Sleep Disorder-Night Terrors Disorder
Sleep terrors are classified as a parasomnia — an undesirable behavior or experience during sleep. Sleep terrors are a disorder of arousal, meaning they occur during N3 sleep, the deepest stage of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Another NREM disorder is sleepwalking, which can occur together with sleep terrors.
Cluster Number:
Wiki Number: PW205
Diagnosis: Sleep Terror Disorder
US Patients: 36.9% at 18 months but 19.7% at 30 months; in adults, 2.2%
World Patients:
Sex Ratio: B+; G; adults, no difference
Age Onset: at age 3½, one per week; frequency tapers off
Brain Area: high voltages in electroencephalography, higher heart rate and muscle tone; frontal lobe epilepsy, thalamic lesions,
Symptoms: 1-10 minutes in the first 3-4 hours of non-REM (early) sleep; usually happen in delta (slow-wave) sleep.
Progression: sit up and yell, time of autonomic arousal (speed-up)seem awake but are confused, sleepwalking, low blood sugar
Causes: PTSD, mental disorders, generalized anxiety disorder, higher frequency among relatives, asthma, constricted nasal passages
Medications: tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines
Therapies: Children usually do not need treatment, diminish with age. Hypnosis may help. Better sleep habits.
Youtube Video:
Five Nights at Freddy’s
Youtube Video:
How to Stop Night Terrors
Amazon or Library Book: The Nightmare Dictionary
Click the book to link or order from Amazon.
4 CURRENT ARTICLES
FROM PUBMED
The world-wide medical research
reports chosen for each diagnosis
Clicking each title opens the
PubMed article’s summary-abstract.
- The lasting legacy of Charles Fisher (1908-1988), pioneering sleep laboratory scientist and sleep medicine psychiatristby Carlos H Schenck on November 29, 2024
Charles Fisher is a pioneering historical figure in sleep laboratory research and sleep medicine who distinguished himself in nine areas: (1) he first documented nocturnal sleep-onset rapid eye movement (REM) sleep periods in narcoleptic patients; (2) he published the first case of polysomnography (PSG) documented acute REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) that was triggered by sudden withdrawal from a monoamine oxidase inhibitor in 1978, 8 years before the formal identification of RBD; (3) he...
- Conscious experiences during non-rapid eye movement sleep parasomniasby Anna Castelnovo on October 17, 2024
Disorders of Arousal (DOA) are non-rapid eye movement (NREM) parasomnias traditionally regarded as unconscious states. However, recent research challenges this assumption. This narrative review aims to explore the presence and qualitative features of conscious experiences in patients with DOA during their episodes. The literature indicates a higher recall of conscious experiences during DOA episodes than previously believed, estimated at about 50-60 % in adults (immediately post-episode). Data...
- Fever-induced acute sleep terrors in children and adolescents following SARS-CoV-2 infectionby Xiaoli Wang on April 30, 2024
CONCLUSION: SARS-CoV-2 infection may precipitate acute sleep terrors in children and adolescents. The course of these sleep terrors is generally benign, with all patients achieving spontaneous complete remission over time.
- Recent studies about the underlying cerebral mechanism of the fearfull arousals from slow wave sleepby Péter Halász on March 19, 2024
We consider the disorders of arousal and sleep-related hypermotor epilepsy as genetic twin-conditions, one without, one with epilepsy. They share an augmented arousal-activity during NREM sleep with sleep-wake dissociations, culminating in sleep terrors and sleep-related hypermotor seizures with similar symptoms. The known mutations underlying the two spectra are different, but there are multifold population-genetic-, family- and even individual (the two conditions occurring in the same person)...