Night Terrors

[raz]

I learned about these in my psychology class this semester, and I think I experienced one last night.

I went to bed around midnight, and woke up around 12:45, then walked out to my living room. I don't even remember walking out to the living room. After that, my 2 sisters and my parents were in the dining room and saw me in the living room half asleep yelling "HELP ME!" and they were all crowded around me trying to hold onto me and trying to wake me up. My mother threw water in my face, and and I woke up shortly after. I remember as they were trying to wake me up, I could hear and see them, but I couldn't interact with them because I was asleep.

Once I woke up, I couldn't remember what I was dreaming about or what caused this to happen. I then went through like an hour of intense fear, I was afraid of going back into my room, outside and my house. I tried to battle the fear inside my head, and each time I tried revisiting the memory of being half asleep with them trying to wake me up, the intense fear recurred and I started bawling. My heart was racing and my whole body was trembling.

It scared the living crap out of me that every time I tried to remember that moment of being half asleep, this overwhelming intense fear came over me. It was unbelievable. I was absolutely terrified of everything. I took about 2 hours before I was able to calm down and get back to sleep but I still feel so shaken up today. I remembered back to my psych class and I think I experienced a night terror. Wikipedia describes the intense fear as trying to visualize something mentally that's impossible to visualize, which for me was the moment I was half asleep.

Has anyone else had things happen like this? This is some scary shit, and it's amazing how your mind can completely fuck with you. I kept trying to out-smart the fear, but it's just so engulfing. I think I woke up and I thought someone was trying to take over my room or something, so I ran out instantly.

 

[Virtual ghost]

I am afraid that you have started to develop your N.



joke






but maybe it isn't

 

[Kyrielle]

Has anyone else had things happen like this? This is some scary shit, and it's amazing how your mind can completely fuck with you. I kept trying to out-smart the fear, but it's just so engulfing. I think I woke up and I thought someone was trying to take over my room or something, so I ran out instantly.

I had night terrors as a child. The worst one was when I dreamt of bees swarming into my room through the window. In the dream, my room looked precisely as it did in waking, so when I woke up from the dream, I found the dream did not end. Sometimes when people's blood pressure is very high and they hyperventilate, they see "purple static". This is what I saw over by the window because that's where most of the light was and my eyes were creating the static over it. I thought it was the bees and I thought it was real. I hid under the covers and the covers simply settling around me made me think the bees were pelting the sheets trying to sting me. I screamed for my mother for so long, I almost lost my voice and when she did come in and sit on the bed, I thought she was a giant bee and screamed more when she pulled the covers off my head.

Anyway, I was so panicked that I hallucinated much of it.

My other night terrors have been about some black evil goo escaping from my closet and dragging back into its gaping maw.

So, for a long time I was afraid to play in front of my closet (I had also seen Poltergeist when I was 5 and my closet looked just like the little girl's) and was afraid of bees. Hell, I'm still afraid of bees.

 

[MrME]

When I'm under a lot of stress, I will sometimes experience hypnagogic hallucinations. They suck, big time.

 

[Saslou]

I used to have a lot of night terrors at a child (along with sleep walking).

I would wake to find my mum or step dad shouting at me. I didn't know what the hell was going on but i was so scared to go back to sleep and on most occasions would ask for someone to leave a light on for me. In the morning i would get the full story. I was screaming my head off in my sleep. It was a weekly/twice weekly then tailed off until i hit my early 20's then they were just occasional.

My dreams were always dark, scary with a nasty undertone .. they wanted to hurt me. I ran so much in my sleep as a child.

Now i know i have a very sensitive mind. Even to this day i won't watch horror movies as i know it will somehow get incorporated in my dream. It didn't help that as a young kid i was watching at my dad's house dawn of the dead, hellraiser, Freddy etc. (I better not dream tonight just thinking of those films, shudders). Poltergeist was the worst for me.

I had one dream as a young child well between the age of 7 - probably 11. Its a dream but i remember it like it really happened yesterday as it fucking disturbed me.

It was my mums and step dad's house (where we was living at the time), a terraced house. In this dream i was in the house on my own Under the stairs was a cubby hole for storage but in my dream it was a staircase to the basement. There was a huge and i mean huge fat man standing at the bottom of the stairs and he was ushering me down and he wasn't properly dressed. I KNEW something was wrong about the whole thing but i went down and looked to see what was down there as i had never been down there before. There were beds were like that of a submarine, like tucked in to make more room but still people could sleep on bunks. I knew why he wanted me down there. Sick man. I ran so fast up those stairs but i didn't know where to go as i was home. I woke sweating and i remember being paralyzed with fear. I am 30 years old now and still i remember that dream and it still creeps me out. I have never told anyone that particular one before.

