Talk:Night terror
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"Write sufferer, not victim" was posted in the article by an anon. Matt 00:38, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)
- Changed to subject, a neutral term. Jclerman 07:08, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
Re: Night Horror: Can you, please, indicate the origin of this paragraph? I.e., either give a reference or delete it. Also, explain or correct cariac: "In very rare cases an episodic series of Night Terrors may progress to a Night Horror, a distinctly different experience for the sufferer, during which they may be at a higher level of wakefulness, but rather than unidentifiable fear and anxiety, the Horror will often involve intense and extremely disturbing hallucinations. While occuring very rarely, medical attention is often required, due to high cariac stress brought on by overwhelming chemical response from the body during the episode. They are generally thought to be the by-product of high sleep deprivation, and pre-existing psychological conditions." Jclerman 07:08, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
For any technical death metal fans reading this article
Who feels like writing up an article for the tech-death band by the same name? Today, I am exhausted.
[edit] Contradiction
The following statements, "There is no situation or event, scary or otherwise, that is dreamt but rather the emotion of fear itself is felt, often coupled with tension, apprehension and so on, without any distinct sounds or visual imagery" and "One seemingly universal quality of night terrors is a strong sense of danger — there is always a being, tangible or otherwise, who wishes to hurt the sleeping person. Many sufferers of night terrors are reluctant to speak of them because of their violent, graphic, and often disturbing nature." Seem to conflict with eachother. I don't see how the nighterrors could have no visual imagery, but also have violent be violent and graphic.
- I think the wording needs to be changed. "There is no situation or event... that is dreamt" is far too definite because sometimes people have been able to recall images or sometimes entire scenes, and not in the same way as a nightmare. The subject may have seen some horrifying images but it is usually the case that he or she is unable to recall any of them. That's not the same thing as not having dreamt them at all. I suffered regular night terrors when I was very young, almost always burning with fever during most of them, such that my mother though I was going to die. I don't remember most of what was terrifying me but they tell me I'd stare at the walls, eyes wide, screaming about monsters coming at me. However, I do remember one or two that I had, again during very high fever. I suggest that the first sentance is changed to "Usually, what the subject experienced cannot be recalled, while the emotions of fear and panic, often coupled with tension and/or apprehension, remain." The second sentance can be altered a little so that it states "When able to remember their visions, many subjects are reluctant to speak of them... " etc. --Recurring 14:57, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
- -- It definately needs to be fixed, as it's very contradictory. The article doesn't really cite its sources so I don't know where each of these assertions came from, or I'd try to fix it myself. --68.202.66.211 01:45, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
In the same sort of vein, I have removed the following sentence from the "In Children" section: "Quite often the dream is manifest with a temporary paralysis with vivid recall of events leading up to, as well as the climax of the night terror." The author could be getting night terrors mixed up with sleep paralysis, or that could be an accurate description of what a night-terror-related dream is like. Either way, to go in the article it needs surrounding text describing whether, when, and how dreams happen during night terrors. - Urocyon 04:22, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Popular Culture?
Should there be a segment on night terrors in popular culture? For instance, Patrick from Spongebob appears to experience night terrors about spiders. Alx xlA 00:33, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Other ways to treat it?
My little brother suffers from night terrors, and it's really pitiful to watch. After having to help "wake him up" from most of these, I've found that reminding him of his surroundings and the people around him, then asking him about them, really helps. He "wakes up" (or calms down, rather) within a couple of minutes. Physical contact seems to also help. For example, when he experiences a night terror this is how I usually remedy it:
I place my hands on his shoulders gently and say his name. I then ask him if he knows who I am. He has yet to answer correctly (the closest he's gotten is "you're myself"), so I tell him my name and remind him that I'm his brother. I then identify others around him, and I ask him if he knows where he is. He always shakes his head no, so I tell him which room of the house he's in. If he's not awake by then I ask him again if he remembers who I am, where he is, etc. I've never had to go through that more than twice.
I hope this is helpful.
- With symptoms like these, I find the incidence figure of 15% preposterously high. All children have nightmares. Who is diagnosing 15% of them as night terrors? --Tysto 01:34, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
[edit] night terrors_defense mechanism?
