Table of contents:
- What are night terrors?
- What are the characteristics if someone experiences night terror?
- The cause of sleep disturbances at night terrors
- How to prevent night terrors from recurring again
Everyone must have had nightmares. But, in fact there is something worse than a nightmare, namely night terrors. What is meant by night terrors? Check out the following explanation.
What are night terrors?
Night terror syndrome is a sleep disorder, where the condition appears in the first few hours after a person falls asleep. The sufferer will wake up and start screaming, panicking and sweating.
After the sufferer has fully awakened, he can only remember the terrible images or remember nothing at all. This sleep disorder often occurs in conjunction with sleepwalking. As well as sleepwalking, night terrors are considered parasomnia (an unwanted event during sleep).
Sleep terror syndrome is actually very rare and usually only occurs among children 3-12 years old. Most experienced it while in their infancy. This sleep disturbance can also occur in adults, but not as much or as often as it does in children. Even though this night terror is quite worrying for parents who witness their child screaming while sleeping. This is usually caused by a certain psychological symptoms or medical condition.
What are the characteristics if someone experiences night terror?
As long as a person experiences this sleep disorder, many symptoms will appear. For example, when sleeping, the sufferer will suddenly scream, suddenly stand up or sit down from what was previously in a sleeping position.
After a few minutes, or sometimes longer when they wake up, they can calm down and go back to sleep. Here are some signs of disturbance at night terrors that sufferers will experience while sleeping:
- Screaming or screaming while sleeping
- Kick or punch unconsciously
- Sweating and heavy breathing (gasping)
- Difficult to wake up, but when I wake up confused
- It's hard to calm down
- His eyes will stare wide-eyed even though his condition is still asleep
- Getting out of bed and walking around the house unconsciously
- For adult sufferers, the behavior may be more aggressive
The cause of sleep disturbances at night terrors
Terror during sleep is caused by arousal from the central nervous system (CNS) during excessive sleep. This can happen because the CNS (which regulates sleep and wake up brain activity) is still working when the patient is asleep. In fact, some children are 80% more positive about this sleep disorder if their parents have it, so it's like a hereditary disorder.
However, night terrors can also be caused by:
- The body feels tired and is experiencing disturbed health conditions
- Are currently taking certain drugs
- Sleeping in a new environment or being away from home (usually occurs in children)
How to prevent night terrors from recurring again
If indeed you have experienced night terrors before (maybe your family or partner has witnessed this happen to you), maybe you can condition your room to be away from sharp and dangerous objects. Given the aggressive attitude that this sleep disorder produces, it can be anarchic.
Here are some things you can do to relieve sleep terror disorder:
- Before going to bed, avoid consuming caffeine, foods or drinks that contain sugar, and also avoid staring at the cellphone screen for hours. These things can cause sleep disturbances to occur.
- Make your bedtime consistent, set the times when to go to sleep and when to wake up.
- In severe cases, you can usually use antidepressant drugs to reduce the appearance of sleep disturbances.
- Actually, this sleep disorder has no definite treatment or therapy to cure it. If so, you may need a psychiatrist or specialist who can treat your sleep problems.