The good thing is to my knowledge .. I haven't screamed in a long time. The sleep walking has stopped and well my dreams are about me beating the shit out of someone now but hopefully they will stop soon.

 

[Thalassa]

I have night terrors occasionally, especially when I allow myself to get overly tired before sleeping, or am enduring a period of stress. I had them more as a child, but have had things of this nature also happen in my adult life. In fact, just last night as I was falling asleep, I had a split-second dream that some monstrous man was crawling across my bedroom floor to try to grab me and hurt me. The subconscious is funny thing, and you can't always control it. In fact, it isn't good to always try to control the subconscious, because it could just be your brain's way of dealing with stress in your life. It has to be dealt with somehow, and it isn't always pleasant.

 

[Scarfism]

Sometimes I get these "dreams" where I will see something, an insect of some sort, come down towards me from the ceiling. I am pretty sure I'm awake when I see this and it seems so real. One time, I actually got out of my bed abruptly and ran to the light switch and turned the light on. I have had this maybe 5 times. Didn't have any lately.

 

[Saslou]

^^ Funny you should say that. In bed the other night i was just about to fall asleep (right on the edge of dropping off) and i saw a spider come from the ceiling and land on the pillow at the side of me. I jumped up and turned the light on, then checked all the pillows. There was no spider there. Me and my bloody imagination.

I turned off the light, got back in bed and again was just about to fall into my sleep when a gentleman said rather loudly 'Hello' .. Again scared me as there are no men (just boys) in my house. So i lay in bed what seemed like forever watching my bedroom door just in case some freak decided to come in. I fell asleep. lol

 

[Scarfism]

^^ Funny you should say that. In bed the other night i was just about to fall asleep (right on the edge of dropping off) and i saw a spider come from the ceiling and hand on the pillow at the side of me. I jumped up and turned the light on, then checked all the pillows. There was no spider there. Me and my bloody imagination.

I turned off the light, got back in bed and again was just about to fall into my sleep when a gentleman said rather loudly 'Hello' .. Again scared me as there are no men (just boys) in my house. So i lay in bed what seemed like forever watching my bedroom door just in case some freak decided to come in. I fell asleep. lol

Your spider dream sounds exactly like my dream. I should mention that for me, it is usually when I am about to fall asleep as well!

I also have another dream that is similar to my insect dream in terms of thinking that it is real. I would see some sort of wire hanging from my closet and it would be moving as if being pulled by someone. Then I wouldd snap out of it.

 

[entropie]

I never had any sleep related issues, so I have no experience. But I know that my INFJ got issues like that. It was mostly sleep walking with her, when she started to cook at 2 am not noticing whats going on and not remembering it afterwards.

It's not funny and she eventually hat to visit something like a sleep hospital to have the symptoms watched. With age eventually she quitted sleep walking.

More I dont know about the topic, I use to sleep like a stone but can be awaken by just little noises

 

[swordpath]

I've never even sleep walked to my knowledge. I might rarely talk in my sleep but even that hasn't been verified by anyone.

I think you have to be in a pretty deep state of sleep to experience things like this. I'm a hella light sleeper.

 

[Scarfism]

One time, I was charging my phone and kept it on my night table, plugged in. In the morning, it was under me. Unplugged and everything in place. :S

 

[raz]

This has just shaken me up a lot since it happened. I slept fine last night, so I hope it'll go away now.

 

[Oom]

My brother had night terrors as a child. He would sprint around the house as fast as he could, just screaming his head off. It was so bad that my mom had to tackle him to the ground once.

As for me, I don't have sleep related issues. I only get the occasional weird things that happen through the night that I don't remember. Like switching my bedding to the foot of my bed or tying the sheets around my leg when I'm asleep.

I did that once and tried to get up for my morning. I crumpled to the floor as I jumped out of bed and it took me 10 minutes to get the blood flowing back to my leg.

 

[Synarch]

I woke up once after seeing Dragon Slayer in kindergarten and swore I saw a dragon on the end of my bed. It scared me.

Interestingly, I had a great dream last night that jolted me awake:

I was in prison and fighting a man in a blue jade or glass mask who wanted to kill me. He appeared to be Mayan or hispanic as his skin was brown and smooth. As I woke I was trying to make him choke and drown on his own gouts of blood by holding his head down after stabbing him with a drinking glass. His blood bubbled like a fountain from his mouth. Then I smashed his face repeatedly into the cement floor as other ppl watched and waited to see if I would win. Then they would try for me too.

