Have you ever experienced a night terror or a sleepwalking episode? In my younger years, I definitely experienced both of these sleep disorders. According to the Mayo Clinic, night terrors, also commonly known as sleep terrors, are episodes of fear, screaming, perspiring and confusion while asleep. Even though these sleep terrors seem extremely disturbing while they are occurring, they really are not anything to worry about. They are normally harmless and occur mostly in children ages 4-12. This is exactly the age I used to experience my sleep terrors. After sleep terrors, children usually do not remember much of what or anything that happened. Mayo Clinic also states that night terrors are almost always paired with sleepwalking. This is ironic, because I definitely have had times where I have experienced the two together.
According to PubMed Health, sleep walking is a sleep disorder when people walk or do any other activity while still fully asleep. Comparable to night terrors, sleep walking usually occurs during stages 3 and 4 of sleep, or non-rep sleep. It normally takes place in the beginning of the night when a person is in a deep non-rep sleep state. Many of the symptoms of sleepwalking are similar to those of night terrors, such as confusion, being wide eyed, sitting up during sleep, not remembering the episode, and more. Also, like night terrors, sleepwalking is definitely more common in children, but is a relatively uncommon sleep disorder. According to Lilienfeld, sleepwalking occurs 4 to 5 percent in adults and 15 to 30 percent in children. A difference between these two is that night terrors are generally not harmful, but people often do bad things while sleepwalking. In fact, a few people who committed murder have used sleepwalking as a defense.
An occurrence I had with night terrors and sleepwalking was an extremely intense experience. According to PubMed Health, you are more likely to encounter these sleep disorders if you have experienced lack of sleep; this is the only time I experienced them. One night when I was about 10 years old, my friends and I stayed up all night. The next day I was going to MOA with my brother Cory for my birthday, so I decided to get some sleep from 6 am to 8 am. During these two hours, I woke up sweating and experienced a night terror. I got very mad at my family, stomped my feet and cried, not even realizing that I was actually asleep. I also remember being very confused during the entire occurrence. After this, I fell back into a deep sleep. My brother woke me up at 8 am to go to MOA, but I didn't actually wake up. I rode in the car and we even stopped at a restaurant and ate on the way. I specifically remember when we got to the mall, I stepped out of the car into the parking ramp and woke up from my sleepwalking state. I had no recollection of the ride to MOA or even eating at the restaurant. These sleep disorders are extremely weird to think about, but definitely do occur.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/night-terrors/DS01016
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001811
Good post.