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Find out more about this common condition, and find out how to deal with the children who suffer from them
Both night terrors and nightmares mainly affect children and they are quite different conditions.
Night terrors
These arise out of very deep sleep in the first 1-3 hours of the night and often there is little mental content.
There's a huge physical reaction in the sufferer. The heart and breathing rate go up, the skin can be flushed, there's sweating, the pupils can be widely dilated and the muscles are tensed.
The person's confused, can sit up in the bed, and even rush around the room. There can be incoherent mumbling and shouting. They are often inconsolable. Often they don't remember what they were dreaming of, or even the event itself.
What to do
With children it's often best to console them, make sure they're safe but not to make a great fuss about it – they may simply return to sleep and not recall anything the next day. Roughly 1-7% of children will suffer from night terrors, and about 2% of adults.
Nightmares
Something like 10-50% of children aged between 3-5 years will suffer from nightmares. Approximately 75% of children will recall one or more nightmares as they grow up. 50-85% of adults will have an occasional nightmare, and it could be as much 2-8% of the population suffers from nightmares at any one time.
Nightmares arise out of dreaming and Rapid Eye Movement Sleep (REM), which occurs roughly every 90 minutes although there is more towards the end of the night.
REM is a time when the body's physiology is less well-regulated so heart rate and breathing may be irregular. During wakefulness the brain interprets 'fright and flight' with anxiety and fear and it's probable that during the night when our ability to reason is weakened that a mixture of feeling frightened coupled with dream content turns into a nightmare.
Emotions during nightmares are often fear, anxiety, terror, anger, though embarrassment and disgust also feature. Many adult nightmares are associated with traumatic events.
What to do
Again, with children the key is to comfort and reassure them. Sometimes it can be helpful to talk through their nightmare and try to decide what caused it.
