Terror Tales: Pavor Nocturnus

What are night terrors?
Night terrors, also known in latin as pavor nocturnus. Do you know what they are? Do you experience them? One of my close friends wrote to me recently asking me what I knew about them. My friend has experienced night terrors all her life. She wakes up screaming and can see spiders, ghosts or ill-intentioned people in the room with her. I personally have never experienced a night terror, but I know that even just a bad dream can seem so real and evoke very intense emotions. I imagine that they aren't called night terrors for no reason.

From what I read, I gathered that the triggers of night terrors are very diverse and range from eating a big meal late right before bedtime to traumatic life events. Also at nightterrors.org people reported the following about night terrors "Many people who remember the night terror have talked about seeing animals or people. Most people describe the person that they see as dark and shadowy and feel that the person is going to hurt them. Quite a few people see snakes and spiders." The experiences my friend is having coincide with the experiences others report.

How does one cure night terrors? The best way to do this is to eliminate the trigger. However, this can only be done if you have identified what the exact cause of your night terrors is. Until the source is identified the best way to handle a person (adult or child) having night terrors is to reassure them when they wake up (with a hug or soothing words), remove objects that could be potentially harmful to them (glass, sharp objects) and when they verbalize the things that they (hallucinations) see do not argue with them, comfort them until they fall back to sleep. Also, if the person does not want physical contact do not force them to hug you, it will worsten the situation. Often people who experience night terrors will not remember the experience in the morning because they never fully awaken during the night terror. It is ok to ask them about it, but do not be upset with them if they don't remember, an increase in stress in their life could increase the frequency of night terrors for them.

My Personal Tale of Terror

There have been multiple occasions where I have been asleep, I am aware that I am asleep and I am try to make myself wake up, but I can't. One example of this that comes to mind happened a few years ago.
I was house-sitting for a family I would often babysit for. Their house wasn't a mansion, but it was big, and it was also an older home (older for Vegas), about 30 years old. I had two experiences that were very similar while I was at this house. The first happened one night while I was sleeping. I felt like there was someone else in the room with me, a man and I wanted to wake up and to see. I could see him, even though my eyes were closed, I knew him, it was a man from work that I didn't trust. I wanted to wake up but I couldn't and he just kept getting closer until he was right over my bed and he yelled in my ear to wake up. It wasn't until he told me to wake up that I could actually open my eyes. There was no one in the room, but it was so vivid, it really scared me.
The second happened a couple days later. I was upstairs in the loft and I fell asleep on the couch. It was day that time. I knew I was asleep and I wanted to make myself wake up because i thought I heard someone come in the front door. I was paralyzed though, I could not will my eyes to open or even make myself rollover. I could feel their dog breathing on my face and I could hear footsteps, like someone was running around the couch. It was scary, because I didn't know who was in the room with me and I had no control over my body. I finally woke up, sat straight up and there was no one there, the room was empty.
Needless to say I didn't volunteer to house-sit for them anymore. The information I read online said that night terrors are not linked to supernatural events, its easy to believe this, because the unknown is scary. Everyone has different coping mechanisms, and as for me, I ain't afraid of no ghost.

Share Your Story
Do you have an experience with a night terror or very vivid nightmare? E-mail me about it and let me know.