[[Media:Example.o
evolution is predicated on survival of the fittest.a person is never more vulnerable than when they are asleep.It can take 6-12 minutes for a person to come out of deep-sleep and become fully conscious.it makes sense that our primitive/proto-human ancestors would have developed a defense mechanism which allowed them to ward off attack in pitch blackness without becoming fully awake.like the diving reflex,an ability in some mammals to slow heartbeat and respiration in order to remain under water for longer periods of time,which is often blamed for certain sleep related disorders whereby a person awakes to feel a crushing sensation on their chest and difficulty breathing.night terrors may just be a genetic remnant.
[edit] Contradiction: REM or Non-REM?
In the introduction, the article states that night terrors generally occur during REM sleep -- this is in error. In the Nightmares vs. Night Terrors section, the article states that:
"...night terrors usually occur during the deepest phases (stage 4) of non-REM sleep."
This is correct.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders code for Night Terrors is DSM-IV AXIS I: 307.46.
DSM is not available to non-subscribers, but there is a sleep chart here: http://www.nightterrors.org/stages.htm.
Doonhamer 05:44, 13 January 2007 (UTC) Trillian1 12:33, 22 January 2007 (EST)
Thank you Trillian1. I'll change the bit in the introduction from REM to non-REM and remove the self-contradiction tag. Doonhamer 19:39, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] mental illness mystery
There is a mental problem with a person, but no one knows esentialy what it is. It isn't classified under schizopherenia, delosion, or hilusination. In fact it isn't any of those. It is characterized with some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder, but it isn't a for sure thing. It is a super exsesive version of one talking to themselves. It is an actual ingadging conversation with ones sefl. The conversations range around anything from telling themselves something they had just witnessed to arguing with ones self. Another thing I noticed was the acting out of a situation (fantacy) as if it was really happeneing. One with this seems to prefer baing alone, but in some cases that is not the case. It isn't multi-personality disorder because the person can recall what happens just fine. Also the person knows it is thme and not "someone else". Aroused by this I can't help but wonder what it is and why it's happening and why it is unnoticed. It may be unnoticed because the people with this do what they do alone when no one else is around and never speak of it.
167.135.15.65 18:17, 18 January 2007 (UTC)Pyro
What does this have to do with night terrors??? --69.142.178.54 07:37, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Why does night hag redirect here?
As far as I understand it, a night hag is a mythological or legendary being. See for example Lilith. Is there some other meaning that would make it appropriate to point here? If so, we need to diambiguate. Aleta 23:31, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
- Night Hag can be a reference to hypnogogic/hypnopompic paralysis in some cultures. I imagine that's why it directs here, because the sleep paralysis article also redirects here as a related condition. I'm not sure what the connection is apart from the fact that both involve sleep. sleep paralysis is clearly an REM phenomenon, whereas night terrors are not.
- 213.219.18.82 05:37, 22 January 2007 (UTC)-RRRitalin 05:31, 22 January 2007 (GMT)
[edit] "Misfire"
You're forgetting one thing. It has been identified that the brain "misfires" during these episodes.Here is the citation[1] —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.243.1.10 (talk) 19:10, 14 April 2007 (UTC).
[edit] Request and anecdote
As someone that has these, and a very bad one in particular last week, I wish there was some more on treatment. I'm 28, and they happen irregularly for me. Usually, I wake up trying to speak or moan but can't because most of my muscles are paralyzed. Quite frustrating since normally, I am pretty conscious when I dream and been a lucid dreamer from a young age. But, the description of a nearby presence is dead on. That is the only physical thing I could tell you that is scary. This past week I actually sat up (or it felt like I did, it's hard to remember) and screamed loud, louder than I probably ever had. The screaming was uncontrollable, and actually made my throat sore. I saw a figure, but everything was blurry, as if I couldn't quite come to this time. Normally, I don't see anything. My wife manged to wake me. It's probably by far the scariest thing I've ever experienced - mfd (UTC) 00:00 Aug 15, 2007
It sounds like what you're experiencing is sleep paralysis and its related phenomena, rather than night terrors. I get that, too. -Sarah —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.107.74.132 (talk) 06:13, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
[edit] I get them!
