When you go to sleep, you expect to be at rest. Your mind is flooded with dreams of winning the lotto, marrying your heartthrob crush or favorite celeb, being a superstar or all of the above — good dreams. On a few other occasions, you’re plagued with nightmares. You’re being chased but can’t run fast enough. You’re drowning but can never break the surface. You flunk a big test you’ve been studying your heart out for, or you make a fool out of yourself while presenting a speech you’ve practiced countless times in the mirror. Nightmares can have a range of scenarios, but they all share one constant outcome: you wake up, take a breath and it all eventually becomes a distant memory as you drift back to sleep. But what about night terrors?

According to MayoClinic.org, night terrors, otherwise known as sleep terrors, are "episodes of screaming, intense fear and flailing while still asleep. [They] often are paired with sleepwalking. Like sleepwalking, sleep terrors are considered a parasomnia — an undesired occurrence during sleep. Although night terrors are more common in children, they can also affect adults. A night terror episode usually lasts from seconds to a few minutes, but they may last longer." My longest terror experience was 45 minutes, although it felt like an eternity.

Night terrors are relatively rare, affecting only a small percentage of children — often between ages 4 and 12 — and a smaller percentage of adults. Night terrors tend to run in families. Some adults who have night terrors may have a history of depressive or anxiety disorders, although most don't have a mental health condition. The condition can also be linked to a number of other underlying conditions that affect sleep, including sleep-disordered breathing — a group of disorders characterized by abnormal breathing patterns during sleep, the most common of which are obstructive sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, migraines, head injuries, and some medications.

So what is the difference between Nightmares and Night Terrors?

The dreamer of a nightmare wakes up from the dream and may remember some details, but a person who has a sleep terror episode remains asleep. The most poignant difference is that while nightmares occur in the last half of the night, night terrors occur in the first half. Children who suffer from night terrors usually don't remember anything about their terrors in the morning. Adults may recall a fragment of the experience.

What is so special in my case is that I never experienced night terrors as a child; they began around the time I hit puberty. I experienced all the doctor diagnosed symptoms like screaming and shouting, kicking and thrashing, cold sweating, heavy breathing, quickened pulse and even aggressive behavior — not to exclude the fact that I was always inconsolable and hard to wake. With these symptoms, the complications were never far behind. I had excessive daytime sleepiness, which caused increasing difficulty with school work and other everyday tasks. Sometimes my terrors got so out of control, I would injure myself, often waking up to tender bruises and sore limbs. But nothing compared to the mental anguish I felt for the following days after a bad episode.

That’s the special thing about the mind; it takes all your hopes and desires and turns them into dreams that you seldom wish to wake from. It molds your fears into ghoulish nightmares that has you sleeping with the lights on. But what about night terrors? From my experience, night terrors are the complete manifestation of your deepest fears, even ones you were unaware of having. My worst night terror conjured my fears of hurting the ones I loved; it strapped me to a table where I was forced to endure the torture of monsters who wore the faces of the people I held closest to my heart. On rarer occasions, I was the tormentor, leering down at a loved one while their face contorted into fear and utter agony. It was painful, but not as painful as the aftermath — waking up and still feeling the bite of the leather straps confining my body to a cold table or the deep pinch of players as they lifted my fingernails, detaching them from my digits.

When I consulted my primary care physician and explained my situation, he was baffled at how vivid my memory was when recalling my wretched dreams. He deduced that I was a lucid dreamer, which, while paired with this sleep condition, only made the experience all the more horrid. However, he did compile a list of ‘to-dos’ I could practice to cope with and hopefully lessen the frequency of my night terrors.

1. Adopt a comforting bedtime ritual. This meant I had to go to bed around the same time every night. Even if I wasn’t tired, I would lie in the dark and practice deep breathing. Soothing music often helped.
2. No TV for the two hours leading up to bedtime. Often, it is images on television that are recreated in dreams. It’s better to go to bed with a blank mind rather than with a mind full of images and replays of the latest episode of the Walking Dead.
3. No sugar for the four hours leading up to bedtime. This is an old folk belief, associating sugar intake with the occurrence of bad dreams. I’m superstitious thanks to my mother, so this was already a bedtime ritual I was familiar with.
4. Never let yourself become exhausted. When the body is overworked and exhausted, sleep is deeper, thus creating a higher chance of night terrors.
5. Maintain good physical health. Surprisingly enough, fevers, colds, and even allergies can increase the risk of night terrors since all of these conditions can affect breathing.

All of these tips helped exponentially when it came to coping with my sleep condition, and over the years it has gotten better. I used to be extremely embarrassed to tell anyone of my condition, and it affected my relationships with friends, who I often brushed off when it came to sleepover invites. Although my case is rare, I’m glad I sought help and would encourage everyone to do the same if they have concerns regarding any condition — physical or mental.