Nightmares: Difference Between Nightmares And Night Terrors?

Nightmare and Night Terror are not two words that should be seen as the same, there are several very important differences between the two experiences, and although so called doctors will frequently mis-diagnose persistent experience of night terrors as post traumatic stress disorder or simply another nightmare, night terrors are caused by a medical condition. The main difference between the two experiences is that while nightmares still occur during REM time, and at about 90 minutes after falling asleep, terrors happen when a dreamer is not in the REM state, and have known to last up to 20 minutes. While in the process of a night terror, a person will usually scream like they are terribly afraid or in pain, erratic movement of the limbs and head are also to be expected, waking a person up from a night terror can have the negative effect of raising the likelihood of them remembering the contents of their experience, which can lead to a desire to stay awake and not enter such a horrid situation again. Some people will remember all of their night terrors, and they have all admitted it to be something a person can never really get used to. This effect is actually caused by the release of a chemical that causes the brain to malfunction, and no fully effective cure has been developed.

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