Sometimes I get night terrors and whe I wake up because my family woke me, I can't remember a thing and get very confused and frustrated. Could this condition be similar to sleep walking where the sleep walker gets confused and frustrated when disturbed? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.158.187.28 (talk) 15:51, August 22, 2007 (UTC)
Yes, apparently the two are similar afflictions. See Parasomnia. I've suffered from night terrors myself. In three separate incidents I saw a giant spider.. a giant snake.. and a ghost. In each case I was shocked awake and experienced an overwhelming sense of panic. Having heard of night terrors I realized shortly after they occurred that this is what I had experienced. Thankfully, after reviewing my air conditioning settings, they stopped and have yet to reoccur. --QuantumG 11:53, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Dubious statement
I find the statement “One of the most common qualities of night terrors is a strong sense of danger. For these people there is always a being (similar to a doppelgänger), tangible or otherwise, who wishes to hurt the sleeping person, or the sleeping person's loved ones” very unlikely. For one thing, I get night terrors and, although there is a very strong sense of danger, the terrors is always for a very abstract idea. I suggest this sentence needs to be modified and sourced. --S.dedalus 05:43, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
- Dedalus, I get night terrors and occassionaly do recall a concrete danger. However, even though most of the time they are "beings", sometimes they are other things such as fires.
- To clarify: most of the time, no recall of what the danger was. Sometimes I do recall it. When recalled, sometimes it is not an animated being. -- PabloBM 14:43, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Not a discussion forum
Just a friendly reminder that this page is to discuss the article, not a discussion forum about night terror. Pairadox (talk) 20:49, 9 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] 'In adults' section needs updating
The 'In Adults' section is contains dated and refuted information. I don't consider myself qualified to alter the section myself, but it is widely considered untrue that adult night terrors are usually "trauma-based rather than genetic ... [requiring] treatment in the form of psychotherapy and antidepressant medication"
In cases in which sleep terrors are successfully treated with psychotherapy and antidepressant medication, it may be fair to say that the disorder is due to underlying psychological problems, however a vast number of sufferers do not respond to these treatments. Incidentally, I must stress that antidepressants are not necessarily prescribed because depression is suspected as the cause of sleep terrors, and the article should not imply that those who opt for this treatment are depressed.
The article goes on to suggest that "some adult night terror sufferers have many of the characteristics of abused and depressed individuals including inhibition of aggression,[2] self-directed anger,[2] passivity,[3] anxiety, impaired memory,[4], and the ability to ignore pain.[5]" This is probably true of most groups of people, i.e. that "some" people in a group of people have many of these characteristics. This analysis is dismally Freudian and hopelessly outdated - can the article take into account the research into adult sleep terrors in the past 10 years, and at least balance archaic explanations with more recent findings?
I guess what I'm saying is that the article is archaic, one-sided and misleading. It can be damaging for an individual looking for further information regarding sleep terrors to feel that their sleep terrors are a symptom of a trauma or an underlying psychiatric condition, without taking into account the vast body of research into sleep disorders in adults, the possibility of minor neurological and other physiological causes. It also incorrectly categorises adults with sleep disorders as an insignificant minority.
[edit] See also —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.44.220.20 (talk) 16:30, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
I agree - the article appears to 'hype up' the seriousness of night terrors, linking them in a potentially misleading manner to major psychiatric disorders. Although this is true in some cases, from my reading of the literature, for most people they are simply an unusual and very briefly distressing phenomenon, linked to short-term environmental, mental or biological triggers. Unfortunately identifying trustworthy info on this topic is difficult, so I'm not prepared to make major changes to the article myself just yet. Willardo (talk) 04:44, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
I agree - I am a regular poster on a night terrors board and people posting there report the Wikipedia article as a little alarming. A review by Derry et al. (2006), in the section titled 'Psychiatric disturbance and the arousal disorders' (p. 1778), suggests that psychological disturbance is just one of several potential causes of night terrors.
Derry, CP. Duncan JS. and Berkovic (2006) Paroxysmal Motor Disorders of Sleep: The Clinical Spectrum and Differentiation from Epilepsy, Epilepsia, 47 (11): 1775-1791.
The statement "In addition to night terrors, some adult night terror sufferers have many of the characteristics of abused and depressed individuals including inhibition of aggression,[2] self-directed anger,[2] passivity,[3] anxiety, impaired memory,[4], and the ability to ignore pain[5]." is supported only by references from 1982 and prior, and by two more recent documents addressing post-traumatic stress and dissociative disorders. I suggest the opinion expressed in this statement is generalized and outdated, based on archaic research, and on information regarding psychiatric disorders which have may sleep terrors as a symptom, implying, misleadingly, that sleep terrors are generally accepted to be an indicator of trauma or mental illness. This statement should be updated or altogether removed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Els437 (talk • contribs) 23:01, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
