Recurring nightmare?..night terror?

Question

This experience has occurred 4 times in the past several years. I will 'wake up' or feel like I have woken up. I can even read the clock next to me. I feel something in bed with me. I completely panic. There is no recognizable form. It pulls the covers off of me and feels like it is pressing violently up against my body and shoving me towards the wall. I realize that this is could just be a recurring nightmare. Could it be a night terror though? It is so vivid and really frightens me. I feel a little silly about the whole thing because I am 21 years old and this seems a little old to be dwelling on nightmares and I thought night terrors occurred more in younger people. If anyone knows what this could be or better yet how to prevent it.. Please let me know!!!

Answer 1

I am scared just reading this.  It sounds like a night terror, though.  Have you eaten anything, or taken any medicines that could cause this?  It is not unusual for medicines to cause night terrors.  Maybe keeping a diary of foods, activities, or meds will help you sort this out.  Good luck, maybe get a night light or a cat to sleep with.

Answer 2

Nelly. Hello!

You have described your experiences incredibly well and I can relate to them not through my own experiences, but those of my brother.

In the past few years my brother has woken the whole house up in the night by sceaming and speaking quickly and unintelligibly. His eyes are open but his personality is vacant - like the lights are on but nobody is home. He will run into a corner and crouch down, covering his eyes and whimpering in sheer terror. He'll often just keep repeating the same phrase over and over (it is interesting, since he has become consciously aware of these night episodes, that a couple of times he has screamed something that sounded like 'hospital. now!'). After these episodes, either the next day or when he has 'woken up' he will recall spinning sensations or 'everything in the universe shrinking into a single point'. He has said that these experiences don't seem particularly scary when described but, he reckons, because he is in a semi-conscious state, he feels unable to control what is going on around him and so becomes scared to the point of violent defensiveness - he has physically attacked my father several times when the latter has tried to calm him.

Now, your experiences sound a little less mobile than this i.e. not so much running around the place! But, I can imagine, no less disturbing.

It does indeed sound like a night terror combined with what could possibly be 'sleep-paralysis' >

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paral...

On the matter of prevention, my brother is lucky in that he is still a minor and so lives at home. My mother or father are able to care for him until all the midnight drama subsides! However, I am guessing that if you're 21 you may possibly be living alone? If so, I can offer these few things that my brother has found himself to prevent such happenings:

- keep the room you sleep in well-ventilated (some people, I once read, have more sensitive heat regulation processes in the body than others. These can be overaroused and in turn can stimulate the nervous system into activity when sleeping - thus this 'sleeping-waking state')

- avoid paracetemol or aspirin if you're running a fever.

- always turn the light off when you sleep.

- sleep on your side.

- keep scary things (mirrors, big black coats hanging up, halloween masks etc.) out of view of where you're sleeping.

Hope that helps, my friend. If these things keep happening to you and continue to be traumatic, I suggest seeing a doctor for a check up (sometimes these problems are physiological) or for a more in-depth explanation of it all than what's available on the internet.

Best of luck!

Answer 3

I understand. The same thing happened to me, the most horrific things...

Nothing real scares me anymore.

As for causes, mine was diagnosed as psychosis from a bad reaction to Bipolar meds. You might want to see a psychiatrist right away.