I remember as he climbed into my cell to fight that the narrator said something like "I attempted to cut him with the glass cup before he tried to kill me. I tried to stab and stain him with blood. But I didn't realize that some people are long accustomed to such pretty stains."

 

[Saslou]

I never had any sleep related issues, so I have no experience. But I know that my INFJ got issues like that. It was mostly sleep walking with her, when she started to cook at 2 am not noticing whats going on and not remembering it afterwards.

It's not funny and she eventually hat to visit something like a sleep hospital to have the symptoms watched. With age eventually she quitted sleep walking.

I was referred to a sleep clinic once as although i did sleepwalk quite often on one occasion i had woken once in the night to find myself trying to get out my bedroom window, i think i wanted fresh air. Complete arsehole the bloke was. He just told me that sleep walking was heredatory, told me to blame one of my parents and that i would grow out of it. Tit.

Your spider dream sounds exactly like my dream. I should mention that for me, it is usually when I am about to fall asleep as well!

I also have another dream that is similar to my insect dream in terms of thinking that it is real. I would see some sort of wire hanging from my closet and it would be moving as if being pulled by someone. Then I wouldd snap out of it.

I don't think my dreams for the most part are relevant to my life. I just think it is freaky that i seem to remember quite a few of them. Its the intricate detail that astounds me. In real life, i don't usually pay much attention to detail, i always just do quick scans (thats why i have so many bruises all over my body). My dreams however, the detail is amazing. The WW2 dream where a load of houses had been bombed on my street (like i said, most of my dreams focused/started in my bedroom or my house) and i looked out my window and was just flabergasted by the destruction. The way the bricks had fallen, part upright houses. Crazy.

As for me, I don't have sleep related issues. I only get the occasional weird things that happen through the night that I don't remember. Like switching my bedding to the foot of my bed or tying the sheets around my leg when I'm asleep.

I did that once and tried to get up for my morning. I crumpled to the floor as I jumped out of bed and it took me 10 minutes to get the blood flowing back to my leg.

Lmao, classic .. I have woken to myself by my bedroom door with my duvet with me. Everytime i just think wtf, now i have to make my bed, then get back to sleep. *sigh* lol.


I just think when i sleep i am either going another realm and tripping. The aliens are playing tricks with my mind. OR i am just freaking crazy with an over active imagination. The latter sounds about right.

 

[Wyst]

I had night terrors when I was a kid - a couple times.

I've even had a couple as an adult - though they have been spread out over years.

Usually, there is something I'm up against. An impossible task and I have to do it. Failure is not an option because I'm given all eternity to get it done but it's still impossible.

I remember one I had 4-5 years ago. Something I was dreaming about bothered me - I left my bedroom and went into the kitchen to talk about it with my family.

But after they saw me, I remember they were just looking at me strangely then looking at each other like, "Something's wrong with him..". I couldn't communicate at all about the uneasiness I felt it felt like I was moving, speaking, and thinking in slow motion.

Finally I heard something that made sense. My mom said, "Do you want to go back to sleep?" I nodded, and then *bam* it's like I woke up all of the sudden but couldn't remember why I had walked in there.

My family realized I had woken up and they ask me if I remembered what I had been doing. They said, "You were just standing there looking at the floor. We thought something was wrong because you weren't answering us."

Yeah... that stuff is frea-kyyyyy...

 

[Kingfisher]

i have found that my dreams are more disturbing and my sleep is less refreshing when i have not been physically active enough during the day. i think that when a person is more physically exhausted at night their body and mind shuts down a bit more and allows them to sleep deeper and more relaxed.

i sleep extremely heavy, like the dead, i have fallen out of hammocks and slept through surprising things. i set 3 alarms for the morning and wake up only for the third, that is no joke, and the alarm has to be right by my head at full volume. i personally credit my deep sleep to being exhausted at the end of the day. if a person is more physically drained their mind may not have the energy to sabotage itself with such ridiculous dreams. but then, that is coming from an ISTP who thinks that physical activity trumps all.

also, i do not sleepwalk or tie my sheets around my leg, but i do talk in my sleep sometimes, apparently coherently, and answer questions that are asked of me.

 

[Saslou]

^^ Not in my case unfortunately. I have always been a very active person. I was a 'get up in the morning and don't stop until i fall sleep' kind of person and still my mind would be in overdrive.

 

[runvardh]

Never had a terror, but watching your mother get shot then reanimated as a robot who says she can love you anymore and you're only two at the time it can be terrifying. Funny thing is, when I woke up my mother could hardly care while my father let me stay with him all night.