How to Stop Night Terrors: Meditation, Aromatherapy and Emotional Release

Night terrors are a disturbing sleep disorder which affects all ages - toddlers, children, teenagers and adults. This article describes short term relief (like sound therapy) and permanent cures (like emotional release therapy).

What are Night Terrors?

This disturbing sleep disorder goes by many names: sleep terrors, sleep terror disorder, parasomnia, pavor nocturnus and DSM-IV AXIS I:307.46 (in the medical world - catchy, eh?) It shares similarities with Hallucinatory Sleep Disorder (HSP) and is often confused by laymen with sleep paralysis.

Night terrors in children seem to be more common, but they can affect anyone, and modern science has not yet found a biological trigger. Pavor nocturnus is not a symptom of psychological problems or demonic possession. From personal experience, I believe they are caused by repressed stress and anxiety.

Sleep terrors are often very confusing and very scary. You suddenly wake up from a deep, non-REM sleep, usually 15-60 minutes after going to bed. You may find yourself screaming, shouting and jumping as part of an instinctive fear reaction. You may see spiders, snakes or strange people in the room. The hallucinations are terrifying and persistent and you can't be calmed by your partner's logic.

You can't actually describe the images in the context of a dream or nightmare. This is what separates a night terror from a typical nightmare (which involves waking from a dream during REM sleep). However it is unlike sleep paralysis, in which the sufferer is completely paralyzed by the body's natural mechanism.

Sufferers are difficult to comfort and may take up to 20 minutes to properly wake up (if at all - some may go straight back to bed). Some children and adults have little or no memory of their experience, although this is not always the case.

What Causes Night Terrors?

Night Terrors Specific causes of sleep terrors include:

stress
medications
sleep deprivation
a heavy meal before bed

Sleep terrors usually occur within 15-60 minutes of going to sleep. According to the Night Terrors Resouce Center, the longer you are in non-REM sleep before the terror strikes, the greater the fear.

It is possible to provoke an episode in a sufferer by merely touching them while in Stage Four sleep. This is the deepest sleep, where dreams rarely occur.

How to Deal with Night Terrors

There are different schools of thought on the best way to control night terrors in children and adults. Initially, hug and reassure the sufferer when they jump up screaming and shouting. This also prevents them from hurting themselves.

However, they may be extremely paranoid and think you're trying to harm them. If this doesn't calm them, let them move about and go where they want to go. Just be sure to watch them closely so they don't go jumping out the window.

It's important to stay calm yourself - don't yell at them because this will make them more upset. They are highly focused on the source of the fear - and even though the hallucination may have gone, the image and the fear is still there in their mind's eye. There is no harm in waking them up to relieve their fear.

In severe cases, doctors can prescribe anti-depressant drugs like Klonopin, Tofranil or Valium. For natural remedies consider St John's Wort or L-Theanine.

How to Stop Night Terrors in Children

Here are some quick fix measures to take if your child starts suffering from sleep terrors. These tips work just as well for adults too.

Relax - stress can increase the chances of a parasomnia occurring. So give your child time to unwind at the end of the busy day. Give them a warm bath, play peaceful music and snuggle up with a book before bed.

Cool Down - make sure the bedroom is not overly hot, as this can exacerbate an episode. Leave the window open a crack and give them lightweight pajamas in the summer. Avoid PJs with feet!

Play Music - play soothing music to help the transition between REM sleep and deep, non-REM sleep. Consider Hemi Sync's Beneath The Moon for relaxing sounds.

Herbal Remedies - give your child a calming Chamomile capsule an hour before bed to relax. It may take a week to see a reduction in night terrors but herbal rememdies are less habit-forming than prescription drugs.

Essential Oils - the scent of Lavender can calm your child at night. The aroma will stick around until morning. This kind of aromatherapy is very powerful and can be deeply relaxing for kids and adults alike.

Stay Calm - speak softly and your calm mood will help reassure them in the event of an episode. Ask them questions and reassure them; they can respond but are most likely still asleep and may not have any memory of it in the morning. (Althought some children may remember everything.)

Play it Down - Don't tell your child what happened the next day if they don't remember. If they do ask questions, downplay the severity so you don't scare them or invite more fear of going to bed at night.

This approach has helped other parents stop night terrors in children. Also consider a subliminal approach, using sound technology to program your subconscious mind to relax at night. I am a fan of Real Subliminal, who offer a sublibiminal Night Terror Cure for adults.

How to Stop Night Terrors - Permanently

While the medical world doesn't have a wonder drug or cure for this parasomnia, I believe the answer is in Emotional Release Therapy. This is where you remove the underlying cause of the night terror, which is usually one particular anxiety. For me, it was feeling safe in the world - let me explain.

My First Night Terror

My first night terror happened when I made my first trip from the UK to New Zealand. I was scouting it out as a new place to live, since that's where my partner, Peter, comes from originally. My mind was reeling with new information and trying to analyze whether I should move to this strange new place 11,000 miles away from home. One night on the trip I saw a giant six-foot spider in the bedroom, and promptly jumped up on the bed, screaming and trampling Peter. I was shocked at my own behavior, yet it all felt beyond my control, like my mind and body was on autopilot that night.

My next night terror happened more than a year later, after I had moved to New Zealand. I had no idea of the anxiety trigger at the time. But they happened more frequently after that, 1-3 times per month, so that's when I started seeking answers. I came to realize my night terrors were caused by my own conscious and unconscious thoughts - and even thinking about them would trigger one that night. Curiously, this is how I trigger most of my lucid dreams nowadays, too.

Finding Relief in Meditation and Relaxation

So the first thing I did was stopped playing it up in my mind. I stopped thinking like I was suffering or had a problem. Then I started meditating every night before bed by listening to meditation CDs like Hemi Sync MetaMusic and Brain Sync Meditation CDs. Both of these products created good mental imagery to relax my mind and body as I fell asleep. I found that any night I listened to these CDs, I didn't have a night terror - period. Finally, I had found a way to control it.

Permanent Relief with Greene's Release

After a while of having no night terrors, I stopped listening to the CDs. But as soon as I got stressed again by waking life, the sleep terrors returned.

This time, I was ready to deal with it properly.

I had been working with Janet Greene of Greene's Release who was showing me how to remove unwanted emotions by accessing and removing flawed subconscious beliefs (such as "I'm not good enough"). These are usually formed as a child, when you are developing your understanding of the world. Your childhood beliefs become your "life rules" as an adult.

The short story is that I had the belief that I was unsafe in the world, vulnerable and fearful of violence. Even though I have no conscious experience of this, the tiniest thing could have triggered this belief growing up. And it had become worse now that I was so far from home. So I did a release session with Janet and in about 20 minutes she completely removed that belief with her emotional release technique.

Amazingly, I haven't had any night terrors since. No screaming, no waking up in terror, no trampling over the bed running for the nearest door. It is a huge relief.

I have, however, woken up in the night with a start on a few occassions, only to seen a ball of tangled black string in front of my face. It was like a sleep terror but without any fear whatsoever - and the spiders were replaced with inert images of balls of string! It is truly bizarre, but I am more than happy to experience this odd happening instead of the pure fear of night terrors.

So if you or your child suffers from night terrors, I encourage you to listen to meditation CDs as an immediate solution and try to relax better at night. As a permanent solution, check out Janet Greene's workbook, Heal Your Self, which reveals the full potential of emotional release therapy, showing you how to do your own releases in any area of your life - including phobias, self esteem, anger, anxiety, relationships, and other problem areas that are stressing you out.

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