you fear in life

I think they come from problems going on in someones head or in their everyday life...and i think that when children have them they are just thinking about bad things that theyve seen...

Since I have never had a nightmare, what's the difference between a nightmare and night terror?

When I was little my mom said I had night terrors a lot. I would be screaming in my sleep or I would be standing in front of the door trying to pull it open like something was chasing me and I had to get out. But I don't remember what they were about. I guess I grew out of them.
I was told that a lot of night terrors are either stressed related or have something to do with your fears.

Well depends on what exactly your talking about but they seem t come from your parents or relatives when your young to scare you shittless for the hell of it...lol
And there lise the reason for for most people being scared of things that they more or less shouldn't....^.^

I suffered from night terrors when I was younger. Apparently I would get up screaming, crying, and vomiting in the middle of the night with no recollection of it the next day. From what I'm told they were actually about the things I was going through at the time.

My little sister and cousins on the other hand would just have them for what seemed like no particular reason. Different dreams all the time. It's scary to see people having night terrors, since they are SO violent and it takes a lot to wake them up.

I still sleep violently, but I don't scream or anything.

I think that they may come from any feeling that the person lacks control over. If you feel out of control when you're awake, it only seems natural that your subconscious would dwell on it during the night. Thus, the constant fighting, screaming, etc. trying to get out of someone else's control and into your own. *Shrugs* Maybe...lol

Ok, so this is a subject that I know A LOT about. As a person with a sleep disorder ive put in plenty or research and I know others with SD’s. The person who spotted my symptoms and suggested that I might have narcolepsy was a friend who had spent some time in a sleep disorder research facility because of his Night Terrors. This is how he explained what causes them to me

When we fall asleep, the gland that produces adrenaline is supposed to taper the secreting down to a very low level. In a person with night terrors, that little switch doesn’t get flipped. And the adrenaline production stays the same as during the waking hours. Thus, why this person has a nightmare, the body actually thinks these things are happening. Dumping a load of adrenaline into your system and putting your brain into fight or flight mode. You’re actually fighting for your survival, even though there really isn’t any danger.

http://dreamemporium.com/night_terrors.html

Someone mentioned sleep paralysis, this is one of the symptoms of narcolepsy (but not exclusive to narcolepsy) but in patients with Narc. It is the paralysis that one is supposed to be in during R.E.M sleep. Yes, normal people are paralyzed during R.E.M sleep. (While your dreaming)

If anyone is interested in learning more about narcolepsy, let me know.

it all comes from instant fear. its all psychological.

lol.. Seem s alot of people on here think is is a mental state of fright at a young age .. Well I wouldnt say that causehonsetly I dont believe there was anthing wrong with me ..I seem fine now.. lol...All I do know is that I was too young to really remember any of it ..I dont see what could have been so phycologically wrong in those early years .. Like above I grew out of it..

Billy, as no-one else has answered:

a nightmare is simply a bad dream, you might wake up feeling a bit shakey but its no biggie

night terrors are terrifying screaming attacks ... real fear with all the trimmings

I know bloodXderanged thinks its very simple [quote]thing that people r afraid of duh [unquote] but doctors go to great lengths to make sure that some physical things aren't causing them - blood sugar levels, low blood pressure, brain damage, drug abuse and so on ... when they have got past all them are they left with 'things that people are afraid of'

night terrors usually come from holding things inside and letting stress build up and not facing ones own fears as well

night terrors are when people are affraid of thens they dont believe in and it comes to make them believe like in vampires alot of people dont think they exist but we do

all dreams r just something for ur mind to express how its feeling at that point in time. about different things going on in ur life, weather u realize it or not.

If a young child is having Night Terrors it could because of something that happened in a past life possibly. If you are an adult suffering from Night Terrors it could be Stress related or fear related

Night terrors can come from many things.

Past lives, traumatic expeiences that the person has repressed, and current reality itself

Night Terror is an actual diagnosis/medical. It is real and people have actually killed other people in their sleep becuase of it. Many studies have shown that it is a defect of the main stem thinking that transfers over to the sleep cycle. Just like sleep walking, there is always an underlying medical condition that "causes" this to happen. As far as I know, there is no 'real' reason for them. They just happen.

