Essay On Night Terrors

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What is a night terror?
Night terrors are a fear inducing sleep experience. They are characterized by inconsolable night time awakening by children (Snyder et al., 2008, pg 311).This nocturnal awakening is accompanied by screaming, crying, and distraught behaviour (Snyder et al., 2008, pg 311). In general, the child will go to sleep peacefully and this hysterical reaction will happen seemingly out of nowhere and escalate quickly. The child will awaken suddenly wide-eyed and confused and in a daze (Horne, 1992, pg 481). An unusual aspect of this night time terror is that the child will have little to no recollection of the event that occurred the previous night the next morning (Horne, 1992, pg 482).
Sleep and night terrors
There are two categories …show more content…

They differ in the experience, cause, and when they occur during the sleep cycle. Firstly, night terrors differ from nightmares in the experience itself. Night terrors are vivid and often are followed by sudden and horrifying sensations accompanied by disturbing mental images (Horne, 1992, pg 481). Secondly, as mentioned in the first slide night terror is rarely recalled by the child; while nightmares vary in this aspect. Night terrors elicit more fear and anxiety than nightmares, this is demonstrated in the fact that child experiencing a night terror are inconsolable (Murray, 1991, pg 119). Additionally, there are considerably more vocalizations, motility and autonomic discharge during night terrors (Murray, 1991, pg 119). Thirdly, night terrors usually occur as a result of a resent external cause or trauma, we will talk more about this in a later slide. While nightmares do not typically have to be associated with an external issue (Murray, 1991, pg 114). Finally, although both happen during slow wave sleep nightmares are usually limited to the second half of the sleep period while night terrors occur in deep sleep during the first period of sleep (Murray, 1991, pg 114 &

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