The disturbing infantile night terrors
Night terrors. The specialists differentiate them from simple nightmares, because they are more intense, frightening and shocking for those who suffer them. Especially for children. Do you remember any of these phenomena in your childhood?
We must clarify that it is also possible to suffer them in adulthood, but medical data tell us that they occur mostly in the youngest. The reason? This type of parasomnias may appear as part of the evolutionary process of maturation of the child's nervous system. It is something similar to what we explain to you with the syndrome of Alice in Wonderland. As our neuronal structures mature, these types of night terrors usually lose intensity. It does not rule out its appearance in adult ages, but it is in childhood when we can be tormented the most.
Let's talk about it today, let's enter the chilling world of night terrors.
Nightmares or night terrors?
We will start making a differentiation between what is a nightmare and a night terror. Surely there is some data that surprises you:
The nigthmares
Usually, we can remember enough data of this type of dreams, they have some logic and can be quite elaborate. Authentic and fantastic stories, that although frightening, have their logic.
They appear in REM sleep phases.
During nightmares we do not usually move much, we do not usually talk and if we do it is when the nightmare ends itself. There is no muscle tone .
When we wake up, we continue with the feeling of "fear" stuck to our interior.
Night terrors
Children can get up from bed, talk, cry and scream ... However, it is not very difficult to wake them up.
When we ask them what they remember, they explain vague and imprecise things. Hardly without logic.
There is a high anxiety; when the children wake they have tachycardias, sweats, tremors ...
They appear in the dream No Rem and in the first half of the night.
It usually appears in children between 4 and 12 years old, being more intense when they are sick, have a fever or have a problem at home or at school. Normally, they disappear with age and no pharmacological treatment is needed.
How are the night terrors?
We all remember some other nightmare of our childhood, that repetitive that prevented us from falling asleep at night. But whoever has suffered from night terrors knows that the experience is different and more intense. It is often said that it is a purer and more intense terror , a fear that exhausts the child physically and that makes the sensations more reminiscent of "the images" in itself throughout the day.
The images are usually imprecise. While with nightmares there is something more coherent. Some people say that these types of night terrors respond perhaps to our most atavistic and primal fears : The darkness that traps us, monsters without form that crave to attack us, the most disturbing loneliness ... If in your childhood you suffered from night terrors it is very possible that still keep all these feelings.
A fact to keep in mind is that according to doctors tell us, it is something hereditary. If the father or mother suffered in his childhood, it is likely that one of his children also suffers, but as we say, is part of our evolutionary process. When our brain is already mature enough, this type of phenomena will be returning normally. In adulthood, only usually suffer from 1 or 2% of the adult population. Nor should we confuse it with sleep paralysis , since it is another type of parasomnia.
If you have a child at home who is suffering at the moment, it is best to act calmly normalizing the situation . If they see parents alarmed or worried, anxiety will be greater. When you see that the child is suffering a night terror at night, do not talk to him or try to wake him up. Let him leave the trance, and then offer comfort relieving the importance of what happened. Little by little, this sleep phenomenon will subside.
And now tell us, did you have night terrors in your childhood? Do you remember any image? Do not hesitate to leave us your comments, in that way and among all, we can get more interesting data.