Night Terror Research Paper

Words: 1934
Pages: 8

Night terrors are a form of sleep disorder. A person experiencing a night terror could be potentially dangerous to themselves or others around which is why there has been research to attempt to stop them from occurring. People experiencing night terrors often run out of the room and can cause serious injury. Unfortunately, there has not been a treatment for this sleep disorder that works for everyone. Researchers have found some tactics that reduce the number of episodes in some cases, but not all. Researchers have attempted to use medication on a number of people but it is still uncertain if it prevents them from reoccurring later on in their life. There has also been studies in were they try to find a link between night terrors and migraines. …show more content…
The first patient was a fifty-eight-year-old women who had multiple sleep complaints. The sleeping problems included having trouble waking up, screaming during sleep, and experiencing nightmares and resulted in the patient seeking help. The patient claimed that she started noticing her complaints after she had a surgery to repair a hip fracture, about two years prior. The service that she sought out, treated her with various types of medication such as sertraline, quetiapine, alprazolam, and olanzapine to minimize her sleeping problems. They continued the treatment for about six to seven months and there was no sign of improvement. The Psychiatry Outpatient Service that she sought out for help decided to begin an intervention. For her first step she was required to keep up with a sleep diary. After sometime they began to notice that she was not able to keep up with her diary, because she had a hard time remembering her nightmares. The only memory the patient had was that during the night, she was told by her partner that her breathing changed, her face became flushed, and she would hit her arms and hands. When researchers added Clonazepam to her medication list they began to notice improvements. As time went on she began to notice her occurrences of night terrors began to decrease. Her other nightly activities such as screaming, and her violent sleep behavior, decreased as well. Due to …show more content…
It is difficult to track when a night terror will occur or if it will at all. This is the reason researchers have not been able to find a way to completely stop night terrors. It is important to continue studying night terrors because they ca significantly impact a person’s life. The cause embarrassment to some and fear to others. It is important to keep in mind that a person has no control over this disorder and to remain calm and in a safe zone when being around someone experiencing an