And your point did not apply to waking everyone having a nightmare, it only applied to a limited group with a specific problem, which was my point. Most people having a nightmare will awaken when you try to. People should ask themselves, how many people have experienced at some time in their lives, waking up during a nightmare such as when the alarm goes off in the morning? Did it cause a crises? Did you find yourself waking up long after the alarm went off because during said nightmare the alarm failed? Young children are entirely different animals. Even kids not having nightmares can be very difficult to awaken in the middle of the night. And specific sleep disorders differ from having a simple nightmare. You can't lump them altogether like all nightmares are a sleep disorder.
It just depends on the person and the sort of 'nightmare' they're having. A soldier with PTSD having a nightmare, or a child with night terrors, or me having a nightmare that I'm standing on the stern of the RMS Titanic watching it slowly descend into the inky black, knife-stabbing cold Atlantic ocean and I'm in my underwear and someone I respect is telling me this was all my fault, everyone's dying because of me and I couldn't save them and OH GOD THE WATER IS COMING CLOSER!!!! ...all warrant a different response. Just like how you 'comfort' them would be different. Some just want an acknowledgement that the nightmare happened and it sucked, move on. Others are more of the 'hug and talk it out' kind.
I've heard an old tip that when a child wakes up from a nightmare, you shouldn't ask him/her what it was about because that'll make them have to relive the horror for the second time. To be certain though, if I had a kid and he/she wanted to talk about it, I would talk about it rather than trying to shush him/her up and try to forget it happened.
It's just one of my more common nightmares: I screwed up somehow, and now all hell is breaking loose. I just chalk it up to my usual generalized anxiety and keep going. I do have pleasant/intriguing dreams here and there, it's not all nightmare and horror night.
I currently live with my mother who suffers from both daily nightmares and night terrors and it is possible to call out when she's in either one. It's when the person gets aggressive is usually what makes it a night terror (said from her doctor). Anyways I've found that she has an easier time day to day and at night if I wake her up when it happens. So I personally suggest to wake them from either one because according to her doctor if I were to just let her sleep through each one then it actually can make them worse and more frequent. I've also noticed a change in her daily moods when I wake her the previous night(s) she's been a lot more positive and happy.
I've never had night terrors but I used to get nightmares quite a lot and I would always wake up just at the moment I knew me in the dream was about to die. I didn't need someone to wake me, but my heart would be pounding and I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep straight away. I also knew someone whose sister used to have really vivid night terrors and the rest of the family would wake up to her screaming, so that's a whole different issue. I think he said she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep without someone sleeping in her room with her for the rest of the night. I'm not sure what they did about waking her though. There's also sleep paralysis which is a pretty interesting phenomenon, it's kind of the inverse of what @-oz was saying where you wake up but the sleep paralysis hasn't gone (usually if you haven't cycled through the normal stages to wakefulness) so you are awake but can't move. It's often called 'Old Hag' syndrome, as the paralysis makes you feel a pressure on your chest and your brain tries to make sense of it before it's fully awake, which often leads to you seeing an old woman or similar sitting on your chest. I'm not sure how aware you would be of someone else who is really in the room when this happens, or whether or not they would be able to fully wake you.
Wow, this is an old thread. Nightmares are a common story aspect, though, so it may help someone with their WIP. During times of stress, I have occasional nightmares (lumping mine under one term, as I'm not a psychologist). I've had them since childhood, and their severity varies. As a deep sleeper whose dreams are extremely realistic, my preference is always for someone to wake me because they tend to go on so long, they're exhausting. Plus, more often than not, I can hear my own voiceover saying, "You're having a nightmare! Wake up! Wake up!" and I can't. What wakes me most easily and gives me the easiest return to sleep is if the person waking me uses the affectionate name or nickname only they call me, so I know it's them rather than some random person calling my name. Also, as an adult most of my nightmares involve someone grabbing or chasing me, so being awakened by someone gently jostling the pillow is far less scary than being shaken. For me, sitting up for a short time afterward is preferable to trying to go directly back to sleep. When I don't, I tend to drift back into the same dream. I hope that helps someone!
I seem old thread but I wanna give ans, Nightmare is totally depended on what your thinking nowadays. Sometimes people got very aggressive in the night when They see a horrible terror, it's better to wake them up from their sleep.
Back when I was 16/17 and I used to stay at my old girlfriend's house, she would leave the room whenever I was having a nightmare and go sleep in her sister's room - to start with, at least. Then she started asking me to sleep on the sofa in the living room so I didn't wake her up anymore. Weirdly, the dreams kept getting worse. I don't know how most people feel about this but I would ALWAYS 100% prefer to be woken up than left to sleep through it, since I can't always wake myself up. The girl I'm with now knows about them and I told her this and the first few nights she stayed with me she stayed up (I didn't know until later on) and would gently wake me when it happened. I sleep light, so it just took a little shake, or even a cough or something. I don't really get the nightmares anymore, but she'll still wake me up even now and has never once complained about it, although I'm sure it must annoy the hell out of her.
. Nah,, you shake them while saying "Get up, the house is on Fire," while wearing a Micheal Myers Mask, and a knife in your free hand.
I had night terrors and sleep walking as a child (and occasionally sleep paralysis, I think they are all related a bit, or at least common together). For night terrors I would shoot up and start screaming. It really bothered my family but it wasn't something I ever remembered in the morning. They'd "shake" and yell at me until I quieted. I'd never fully wake up, just be jostled enough to be half awake and go back to sleep regularly. Grew out of all that a long while ago though.
From what I recall, the worst thing you can do is wake someone up who is having a night terror... as hard as it maybe, it's best to let the dream play out and for them to wake up naturally. But, if it was enough to jolt you out of it, then that's good.
And some other people with PTSD or C-PTSD. One theory about dreams is that they are our danger simulating system. We can simulate physical dangers ("I'm gonna die!"), social danger's ("I don't have a decent position in my pack.") and reproductive dangers ("I wanna, wanna, wanna have sex with best possible partner - but how?") PTSD or C-PTSD brings some extra dimensions to this danger simulating situation. If a nightmare is something between a flash back and a dream...
I think it's not as dire as you make it sound and the person is believed to not really be dreaming. It's just a overactive nervous system reaction that would normally not happen if the nervous system was properly "shut off". The same idea as sleep walking. The parts of the brain that normally shut off to keep you from acting out dreams doesn't. From what I know the only risk in waking the person in a night terror is having them be upset/frightened and having trouble going back to sleep.
This is a really interesting thread. I've had dreams, that are very realistic they are very scary because of what I am doing in the dream or happening to me. I can usually get out of the dream by recognizing that this is not my behavior and I am not being hurt. I have had the paralysis however I had not gone to sleep when it happened. I don't feel alone! Thanks!
Maybe not, this is just what I've heard. I've heard people had full conversations, and have even driven the places while sleepwalking. It's pretty interesting
