What Causes Night Terrors

Shivering yet sweating, a man wakes up in the middle of a deep slumber. He sweats, but still feels cold. He immediately is overwhelmed with a wave of unexplainable anxiety. With quivering fright, he makes attempts to get back to sleep. Strange? Well, not really. The man in question is just another victim of what is best known as ‘night terrors’. Although a night terror is called so because it mostly occurs in the night, it does not mean a person suffering from the same can escape from its venomous jaws during an afternoon siesta. Night terrors are not to be confused with nightmares. While the latter is just as good as a dream and occurs only during the stages of “rapid eye movement” (REM), the former is anything but a dream and occurs before the stages of REM begin. Go ahead and read on to gain access to a closer look at the causes of night terrors.

• Experts still haven’t been able to place their fingers on the exact causes of night terrors. However, generally speaking, there surely are certain underlying factors behind the occurrence of night terrors. Night terrors are most likely to plague kids, especially males and occur most frequently between the ages of three to twelve. Night terrors usually manage to lose themselves in oblivion once children get past adolescence. However, it is not uncommon for night terrors to also effect adults.
• Night terrors are known to occur in the fourth stage of non-rapid eye movement. In more cases than rare, night terrors can trace their origins to a lack of enough sleep or leading a generally stressful life. Believe it or not, but a man/woman who is largely at peace and has to deal with less stress is less likely to suffer from night terrors, than a man/woman who is hardly at peace.
• Night terrors are not only caused by lack of sleep or a stressful life, an addiction too cause can the same. People who suffer from an addiction to alcohol, caffeine, drugs and certain medicines are extremely vulnerable to having to put up with a night terror. These people after a night terror experience will hardly remember they had one, but will mostly wake up with uneasy feelings of fear and insecurity.
• It is also possible for night terrors to occur when a person fails to make a smooth transition from the stages of non-rapid eye movement to the stages of rapid eye movement. An overactive central nervous system can be considered to be one of the causes for the occurrence of a night terror! A person’s genes too to a greater extent can result in a night terror.
• Night terrors amongst children generally occur during the ages of three to twelve. Studies and research conducted world over have thrown light on the fact that roughly around 1-6 % of children suffer from night terrors. Causes for night terrors amongst kids can range from simple ones such as watching a horror movie right before going to bed to complex ones such as leading an unhealthy and stressful life. Yes, kids too can lead stressful lives! In the rare case of night terrors escalating to the heights of serious concern, it is best to take your child to a physician and zero in on exact causes for the same.