Night terrors or just nightmares?

I have had terrible nightmares since age 5 and into adulthood, now at age 24. My first at age 5 was my cousin being murdered in my sister’s bedroom while I watched, terrified, from the closet. I had at least 2 a week for at least a decade and now slight less often, all of them featured very realistic death, murder, blood, violence. They never feature anything that might hint inside the dream that they are a dream, such as anything paranormal or weird, not even people I haven’t seen for a while. They all involve people relevant in my life. When I wake from them (always at varying times through the night and early morning), I remember every single detail. I still remember every single detail from every nightmare, including the first one at age 5. I have been raped, buried alive, have watched my loved ones’ heads and limbs cut off, and at 7:30 this morning I woke up from a terribly frightening dream where 10+ men invaded a restaurant I was at with my parents where they began shooting and killing everyone around me. There was so much blood, so many dead children, adults, and families. My regular therapist doesn’t think that dreams mean anything, and while I would like if we could process these things together, I have much larger problems that he has helped me with for 6+ years in a way no other therapist could do I’m not ditching him just because of the nightmare opinion. I don’t want my dreams translated but am searching for some form of understanding as to if these sound like nightmares or night terrors, and what solutions anyone might have to deal with them. When I wake from my dreams I cry for almost an hour before I can get back to sleep. Any help appreciated

When you get back to sleep does the same dream continue or do you sleep? Is there anything you know of that may trigger one of these nights? I have a friend who on some nights would fall asleep after anxiousnesa, in a way, despite realizing her desperate need for sleep knew what may lay ahead. I ask this question because although your terrors are of sorted horrific events I noted the trigger could be the same. I cant imagine remembering a dream as vivadadly as you but I wonder could they be subconscience warnings in direct relation to a thought feeling or even smell? If you remember back to the the last two times and even consult your calender and remember anything at all out of the norm you might have something to look at.

EyesWideClosed wrote:When you get back to sleep does the same dream continue or do you sleep? Is there anything you know of that may trigger one of these nights? I have a friend who on some nights would fall asleep after anxiousnesa, in a way, despite realizing her desperate need for sleep knew what may lay ahead. I ask this question because although your terrors are of sorted horrific events I noted the trigger could be the same. I cant imagine remembering a dream as vivadadly as you but I wonder could they be subconscience warnings in direct relation to a thought feeling or even smell? If you remember back to the the last two times and even consult your calender and remember anything at all out of the norm you might have something to look at.

In less than 5 of them, the dream has continued or replayed from start to finish all over again after I have woken up/gone back to sleep. I don’t live a stressful life but am a very anxious person sometimes as I have a mood disorder, so who knows if there is anything specific there that might cause it on the particular nights they happen. I can’t truthfully say I ever noticed anything that would have foretold I’d Have another nightmare. I appreciate the suggestion of noting events or feelings of the previous day once I wake up form these terrors.

I listen to Mozart when I sleep. It calms my anxiety and I've noticed my dreams tend to be more on the calmer side as well. It slows the frequency of my night terrors, but doesn't eliminate them. It does help tremendously with the bad dreams and nightmares though. My understanding of night terrors is more like the body reacting to fear. You physically scream and thrash about without having any memory of dreaming. In my case, I didn't know I was having night terrors until someone complained. The nightmare is when the body plays for you a scary dream that you remember.