Are these night terrors?

[mej1981]

I'm a 25 yr old male.

I go to bed, and about 15 minutes later(the amount of time it usually takes me to fall asleep) I immediately have this "dream" that from what I can tell lasts about 2 or 3 minutes. In my dream I'm still in bed, however it's not sleep paralysis(although I also get these but not as much anymore). In this dream there's always an intense feeling of panic and fear, and then suddenly it ends and I wake up, but in most cases only to fall right back asleep and immediately into another episode. It was really bad last night for example as it happened at least 4 or 5 times before I was finally able to fall into normal sleep mode. I've also noticed that I sometimes bite down really hard in these dreams and I figure I'm doing it in real life because when I wake up my jaw does feel a little tense. These episodes only tend to happen on the weekend when I stay up really late since don't have to worry about getting up for work the next day. I've read night terrors include sleep walking and waking up screaming but this has never happened to me. Is what I experience a minor case of night terrors, or maybe another form of sleep paralysis?

[Enoch Choi, MD]

It's possible, but try to get more regular sleep, with the same bedtime every night, without sleeping later on weekends, and see if it goes away...

[jks0301]

Also buy a night guard which it protects your teeth when biting down forcefully its uncomfortable at first but you'll get used to it..