Parasomnias is a disruptive sleep-related disorders that can occur during arousals from REM sleep or partial arousals from Non-REM sleep. Parasomnias include nightmares, night terrors, sleepwalking, confusional arousals and many others.

There are different types of Parasomnias. Night terrors, sleepwalking and night mares.
Nightmares are usually very vivid events that can cause feelings of fear, terror, and/or anxiety. Usually, the person having a nightmare is abruptly awakened from REM sleep and is able to describe detailed dream content.

The causes of these nightmares are usually illness, anxiety, the loss of a loved one, or negative reactions to a medication and it is very hard to returned back to sleep.

Night Terrors are a type of nightmare that you don’t remember. You appear to be awake but are very disoriented. Night terrors last about 15 minutes, after which time the person usually lies down and appears to fall back asleep. Emotional tension or alcohol abuse usually brings about night terrors in adults.

Sleepwalking is when you walk in your sleep. This disorder is most commonly seen in children aged eight to twelve; however, sleepwalking can occur among younger children, the elderly and adults.

Sleepwalking does seem to run in families. It is “not” dangerous to wake someone up who is sleepwalking. However; sleep walking can be dangerous, you can fall, or run into something because you are not aware of your surroundings.

Children seem to out grow sleep walking by the time they reach their teenage years.