Misconception Between Nightmares And Night Terrors

People awaken by a nightmare often have the feeling that they can not breathe. It’s unsurprising that that is where the word “nightmare” originates from. Merrill Perlman a worked for the New York Times for twenty years informs us that "The Oxford English Dictionary traces the first used of “nightmare” in English to around 1300, as “a female spirit or monster supposed to settle on and produce a feeling of suffocation in a sleeping person or animal.” It’s no doubt that nightmares are scary events. Nightmares affect the human race through their causes, health effects, rigorous diagnosis, and lengthy treatments. Nightmares are frightening and unpleasant dreams that affect people all over the world. Nightmares usually affect children although

Dr.DerSarkissian goes on to say “Although nightmares and night terrors both cause people to awake in great fear, they are different. Night terrors typically occur in the first few hours after falling asleep. They are experienced as feelings, not dreams, so people do not recall why they are terrified upon awakening." Night terrors do not contain imagery nor sound. The American Sleep Association describes them as an “unshakable feeling on anxiety, accompanied by temporary sleep paralysis” They could also possibly involve sleep walking. Nightmares on the other hand involve graphic disturbing content. Much like the images of a horror movie. They have images and sound and are often

Nightmares are typically treated by doctors or therapists. Counseling has been proven to be highly effective by the American Sleep Association. Counseling finds the root of the psychological issue of why the nightmares are occurring and puts a stop to them. It extinguishes the flame of the fire. Therapy is used with more traumatic events that cause stress and intense nightmares. Medications may be implemented. Medications like prazosin are used to reduce the amount of time spent in deep sleep thus reducing nightmares. The American Sleep Association says "this approach is considered controversial, as deep sleep is considered much more important than reducing the occurrence of nightmares." They also say “"Hypnosis has also been cited to have uses in the field of dealing with dreams or nightmares, though conclusive statistics on this do not exist." However with many cases of hypnosis used to treat people’s smoking addictions it is entirely