Nightmares are vivid dreams that cause the experience of unpleasant or frightening situations. They are most common in children and usually involve the person to wake up immediately afterward and remember the nightmare.
Symptoms include:
- Sweating
- Large pupils
- Arousal
- High blood pressure
Extreme nightmares are described as Sleep Terror. Sleep terror happens outside of REM sleep and can last several minutes. The person experiences similar symptoms to nightmares, but with eyes often open. The person appears to be absolutely terrified with screaming, shaking, etc. They take place early in the night, within just minutes or hours of going to bed.
My personal experience, I have had a few sleep terrors. I remember walking downstairs to my parents watching TV, and being frightened of random things, like a nearby table or lamp. I remember feeling spikes pressing into my back, even though I was lying down on a couch. My younger brother used to have sleep terrors, and would come downstairs just like I would do at his age. His eyes would be wide open, and he would just sit there and look around with wide open eyes, breathing heavily. After a few minutes, he would calm down and go back to sleep. For some reason, I only had 2 sleep terrors, and they were both while I was within the symptoms of a fever. Coincidence? Probably. I’m not sure.