However, it's important not to wake them up and allow them to work through the episode. They're more likely to forget the dream if they can sleep through it. Waking them up in the middle of a nightmare can be jarring, making it difficult for them to forget the imagery or get back to sleep.
The only time it's worth waking someone up, he said, is when the nightmare appears to be severe. For instance, if he's thrashing about violently, some gentle words and a nudge to wake him are in order because you don't want him to injure himself (or you).
The risk is that they will be confused and disoriented, causing them to react violently. A similar situation is when someone is having a nightmare. You want to spare them from the dream, but waking them up in the middle of something scary can leave them with lingering unease.
There is no eye movement or muscle activity. People awakened during deep sleep do not adjust immediately and often feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes after they wake up. Some children experience bedwetting, night terrors, or sleepwalking during deep sleep.
It's entirely safe to wake someone up from sleep paralysis. In fact, they will probably be hugely grateful. If you suspect your bed partner is experiencing sleep paralysis, you could try talking to them, tapping their shoulder, or gently shaking them. When you're in the throes of sleep paralysis, it can be terrifying.
Night terrors and nightmares are different and happen at different stages of sleep. During a night terror you may talk and move about but are asleep. It's rare to remember having a night terror. Nightmares are bad dreams you wake up from and can remember.
You feel scared, anxious, angry, sad or disgusted as a result of your dream. You feel sweaty or have a pounding heartbeat while in bed. You can think clearly upon awakening and can recall details of your dream. Your dream causes distress that keeps you from falling back to sleep easily.
Usually waking up screaming is associated with having a night terror. But if you are waking up screaming for some other reason—or you or a loved one are waking up screaming, but you don't know why—you should speak to your healthcare provider.
It's best to stay close by and ensure that they do not fall or hurt themself. However, do not try to wake a child during a night terror. Attempts at arousal may make the episode last longer or provoke a physical response that could lead to injury.
Start with a brief dose of empathy. Use some soothing words, “I'm sorry you got scared,” or a hug, and then return your child to his/her bed. Next, re-focus your child away from the memory of the nightmare, and on to something else.
A nightmare usually involves replaying the traumatic event, feeling like they are right back there again. For veterans, this might mean re-witnessing horrific events or even deaths of people they witnessed while on combat missions.
According to clinician Jacky Casumbal, “Dreams are our brain's way of organizing events of the day, memories, and images into vivid, symbolic, and nonsensical storylines.” Nightmares in particular are “dreams that are often connected to unresolved anxiety and trauma that our brain has not fully worked through.”
In particular, nightmares can be an indicator of mental health problems, such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
According to current diagnostic classifications, nightmares are defined as frightening or disturbing dreams that awaken the sleeper while bad dreams are defined as frightening or disturbing dreams that do not awaken the sleeper (Hasler & Germain, 2009; Nadorff et al., 2014).
Both sleep terrors and nightmares can occur in PTSD. That is they can be co-morbid with each other. Nightmares may be restructured through imagery rescripting, this includes PTSD related nightmares. However, PTSD related nightmares often change with the standard treatments for PTSD (CPT, PE & EMDR).
Nightmares can arise for a number of reasons—stress, anxiety, irregular sleep, medications, mental health disorders—but perhaps the most studied cause is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Nightmares tend to occur most often during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, when most dreaming takes place. Because periods of REM sleep become progressively longer as the night progresses, you may find you experience nightmares most often in the early morning hours.
The episode usually ends on its own. It may also end when someone touches you or speaks to you. Making an intense effort to move can also end an episode. Sleep paralysis may occur only once in your life.
Your muscles are "turned off" during REM sleep. If you become aware before the REM cycle has finished, you may notice that you cannot move or speak.
Sleep paralysis victims often complain of hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations, such as seeing space aliens and shadow-people in their bedroom (Cheyne et al.
It's worth restating that high sleep debt increases both the duration and severity of sleep inertia, which is yet another reason to let someone meet their sleep need. And sudden wake-ups can be especially disorienting — amplifying sleep inertia — so gentler methods are preferable for this reason too.
People who regularly experience broken sleep are crankier, angrier, and more likely to be depressed than those who sleep through the night. In fact, a night of interrupted sleep is much worse for your mood than a shorter night's sleep.