I do have night terror, I need to sleep with a night light or the lights on, as from where it comes frm it is ether the fact that I get attack in my sleep by spirits and demons or its a memory I have hiden, I can stay in the dark, I need a light wether its to sleep or to just sit, its kind of a protection, otherwise I feel like I'm gonna die out of fear or get hurt by soemthing, a spirit a demon or soemthing else

It seems that a lot of people are confusing a nightmare with a night terror. A nightmare is a bad dream, a scary one I have those quite frequently and I believe nightmares to be an expression of your worst fears. When I have a night mare it often revolves around the theme of something happening to one or all of my children. They are very scary and sad and I will wake up crying. But when I wake up, even though I may be very sad I know that what happened was not real. … people with night terrors do not have the luxery of knowing right away that the dream was not real. The ability to act out the dreams and the body thinking its real is cause by an overactive adrenaline gland. And there IS medication for it

http://www.nightterrors.org/mot.htm

STRESS man STRESS! Stress causes all sorts of bad things including night terrors and Nightmares. Both.

stress and anxiety

alot of night terrors r caused by traumatic events!! and reliving them over and over in your dreams and i have been helping her with these night terrors where she wakes up screaming and crying and am slowly getting her calmed down and feeling safe again and it will take time, but not all night terrors r caused by us some can be caused by other things or sent to us by others as well!!

I believe that a night terror is just someone letting there fears get to them and fall asleep thinking about them.

I think they come from are fears

ladyshado, thank you for some original input (sorry if there was someone before, I might have missed) - maybe night terrors in children who haven't really had trauma - could somehow be connected to trauma in a previous life.

That seems like an awesome thing to consider, anyone else got any views on that?

Nightmares like dreams are made from the last thing you were thinking about before you went to sleep...maybe you don't know you were thinking it but you were somewhere in somepart of your brain you were thinking about whatever it was you last remember you go to sleep and you are still thinking elaborating and exaggerating the memory.

i have had nightmares or terrors as some call them..when i wake up freaking out about something but isnt sure why..one time woke up crying and screaming..not sure whats up

I've had a few "night terrors" since coming back from Iraq. Woke up screaming....sweating...short of breath.
Way different from a run of the mill nightmare.

i belive that it is stress related

hm, everyone pretty much covered it. For children probably things they are afraid of or considered evil. Older ones, probably stress or something they havent dealt with in reality and there mind tries to deal with in the dreams.

I had quite a few friends that had "Night Terrors" and they would write them down in a journal. They would attempt to decipher these dreams later which normally didn't happen, but not from lack of trying.

I 'personally' have two opinions on dreams in general, whether they be nitemares or night terrors.

1. They are things that could happen or have already happened in another life.

2. This dream state is actually a 2nd reality or demension in which we live and have different abilities or normal abilities.

I personally like #2 better because I am able to leave a dream if I don't like it, awake, and then go back and fix what I didn't like. Again these are just opinions and thoughts, but I have no actual proof.

Sorry if I got a bit off topic, I know night-terrors aren't always considered dreams.

I believe they are fears from ones past experiences .

yes i believe it is all related to stress or trauma, it could be a minor thing but that minor thing can push u over the edge and be the cause of night terror to begin

i think most night terrors stem from a child imagination and things that you dont know.. or understand

i agree with fatalreaction If you are talking about things that people are afraid of, I think that people are afraid of things that they percieve as evil just because they do not understand it.

your backgroung and stress....

I think it comes the books that you read as a kid or from the movies and tv shows that you watched as a kid that your parents problay told you never to watch. for me total recall gave me nightmares as a kid even though it isnt that scary of a movie.

They happen a lot in children

MakaOtter makes excellent points in both of her posts above. There is a problem with the adrenal gland that can cause night terrors. And there is medicine for it.

But, being ex-military wife who traveled half way around the world and back, I saw an incredible amount of children who had night terrors. They were all military and thier fathers were on submarines. My daughter actually had some that the doctor said were stress related.

I believe that night terrors are brought on by extreme stress, anxiety or some traumatic experience.

My own night terror are triggered by panic attacks in my sleep, unable to wake up my mind creates situations relevant to my heart rate and my body brought out of the sleep paralysis again from the heart rate act these out, they can be extreemly dangerous for the person having the terror but in more serious circumstances also for those around them.
I will say however NEVER wake someone up suddenly from this, follow and look out for them, chances are they wont see you anyway. My partner made the mistake of waking me the first few times he saw it happen, just out of fear. My problem is that the shock of waking suddenly brings of a kind of temporary amnesia where i cannot remember anything past the age of eight............................Not good

our imaginations

u took the words right out of my mouth

imagination. stress, past lives intruding on present.

I think it's just a very intense nightmare, like a nightmare +10.
Those are caused by stress and by bad past experiences.

