Mieke
I have had night terrors all of my life. However, when I was a young child they were significantly more frequent and more frightening. I also have always had a tendency to talk in my sleep and sleep walk. I have learned some info about night terrors in colleg classes and from my own experience. The most interesting fact I learned is that night terrors are not dreams, in fact, they occure during a totally different stage of sleep than dreams do. Night terrors can consist of lots of movement (which I'm sure you already know) - which cannot happen during a dream since you are paralized. Night terrors seem very real - in fact I usually remember having them when I wake up. I remember my mom being very calm and patient with me during my night terrors. She would just keep telling me that I was only dreaming (event though night terrors are not dreams). She would hold me and comfort me. Eventually I would wake out of it. I'm not sure if what my mom did helped or if I just tought myself to wake out of the night terrors, but now when I have a night terror all I have to do is try and relax and tell myself that what I think is happeneing is really not - basically I have to wake myself up all the way. Even after I wake up all the way, I am still quite frightened because its hard to convince my self that something that seemed so real is not real. I am 23 now and the only night terrors I still have always have something to do with bugs flying at me, etc. But, they are very few and far between. I don't know how much I've helped you - but if you have any questions I would be happy to try and answer them. Mieke