Hey everybody.
Today we're going to talk about night terrors.
What they are, how they differ from nightmares, and how we can treat them.
And to tell you a little bit about what nightmares are.
Nightmares are most common in children,
However around 50% of adults report having nightmares on occasion,
And around two to eight percent of adults are plagued by nightmares.
And nightmares occur during our REM sleep cycle.
What REM stands for is Rapid Eye Movement.
It's that time during our sleep when we are at our deepest level.
And our eyes will jet from left to right even though our eyelids are closed.
And that's our brains way of processing through what's happened that day,
Or possibly during our lifetime.
When we wake from these nightmares We often remember many details of the nightmare.
What was happening, why it was frightening, etc.
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Now moving on to night terrors.
Now night terrors are also most common in children,
And it happens between the ages of three and twelve.
Reaching its peak usually around three and a half years old.
Just to give you some idea of when it usually happens most.
But they can also happen in adults.
And the thing that's different from nightmares to night terrors,
Is that night Terrors happen during non-rem sleep.
Meaning it's not in our deepest level of sleep.
And when we wake from these frightening experiences,
We don't have any recollection about what it was what frightened us.
We may wake screaming and not know why,
It's just very different.
While night terrors can have a lot of different characteristics,
Just like everything in life,
People are going to experience things differently, they may feel differently to you.
But I want to read you because the national sleep foundation
States that sleep terrors do have common characteristics.
They usually include arousal, meaning, we are fully awake and fully alert.
Agitation, obviously.
Large pupils.
Sweating and intense blood pressure.
So to me, when I was reading all of those symptoms.
We are in almost fight-or-flight.
Our body is ready to get at it.
Pupils dilated so we can see whatever, what's around us.
We are sweating our body is up and agitated and aroused so that really we can protect ourselves.
Now obviously when we wake from these night terrors,
We are hyper alert.
Like I said, it is putting this into our fight-or-flight response.
Our pupils are dilated, we're sweaty, we're a wake and alert.
And the truth about it is although we wake terrified and upset,
It can take us just maybe 5-10 minutes to calm back down and go back to sleep.
They say night terrors are caused by,
A fear response in our system while our body transitions from Sleep level 3 to 4.
If you don't know what I'm talking about when we go to sleep,
We slowly transition down deeper and deeper through the 4 levels into our rem sleep cycle.
And so they say that night terrors happen when we're transitioning from level 3 to 4.
And that's why night terrors don't happen during rem sleep.
Because they're happening when we're transitioning from Sleep level 3 to 4.
Usually about 90 minutes into us falling asleep.
And although we don't really know the cause,
I wrote down some of the most common reasons.
And the first is, a stressful life event.
Second being fever, if we've had a really high fever they find these to be more frequent.
Three, sleep deprivation.
Four, medications that affect your nervous system.
Meaning that it affects your brain, and so whatever is triggering this fear response,
May be caused by a medication.
And the fifth and final one is,
Recent anesthesia given for surgery.
And you can see why all of these kind of play a role.
Because if we're talking about night terrors,
And we're talking about the way that our brain works, and lets us fall into our sleep cycle,
Anything that affects the way our brain operates,
And the way it actually lets us go to sleep could cause it.
Now like every video, let's end with how we treat it.
If we struggle with nightmares or night terrors,
What are some things that we can do?
Now the first thing we can do to make night terrors happen with less frequency,
Is managing our stress level, and I know that can sound really overwhelming,
But trust me, there are a few simple things that we can do.
Number one, we can make sure that we're eating regularly.
Number two, we can make sure we're drinking enough water.
Number three,
We can make sure that we spend enough time with those we love and people who support us.
And the last, number four,
Is making sure that we make time for ourselves and the things that we really want to do.
The second way to deal with night terrors is making sure that your bedroom and room are safe.
Often when we wake, we wake up and flail around,
And we want to make sure there's no sharp edges,
No hard toys, if this is a child.
Nothing that could harm us when we wake from this terrifying feeling.
The third tip is keeping regular sleep and wake cycles.
Because we find when our body just gets used to falling asleep around 10:30 and waking up at 8.
Or whatever your schedule is,
It slowly gets used to it making the transition in our sleep level more smooth.
And hopefully night tear free.
And the fourth and final tip is,
To have someone wake you 15 minutes before the expected night terror.
Now I know that's going to be hard
But if these are happening often,
We will know around the time, like I said usually it's in the first 90 minutes,
We'll get to know our cycle,
And when our body tends to have these happen and have that fear response.
And so having someone wake us up, keep us up for about five minutes,
And then let us go back to sleep.
Because they find that if we do that, the occurrence of night terrors goes way down.
If you have other tips and tricks and things that have helped you stop night terrors,
Let us know in the comments.
Or if you have ideas for other videos let us know,
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