Night Terrors..

Tusky

I used to get these "nasty buggers" all the time when I was younge, they stoped when I was about 13, and i never had another one..untill the other night, I had the worst night terror I have ever had, it was really horrible,

Anyone else get or got these before ? *me shudders*

Victor

Been using any medication or drugs / alcohol? Tried any different foods (especially things like nuts and cheese)? Been eating too much (fatty) food before bed? Been in any traumatic events recently (car accident, head injury, family death, loss of friends, etc.)?

Yeah I get them all them time, but I know why.

nesthead

Night terrors?? u mean nightmares or just lying in bed and getting **** scared by every noise in the house or something like that???

Is1ldur

I used to get them all the time. Have not had one for a few months though. I find sleeping on my side helps greatly. Causes are hard to pinpoint, however all seem to be stress-related, anxiety, etc. Also, maake sure you are getting enough sleep, that is probably the single most important thing.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i get these from time to time, got them lat night actually.. i had to stay awake and was tossing and turning for half an hour before i was finally able to lie still without feeling like i was dying..

sometimes I get really bad ones where my arms start to tingle, and my head starts to pound like I've a really bad headache.. they suck!

Kell

I only get them very occasionally and less and less as I have gotten older. For me they involve either falling or someone trying to kill me.

Try being physically tired when you go to bed. It helps lots.

K-

daveg

I got the best one ever. About 2 years ago I had a dream in which my girlfriend tried to kill me. The 2 of us woke up with me straddling her with my hands around her neck trying to strangle her. To say I scared the shít out of her (and myself) is putting it mildly.

Perhaps there is a subliminal message there somewhere

Falkorre

hiya

The trick with night terrors, (it may sound simple but is so not),... is to do a few specific things each night (will not work in one night but eventually will work)....

1- Make sure u are very tired before sleep, go for walks during the day to tire yourself out.

2-Keep stress to a minimum, keep "toxic" people out of your life.

3-*IF* there is a root cause, for instance, survivors of abuse often suffer from night terrors, then you need to confront the root cause, counselling etc.

4-Make very very sure you do not eat for at least 2 hours before sleeping and only drink water. If you are a tea / coffee person, do NOT drink either for at least 3 hours b4 sleeping, people often dont realise that tea contains caffeine too!....(thats another point actually, make sure ur drinking enough water during the day, being dehydrated going to sleep will often trigger night terrors, things like coffee and tea do not count, and coffee often dehydrates you more in fact!).

5- (this may sound stoopid but is the most important).... try to retrain your conscious mind into being confident with being alone, even if u think it allready is, make sure u have a lot of time to yourself during the day, go for walks, drives etc.... best one I have found is to kick everyone out of house, turn on radio v low (distractions like tv negate the whole thing as are a distraction), and just relax. You may find the answer will just occur to you once U give your mind a second to come out of running at light-speed.

Ask yourself these questions,

Do i look for distractions when I am alone, ie: eating when not hungry, tv, phoning ppl, internet, a good one is if u are a smoker, do you smoke considerably more when alone at home ?....etc...

Do i like my own company if not why not?

Do I rely on others to supply me with reasons to feel happy or good?

hope these help.

B

Wolf

Originally posted by nesthead
Night terrors?? u mean nightmares or just lying in bed and getting **** scared by every noise in the house or something like that???

Yeah we talking nightmares or the hibegibies.

Kell

Originally posted by daveg
I got the best one ever. About 2 years ago I had a dream in which my girlfriend tried to kill me.

I had a similar one 'cept I didnt try and kill her in reponse. The spooky thing was though that the carving knife that was on the sink had mysteriously moved from where it was the night before to somewhere you would never put a carving knife.

K-

patch

Never had them, -thank christ by the sound of things!!
I used to work with a guy who awoke to find himself pissing on the headboard.........needless to say, his wife was less than impressed.:(

PAPILLION

my 6 year old neice gets them cus she is getting bullied at school.

wakes up screaming

she is so afraid when she wakes that she doesn't even see her mum or dad there at her bed.

scary stuff.

