Psychology (Article)

The Mystery of Night Terrors

Stephanie had just fallen asleep when suddenly she was torn from
slumber by the screams of her youngest daughter, Maddy. She jumped from
her bed and ran to her daughter’s room, alarmed by the frightening sound of
her wild howls. She found her daughter sitting bolt upright in bed, shrieking
at the top of her lungs, inconsolable. Stephanie’s husband and other children
were now awake and unsettled, almost as if emerging from a nightmare
themselves. After what seemed like a very long time Maddy gradually fell
back asleep. Stephanie was shaken and all the others were awake and
worried. The next morning, Maddy awoke and seemed perfectly fine—with
no apparent memory of the night before.

The episode seemed inexplicable, but there is a scientific explanation

behind it.

The above vignette has all of the signs of a non-REM (NREM) sleep
parasomnia. The International Classification of Sleep Disorders (AASM,
2014) defines a parasomnia as “undesirable physical events or experiences
that occur during entry into sleep, within sleep, or during arousal from sleep.”
These events can occur in the transition from sleep to wakefulness, from
wakefulness into sleep, during deep sleep and in REM sleep. They may
involve complex behaviors, unusual perceptions, powerful emotions and
strong physiological experiences such as flight or fight responses. These
events occur during sleep state dissociations during which several states of
consciousness are present at the same time. For example, a person may, in
effect, be both awake and asleep at the same time.

In the case of Stephanie’s daughter, dissociation occurred such that

aspects of both wakefulness and NREM sleep were present at the same time.
Had this taken place while her daughter was being monitored during
polysomnography, it would have shown an EEG pattern of NREM sleep with
muscle activity as in wakefulness also present. Because the reasoning centers
of the brain are asleep, it is nearly impossible to console a child or adult who
is having this type of parasomnia, known as a sleep terror.
 The most common time for sleep terror to occur is during the first third
of the night when the greatest depth of sleep occurs. It usually starts with a
frightening vocalization, most often a scream. The person often sits bolt
upright and appears to be in a state of great fear with rapid heart rate, rapid
breathing, tense muscles and sweating. There may also be incoherent
verbalizations. The eyes are usually open but the person appears confused
and is non-responsive.

These events usually last only a few minutes but can go on as long as

half a hour or so and may be very upsetting to any witnesses. Usually the
child or adult will just fall back asleep, but if awakened, will appear confused
and disoriented. Rarely, an adult will actually leave bed and run away. At this
point the sleep terror has turned into an episode of sleepwalking. This is
dangerous as violent behaviors can occur if efforts are made to stop the
person from leaving. Injury can also occur if the person falls or trips over
objects in the environment. Adults may on occasion recall fragmentary dream
imagery from the experience; most often, however, both children and adults
have no memory of the event and no other daytime effects, unless injury has
occurred.

Sleep terrors are equally prevalent for males and females and are most
common in children and adults 35 years of age or younger. Prevalence rates
may be as high as 6.5 percent in children. Prevalence in adults is around
2.3 percent, and only about 1 percent in older adults aged 65 or older.

Sleep terrors can be frightening for those awakened by the sleeper’s

screams, but thankfully they are relatively infrequent among those who have
them and usually cause little harm. In the case of infrequent events in which
the individual remains in bed, a professional’s reassurance is often all that is
needed. If they occur with greater frequency or involve dangerous behaviors
as when the sleep terror transitions into sleep walking and includes injury to
self or others, treatment is warranted.

Reference  (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sleepless-in-
america/201503/the-mystery-night-terrors)

Summary
 This article narrate about Stephanie’s youngest daughter, Maddy who suffering
from “night terrors”. In the midnight, every member in house were awaked by the
screams of Maddy. She was sitting bolt upright in bed and shrieking continuously. After
that, she fell back asleep and the next morning, she didn’t have any memory about that.

According to survey from Psychologists, “night terrors” as undesirable physical

experiences that occur during sleep. It can occur in any states of sleep, especially state 4:
the deepest sleep. In case of Maddy, she were in transition between wakefulness and
sleep.

These experiences usually last only a few minutes but can go on as long as 30
minutes. Sometimes, patients will actually leave bed and run away. And this is dangerous
as violent behaviors can happen if people around try to stop them.

Also from Psychologists, this disorder often detects from children and adult (<35
year-old). And if the dangerous behaviors always happen, then the patients should have
treatment.

Reflection
Before I have read this article, I thought that “night terrors” as the terrible dreams
which I had sometimes. In fact, it is not true and they are entirely different from each
other. For the terrible dreams, you will see something terrible that make you scare, but
after you wake up, you still remember what happened in your dream. In contrast, for
people suffering from “night terrors”, while they are sleeping, they can walk or talk as if
they are awake. Even they can open their eyes and they seem to be in state between
wakefulness and sleep. Sometimes they can destroy stuff in the room and if others try to
wake them up, they might be more dangerous. And one more strange thing is they cannot
remember what happened and what did they do last night.