I do think that the majority of night terrors and nightmares can be caused by stress or anxiety, but I think an overactive imagination can play a big part in it.

night terrors can be caused by many things......self insecurities.....stress.... mental or physical abuse....ect. there is many things that cause them

has found that most, not all, but most come in the teenage years, generally this would be because of mental an physical abuse, the abuse being bullying by peers, has seen an heard alot of things to do with night terrors of this nature, has experienced, school is hard for teenagers and now a days is getting harder, discipline is out the window and kids seem to think they can be in charge of things this causes lots of stress on those that want to learn and make something of their lives

your fears

My pants

The specific cause of night terrors is not really know. Some people think it is inherited. Usually there are other people in the family who have had night terrors, or sleepwalking or sleep talking. They usually start occurring at approximately seven years of age and last until puberty. It is unusual for them to happen in older teenagers or adults. Night terrors seem to happen more often when there is a stressful event such as starting school, but often there is no obvious stress in the child's life. Sometimes they occur on nights when a child is unwell. They often seem to happen when a child is not getting enough sleep. Some people have linked night terrors to developmental stages in children's lives, such as toilet training, but many others do not think these are linked. Having night terrors is not linked to having psychological problems later in life. They seem to be a temporary 'phase' which children grow out of.

I think that most of them come from stress.

nightterrors to me are a deep routed guilt that lays dorment inside of us all.

I would think it would be somthing u were waitin for. I've been told things or touched people and i would have horrid nightmares or things of the sort. I think it matters.

i think it is possible that they might come from someone having fears or even maybe from a chemical inballance that someone has.

from the mind. coz of terror

I'm going to try and think logically about this....

When you sleep, your subconscious takes over, you have no control over it. Usually when you dream, your dreams are manifested from something that's happened or from something you've seen in the real world. Trauma or even abuse, if that's happened to you, plays a big role in how you dream.
I've known some people to have wild and vivid subconscious imaginations where, after watching a really scary or disturbing movie, they can have nightterrors. My sister was one of them when she was a child.

I don't think nightterrors just happen to people. There has to be something that has happened to them in life that plays a big role.

people are afraid of what they dont understand.

I feel that alot of things play a part in them, it could be fears, stress, mental, past history, I mean it is in the mind and no one knows what all can happen to us as we sleep. the conscience the subconscience, alot of facts weigh on this...

I believe everyone is right when they say Night Terrors come from past trammas, fears, and mental disorders. I have not had to many night terrors but i know they can be bad...

Being related to someone that has experienced it. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. I can tell you what she shared with Me. You can take it where you want. I just know that My cousin lived many years, and to this day takes some serious meds at night to avoid it.
I asked her what she experiences with them. She simply explained. " It's like I'm in a dream, that is so real. Then I wake up still in that dream. It's like My body is awake, but My mind is playing out the dream, and not allowing Me to see the real world around Me." I lived with My aunt, and My cousins for a while, when I was a child. I know what she went through, and still has to try to control to this day. I know that she had a decent childhood with no real trauma, or other events that would have triggered it. So, yes, it can occur without having outside influence as a trigger.

ok night terroiers or waking drems come a highly opend unchoouns mind i have had a few but i amd not qut sure what brings theem on yet cut i will let you now wheen my rescheris through

i think that nightterrors come from the fear of wat is happening in ur dreams that may cause u to wake up screaming or crying. i havent had any but i think thatz how it works

well i think they have to do a lot with the things you fear the most...i have experianced a cupple myself...

Me personally..seeing my mother without makeup on was a night terror in itself.

I have what they call night terrors. So I just don't sleep... I can usually get by on about an hour or 2 a day... Works for me....... I'm not stressed anymore... no major fears... nothings haunting me... they just happen........ the last time I checked with the other voices we all agreed I wasn't crazy.... lol

Who knows what causes them.....

i always thought night terros came from experancing something very scary or possibly hearing or seeing something scary, would cause it of a natural afriade ness to darkness

I am the true cause of night terrors.

I'll see you tonight.

night terrors come from fear and fear is a powerful tool.

I find myself to have night terrors when I'm under a lot of stress about sme thing

Actual night terrors come from the same place dreams do--the mind. The difference between night terrors and nightmares is that with night terrors, the mind truly believes what'd going on is really happening.

Small children, especially, have night terrors because their minds cannot tell the difference between a bad dream and a terror. There are a few adults that have them, but it's mostly common amongst children.

I have never had the pleaser, so to speak of having night terrors.

Scientifically night terrors come from a bad experience. There are quite a few times that people don't even know where they come from . But other then that night terrors are a way for you mind to try to deal with a subconscious thought, fear or problem that you don't know how to deal with in your waking hours. The mind is a vast and many varied thing. Even the most brilliant scientist can not always explain all the possible reasons or causes of night terrors or other medical conditions or side effects of the waking conscience mind.

felixfelix has a good a good explanation

fears, insecurities, thoughts, or a negative experience.

I think they come from bad experiences and the mind just exaggerates them.
Like when you think you see something, but it was just your imagination. Also I think it occurs mostly in kids, because they fear alot more than adults, i believe

There are those who also believe that night terrors come from a tramatic experiences in past lives in which the soul has not yet healed from, and is working through in your subconcious state. Possibly a horrific death, or even an accident.

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