ToxicPaddy

.....Keep stress to a minimum, keep "toxic" people out of your life.

*Sigh* do i get blamed for everything... :rolleyes:

Riamfada

I keep dreaming that Im back with my Ex that i hate . Every night. Now Lately im dreaming that stuff in work is going wrong and its my fault ! An i wake up. I also Dream that I am a sad pathetic looser who has wake up nightmares about work. . . . wait a minute.... thats not a dream (single tear down my cheeck.)

Beruthiel

Originally posted by Kell
the carving knife that was on the sink had mysteriously moved from where it was the night before to somewhere you would never put a carving knife.K-

I have to know!
where was it????

ozpass

where was it????

Hopefully not protruding from somebody's chest!

Wolf

Ok if we are talking dreams I had a realy freaky one to this day I remember it so well.

In it I was stabed in the neck with a thin stanly knife. I could feel the blade going in. I could feel and taste blood in my mouth and throat. I could feel the wet warm sticky blood running down my arm as it bubbled over my hand. I tried to beath but I couldnt. I feel back and it was like hiting somin had but not been able to feel it. I remember lying on my back and people standing around look down at me and gasping but it was like they were very far away. Slowly my system began to shut down. My hearing became less and less as people were talking but they sounded echoy and far away. Then my sight started to close over and I began to think "Im going to die". I felt concerned but very calm. My site got smaller and smaller as the black boarders of my vision closed in more and more. Until darkness....... then...............



notthing........................................................................







Then BANG! I shot up out of bed sweat driping down me and I took a hugh breath as I hadnt been breathing. Im still convinced that it might happen one day as it was so real and only a one off.

well that my 2 cents.

Victor

I usually wake up as I am beating up the duvet / curtains / whatever. Or if I dream that there is someone in the flat. That or I'm dead.

Tusky

Firstyly thanks for al your help....secondly no no no !

A night terror is NOT a bad dream....Its when you go to sleep and your mind is too active ... ( only happens to certain ppl with specially active brains or somthing) And during the night half your brains wakes up wehre the other half is still alseep...it is a TRUELY horrible experience....sometimes Id wake up and open my eyes but the rest of my body would be completely asleep...I coudlnt be able to move my arms hands fingers or even my mouth or tounge,

Its horrible that you cant call for help and this usually sends you into a panic as you lie there unable to do anything, Even if someone is there and they shake you or shout at you, yah wont be able to wake up, you may know they are there or hear or see them but still wont do any good

heres some stuff about them i found on the interw00b,

First of all, before getting into detail about what this entails, I would like to state a night terror is nothing like a nightmare. This is a common misperception and misdiagnosis for those who don’t fully comprehend the situation or what the individual is trying to explain. This is frustrating for those actually experiencing the night terrors because they feel their problem is being slighted and not taken seriously.

SEE I told yea !

Have you ever spoken to someone who has gone through a night terror or witnessed an individual actually going through one? Speaking to someone about it first hand is really quite interesting, but witnessing it can be very frightening. More frightening, I might add, for the witness than for the person going through the night terror.

Now what made thsi night terror worse than the ones i had when i was younger was.... Half of my brain woke up but DURING a nightmare/bad dream so I was lieing there wondering why the hell I couldnt get up while I was geting horrible flashs of images etc from the dream, I could hear people downstairs talking etc but couldnt move, It seemed like I was there for ages and then I suddenly could move,

I tells yah when i woke I was in some state, I was sweating and had a bad temperature etc.... anywho thansk for all the replys !

Pepe LeFrits

I used to get them ALL the time. They are a right fkin cunt.

Very hard to explain, usually I'd just get a completely overwhelming sense of panic over some totally unachieveable task (that I could never put into words).

