Sadly- I have night terrors most nights- I cry in my sleep and thrash about as well. I also Have nightmares that are disturbing but don't leave me screaming or crying just unsettled and for me they are really reliving the memories of my abuse. So it's really my reality nightmare.

That's what I call it anyway.

I moan and scream in my sleep, and talk and sometimes walk around.

I thought a night terror was when you opened your eyes and the nightmare was still going...as in you hallucinate it.

I had one when I was 4 that I remember. I woke up from a nightmare. I opened my eyes. There was a bunch of huge shadow shapes in my room with red eyes and I started screaming in terror.

When I was in my 20's, I dreamed my dad was attacking me.
I woke up hitting the cat, who was sleeping on my chest

To me that sounds like night terrors and PTSD. When I woke up after my leg was amputated, the nurse was holding the O2 mask over my face. I had a flash back of my father and attacked her. It took 4 people to hold me down.

My night terrors are when I am "suppose' to be sleeping but actually I am not in full sleep. That is why it's so real. I remember sitting straight up in bed watching the horror and screaming and my Mom came in to try and comfort me but I was beyond that. So I guess using the word sleep is not so correct but it's when I should be sleeping.

PTSD is unfortunately a huge add on contributor to how everything plays out.

For all most 3 years I suffered with night terrors. They literally almost drove me insane. It was a bad movie that played over and over again with me helplessly watching as a 3rd party in the background and gaining understanding into what was happening to me as a child but now able to understand the words being said and in later years where I was beaten and gang raped in the military where at the time I had just left my body because of going into shock during that event. Prior to that pictures and snapshots of those events had flashed in my dreams, but a busy demanding life had kept me from really processing them and putting them to rest. Once the night terrors began, I can only assume that at last my mind and self esteem had to have the answers they needed to keep me from going over the edge and ending it all. One of the worst characteristics of those terrors was almost always I was trying to escape running with what felt like lead weights or chains on my feet. Almost always I woke up crying, screaming or fighting, only to find scratches all over my face and/or arms and legs. I live in an apartment and from the day my former neighbor moved in she was very unsociable and not even a returned hello. One day there was a knock on my door and it was her, there to tell me that I need to do something about the crying. She said I don't what you can do, but it better end. How cold was that? Nonetheless, it did make me aware that I was not imagining what was going on in those night terrors. After 2 years of PTSD treatment, those terrors have subsided except for the occasional. Objectively, I am awed by what my mind was able to take in and record during those times of crisis which made it possible for me to decode later on many of the where's and why's of what had happened so long ago. Although understanding for once that I had no choice in what happened, it brought little comfort to know that the family I trusted as a child and the military situation that should have been a safe place were at those times, my monsters in the dark. I do finally, find myself willing to trust people at least marginally. It is still a long road if I am ever going to be able to trust in a way that allows me to fit into life the way I would like to. I control my Hyper Awareness and Hyper Vigilance, but it is still only a birds breath away standing guard and ready to protect me. The night terrors left me drained in my conscious hours and so no matter how much sleep I got, there was no rest. I sometimes wonder if there had been justice or even vindication if I could have been spared those terrible years. The events themselves are but a fraction of the damage done when a person (especially a child) is violated so brutally. For most of us, the fact that we are still here with any hope in humanity and a future for ourselves, is a testament to our resolve and God who helps us through each day.

I take medication that knocks me out, but I resist taking the meds and going to bed. I used to wake up screaming at 2 AM. If anyone wakes me up by touching me there is a good chance I will hit them. Usually when I wake up I snap awake ready to be attacked. All this and I have no memory of anything happening in bed. Certainly nightmares and flashbacks, but no real memory.