Partners suffering night terrors

Hi, new to this forum, and new to researching night terrors.

My boyfriend has regularly suffered "night terrors" for years, he's 28. For the first year or so of being with him, the terrors involved him whining and groaning, sweating, racing heart, shifting around a lot in a panicked state, then eventually turning into screams until he wakes himself up. When I'm there, I've found I can gently bring him out of this state - he wakes up confused, not knowing where he is, and scared.

However recently, it's getting much worse. He woke up in the middle of the night holding a hammer. Last night, the whines started, but they were different this time, almost creepy. I did the usual thing, and tried to slowly wake him up, without panicking him. However, he lashed out, opened his eyes wide, and almost growled/shouted in my face, I've never seen anything like it before, apart from horror films. It was terrifying. The only way I can describe it, is like he was possessed. It seemed like he was a totally different person, he didn't know who I was, and wanted me out, in attack mode. This did only last for up to a minute or so, but it felt like much longer.

I was screaming as I was terrified, not sure what he was going to do. Eventually this woke him up, and he had no idea what had happened. No nightmare. I explained it to him, and he was obviously horrified at himself, and scared. We're both worried that this could get worse.

We've read up a lot on this, and we're going to try a few things - not sleeping on his back, drinking passion flower tea, regular sleep routine, cutting out drinking (he does drink quite a lot). He's also going to see a doctor about this, to see if there's an underlying cause. If anybody has experienced this, or has any other tips on how to deal with the sleep terror or how to help avoid them, let me know!

Thanks

I still get night terrors and sleep paralysis occasionally but, yes, sleeping on my side has definitely reduced their frequency and one other thing as well - not allowing myself to overheat while I sleep. Not too many bed covers. And I usually leave my feet poking out the end of the blankets/duvet etc., to regulate my body temperature. It's helped.