Halucination, talking gibberish would have been the norm. Not nice stuff at all, would be 'half awake' and in a cold sweat for up to around half an hour sometimes with the parents unable to wake me up.

Fortunately i very rarely get them anymore. Sometimes i have mild ones but i don't remember them the next day.

PAPILLION

yup. like i said thats what my neice has.

her mum was susseptable to them too.

hers are triggered by the anxiety from the bullying. imagine how frightening it is for a 6 year old.

Tusky

Originally posted by PAPILLION
yup. like i said thats what my neice has.

her mum was susseptable to them too.

hers are triggered by the anxiety from the bullying. imagine how frightening it is for a 6 year old.

Started geting them when I was about 4 im not under any stress or anxiety and never really have had any serious problem with either...

Doctor/ anyone else I went to just said its caused by an over active ( creative ) brain which I can live with

PHB

i uesd to get them a lot when I was a kid.
The worst one I ever had was a few years ago, when I dreamt I was being attacked by all my lego.
It was the most terrifying experiance of my life, I couldnt sleep for nearly a weeek after than.
Staying up past 72 hours is just a bad idea

Is1ldur

As I said above, that is exactly whatt I get/got. Usually accompanied by the feeling that someone was bearing down on top of me, some kind of strang, evil(if you will) force. I remember one time getiing one while my then girlfriend was beside me in bed. I couldn't call her 'til eventually tthe power came back to my limbs, throat, etc. Scared the **** out of her. Anyway, have to disagree with the chap that said earlier to make sure you are relly tired before you go to bed. I think the trick is to make sure you are not over-tired. As he said though, eating before bed is a definite no-no (I had a dreadful one when I ate a pizza about 30 mins before bed), same goes for coke. Finally, and what works for me, sleep on your side. If you still get them, leave the light on, nothing shameful about that.
Finally, don't worry too much about it. Do a Google search on 'sleep paralysis'. I know how frightening it is, but lots of people get it.
Best of luck,

mooman_00

i get them often enough and although they scare the ****ing shiit out of you they are kinda cool. I ve managed to enduce them twice by going over and over something in my head while falling asleep, usually a computer game i would have just been playing. Then ll of a sudden i stop thinking about the game and try to move, cant scream, cant move, cant open my eyes = panic. Then as easily as it starts it finishes and i wake.

Wouldnt agree that being physically tired before going to bed helps as this is when i usually get them.

phaxx

I had something similar when I was younger, around ten or so. For a few years, whenever I was slightly sick I'd be lying in bed, either nodding off or woken up. I'd see everything, could move if I wanted to, but I was utterly terrified of every little thing I saw or heard.

While I'd be lying there in bed staring at the ceiling, lights, or some dark object trying to work out what it is, I'd... "feel" other things. I'd be looking at/feeling something else entirely while lying there. As far as I can remember it was always the same theme - massive rocks, bashing and grinding against each other with lots of force (think plates - that sort of thing, only without the magma ) and erm, daisies.

Any movement would make it worse, as if I'm making a lot of noise and revealing my presence.

Not sure what it was supposed to represent, but christ almighty it was scary.


I experienced something similar recently too. Was sitting on IRC a week ago or so, and suddenly felt very light, and very... small. I looked at the monitors in front of me, and they felt tall, like huge buildings. The hands below me on the keyboard were big monsters racing around, I felt kinda cold and floaty. Same sort of thing as the previous "panic attacks" or whatever, but without the rocks/daisy thing.

Tusky

Hmm now you see Phaxx thats slighty different..what your suffering from is caled "going crazy" !

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

I experienced something similar recently too. Was sitting on IRC a week ago or so, and suddenly felt very light, and very... small. I looked at the monitors in front of me, and they felt tall, like huge buildings. The hands below me on the keyboard were big monsters racing around, I felt kinda cold and floaty. Same sort of thing as the previous "panic attacks" or whatever, but without the rocks/daisy thing.

quick, someone get the logs!

phaxx

Tusky:

Quite possibly.

