Blogpost 6: Sleeping Disorder: Night Terrors

Examining someone while sleeping can be extremely interesting, but also scary and sometimes dangerous. Many people in this world, may not realize how important it is to analyze people while they are sleeping. Some may think that these people are just having dreams or nightmares. Actually, these people may have commonly known as night terrors.

Night terrors are severe and frightening partial arousal from sleep. Most people scream and cry while showing fear and anxiety. It was a sleep disruption that seems similar to a nightmare, but with a far more dramatic presentation.

So I read an article entitled "Sleep terrors (night terrors)" by Mayo Clinic Staff in mayoclinic.org. According to the article I read, they stated that night terrors strike children, usually between the ages of 3 years and 8 years. They rarely occur in older children, adolescents and adults.

It could be that a child who experiences night terrors may scream, shout and thrash around in extreme panic, and they may even jump out of bed. Their eyes will be open but they're not fully awake.And the child's breathing and heartbeat might be faster, he or she might sweat, thrash around, and act upset and scared. After a few minutes, or sometimes longer, a child simply calms down and returns to sleep.

The article says that "kids won't have any memory of a night terror the next day because they were in deep sleep when it happened — and there are no mental images to recall."

It means that night terrors are frightening if you witness them, they don’t cause any harm to the person having them, and usually pass within a few minutes.

As I read further another article entitled "Frequent Nightmares, Night Terrors May Indicate Mental Illness Later In Life" by By Jaleesa Baulkman, University Herald Reporter (j.baulkman@universityherald.com) in universityherald.com. According to the stated article it has concluded that children who experience night terrors are at risk of developing traits of psychosis in adolescence.

It explain that young children effected can develop to delusions, hallucinations, and other forms of psychosis before entering adulthood. That children between the ages of 2 and 9 who experienced nightmares were around one and a half times more susceptible to suffer psychotic episodes. Increasingly, children who were troubled with night terrors had a doubled risk of developing problems related to psychosis and that children of 12 years of age who experienced nightmares were more than three times more likely to suffer from some form of psychosis before the onset of puberty.

The reporter says that "Those who have experienced nightmares will be familiar with the sensation of waking suddenly with a sense of fear, worry and possible palpitations."

Sleep Terror Disorder is classically understood as a night terror, a type of parasomnia that is characterized by extreme terror and the temporary inability to regain consciousness. Night terrors occur in deep sleep cycles and those who experience them usually undergo violent thrashing and rapid body movements upon waking.

An advises that the best thing can do is promote a lifestyle that encourages healthy sleep habits, and an environment that provides the best quality of sleep for the child, removing all stimuli such as the television or video games from the room. Diet is also important should avoid sugary drinks at night before bedtime. Ultimately a healthy environment supports a healthy life, and the mental health of children is no exception to that rule.