Night terrors and sleep walking?

Question

My 11 year old niece had her first night terror around age 9. She also sleep walks, but it does not happen very often. I am babysitting her this weekend. Last night, she woke me by digging her nails into my arm and talking very fast about being in a plane crash. She was bumping into the walls and yelling. About 10 mins later she woke up.

I am afraid this will happen again tonight…it’s very frightening and I have two young children…is there anything I can do to prevent the sleep walking or night terrors? And what causes this? Any information would be helpful, thanks.

Answer 1

First NREM means non-rapid eye movement
and REM is the typical dream stage.

Sleep walking or somnambulism happens in stages NREM3 or NREM 4. These are the stages where it's very hard for one to wake themselves or anyone else to wake them. That's why it's so easy for them to go through the sleep walking without ever being disturbed.

Night terrors also happen during stages NREM3 and NREM4. that's why these people don't wake themselves up while in the middle of it. It's a sleep disturbance characterized by an episode of increased physiological arousal, intense fear, and panic, frightening hallucinations and no recall of the episode the following morning. This personal could start throwing punches in the bed, yelling and screaming and then the next morning they wouldn't even know that they had a nightmare.

REM behavior disorder, this one happens during REM which is a lighter sleep compared to the other stages and in this stage someone could wake themselves up if they fell down, or acted out too wildly. It's a sleep disorder in which a person acts out his or her dreams. It could consist of still being in the bed and just kicking or they could be in the middle of the room full out fighting. Usually when it's over, they crawl back in bed and they usually have some sort of memory of the nightmare. Where as in the night terrors, the person doesn't remember the nightmare.


http://www.emedicinehealth.com/night_terrors/page2_em.htm#Night%20Terrors%20Causes
Night Terrors Causes

Night terrors may be caused by the following:

* Stressful life events

* Fever

* Sleep deprivation

* Medications that affect the central nervous system (the brain)

Night Terrors Treatment

Self-Care at Home

Parents might take the following precautions at home:

* Make the child’s room safe to try to prevent the child from being injured during an episode.

* Eliminate all sources of sleep disturbance.

* Maintain a consistent bedtime routine and wake-up time.


http://www.nightterrors.org/med.htm
Medications

Below are just a few of the medications currently prescribed for Night Terrors. Some of these medications fall under the ANTI-DEPRESSANTS category. If your doctor has prescribed something different, most likely it is a generic of the below or in the same class, you should be fine. If you don't want to take a prescription drug to control night terrors be sure to check out St Johns Wort.

* Klonopin
* Tofranil
* Valium
* St. Johns Wort

The following are currently being tested :

* Ambien (from what I know this one causes vivid dreams)
* Lunesta
* Rozerem
* Sonata

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/rem_sleep_behavior_disorder/article_em.htm
In a person with REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), the paralysis that normally occurs during REM sleep is incomplete or absent, allowing the person to "act out" his or her dreams. RBD is characterized by the acting out of dreams that are vivid, intense, and violent. Dream-enacting behaviors include talking, yelling, punching, kicking, sitting, jumping from bed, arm flailing, and grabbing. An acute form may occur during withdrawal from alcohol or sedative-hypnotic drugs.

The major difference is that night terrors usually occur in children and REM sleep behavior disorder usually occurs in people over the age of 15 and probably more so after the age of 20.

Answer 2

my husband also has night terrors, he has flashbacks from viet nam that he acts out in his sleep. very scary for me too. all i ever do is talk to him very loudly, keep calling his name till he wakes up. so far this has worked. good luck. i know how you feel.