<ziodberg>Whoop whoopwhoopwhoopwhoop whoop whoop whoop...!</zoidberg>


Mordeth:

http://sleepygeek.org/~phaxx/floaty.txt

Uh, enjoy.. :P

patch

Originally posted by phaxx
Tusky:

Quite possibly.

<ziodberg>Whoop whoopwhoopwhoopwhoop whoop whoop whoop...!</zoidberg>


Mordeth:

http://sleepygeek.org/~phaxx/floaty.txt

Uh, enjoy.. :P

crikey......that's some serious sh1t. Anybody know what causes something like that.... apart from getting your drink spiked??

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

18:43 < phaxx> ah, big mp3s window scares me
18:43 < flamegrill> heh
18:43 < phaxx> it came up and they all went down and it was like "whooo"

*falls over laughing*

BossArky

hey, I have had a few of these "night terrors" too. Didn't realise what ye were talking about until you explained it there Tusky.

Haven't had one for a few weeks...only ever had a handful..would feel really sleepy after being in bed for a while...as if I was just about to wake up properly but my mind knows that there is a load of cotton wool between itself and my motor skills. Its a weird feeling and sometimes I've woken up shouting or screaming. Could not move or anything for a few seconds. Freaky!

LegacyUser

Had something similar once too, woke up half way through thought it was over but it turned out I was still asleep and was only teasing myself into thinking it was all over!

MrNuked

On the Discovery Channel they described night terrors as a kind of panicked sleep walking. They had a clip of this guy screaming and running about the room and into the walls, all while asleep.
If this is what happens to you, why don't you leave a camera on at night when you go to sleep? Then send in the footage to one of those candid camera type shows?

I used to have recurring dreams where everyone went mad and tried to kill the sane people. At the end I'd be the only sane person and trapped on a low roof, surrounded by mad people trying to kill me.
Wish I could have a more original recurring nightmare, rather than a variation on Invasion of the Body Snatchers...

Victor

Actually I hadn't had any for about 2 weeks until the other night. Flatmate was away at the time. I wonder was be making noise that disturbed me.

Gordon

Originally posted by MrNuked
If this is what happens to you, why don't you leave a camera on at night when you go to sleep? Then send in the footage to one of those candid camera type shows?

lol!

Victor, does it have something to do with being alone in the flat, you mentioned that you wake up thinking there's someone [else?] in the flat.

dazberry

I used to have a really strange abstract recurring dream when I was a kid that would frighten the sh1t out of me (not literally). Very abstract, not really explainable.

Anyway, over the last 2 weeks, I've had a few (3) really emotional dreams about a girl I like that lives down the road from me, nice dreams - not naughty

Anyway, last night things went sour and I dreamt that my mother had died, and like the nice dreams prior, I experienced the full emotional onslaught. Pretty grim stuff.

D.

Victor

Originally posted by Gordon
Victor, does it have something to do with being alone in the flat, you mentioned that you wake up thinking there's someone [else?] in the flat.

Not sure, will look into it. I had one when I was minding my sister's house when they were away, so I suspect it is noise (and by implication people), not people themselves.

spod

Interesting article from last Sundays observer magazine. About insomnia, night terrors, parasomnia etc. and the work of Guys and St Thomas's hospital sleep disorders centre in Londo.

(Only just read it now hence delay in posting it. Shakey fist at eggsnham time of year)

Moriarty

Going off on a slight tangent..

From the age of 8 - 14 i had a really very strange recurring dream. Id appear on a tarmac area about the size of a playground, with a snake-slide thingy (ya know, theyre in playgrounds all around the place, instead of a straight slide, they curve around to form a coil..) to one side and nothing surrounding the area. Id find myself sliding down this slide a number of times, with two friends doing the same. Each time i get to the bottom, i magically reappear at a door at the top of the slide. Theres nothing on the other side of the door, i just walk out of it and slide down the slide.

Now, all of thats great fun. After a while though, a small country road appears beside the tarmac area, leading off into the distance. The road is flanked on either side by big, tall trees. Its twilight, and im walking down the road, not particularly bothered, just walking along for some unknown reason. All of a sudden after a minute or two, i fall or get pushed into the ditch at the side of the road. Directly after i fall into the ditch i physically wake up and immediatly puke everywhere, but feel completly fine after getting sick.

The exact same dream happened more than 20 times to me, always following that exact same pattern ending up in me getting sick everywhere but feeling fine even as im getting sick.

Kerrrrayyzeee, eh? Psychiatrists would make a fortune out of me.

Rnger

I used to have theses nastry buggers all the time. You'd know what they are if you had one tbh.

When I was about 4-10 I used to just run up and down my downstairs hall screaming "Its not fair" and then wake up wondering wtf i was doing down stairs. Might have something to do with my mom killing herself when I was 4.... Maybe....

Other things then that happend, walking up at the bottom of the stairs screaming the above line after falling down the stairs. Walking up in the bath, heh, and that one time I woke up down the road.

They ended after I was 10 pretty much. Except.... One real big bastard of a night terror when I was 15 (16 now).

My sister was having people over, I went down stairs in my boxers and t-shirt, I dunno what I did but i ended up knida semi-woke up in my sisters room. this is hard to explain but I was dreaming and was awake. Everything was surreal and spinning, my fingers where throbbing which REALLY freaked me out. My sister came to my rescue tho and havent had one since. This makes me feel kinda better reading those posts cuz i thought I was a freak and alone with those night terrors!

deathcube ^_^

When it used to happen to me it was really strange.
Sometimes I felt like I was falling out of my body, other times my eyes would open but i couldnt move.
A couple of times i felt something pushing down on my head with this huge ringing in my ears...
it was really distressing,
doesnt happen any more though ))

Victor

Originally posted by spod
Interesting article from last Sundays observer magazine. About insomnia, night terrors, parasomnia etc. and the work of Guys and St Thomas's hospital sleep disorders centre in Londo.

That piece really struck a chord with me .... still I woke up yesterday (having done a 270 degree flip) about to smack the s*** out of the man (all two foot six of him) in the bedside locker.

lacuna

I've been getting really bad nightmares for about the last 10 years. Usually i have a "task" to do in the nightmare. No matter how many times i try i always fail.They are the reocurring ones but i get other ones aswell.they're really vivid and would scare the shìt out of you. I've always got them and can't get rid of them.I've no idea where they come from but i'd love to know so i could finally get a good night sleep.
Do they actually mean something or are they just a result of an overactive brain?

Big Chief

i get these pretty often, although to be fair alot of the time i get them after a heavy night on the can... (well atleast mostly)

where you wake up in extreme terror, and in cold sweats, really is quite the frightening experience until you realise your still at home in your bed (which usually takes about 10-20 minutes and a cigarette to kick in)


falling from a high height seems to happen to me alot, where i seem to wake up just before i go splat

the rest can go from weird to extremely fùcked up beyond all recognition...


i cant really remember most of my dreams so its kinda hard to point out one in particular if you know what i mean? but i do get these a fair bit

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

hrm well this isn't a night terror technically but i can't be arsed starting a new thread..

I was in bed last night, sleeping my left side when all of a sudden i noticed my body getting kinda tingly, i tried to move over to my right side (which i normally do when this ****e happens) but i found that I couldn't move my body, all I could do was weakly kick my legs. all of a sudden my body just started shaking violently and i couldn't stop it. i finally managed to throw myself over to my right side (which was bloody difficult ) and the shaking stopped..

I dunno wtf that was but it was bloody weird anyway, not being able to move or do anything but move my feet slightly scared the ****e out of me

hopefully it won't happen again..