What's the difference between a nightmare and a night terror?

>>17260088
I might be wrong, but what I've heard is nightmares are just bad dreams where night terrors are sleep paralysis dreams, most often had by children for some reason.

>>17260111
Night terrors are also accompanied by a huge, lingering sense of dread. I almost strangled my gf
>inb4 browses/x/, has gf
because I didn't know who she was and where I was when she woke me from one of my night terrors

night terror's are caused by being half asleep/half awake, as you can usually move your eyes, but not your body. your brain fills in the gaps for the missing stimulus.

nightmares happen while fully asleep.

>>17260088
I usually judge them by how I end up feeling through the experience. Nightmares are eh. Silly bad dreams that with a little cognition you can recognize and actually try to have fun with. Just like any normal dream.

A night terror in my experience has been dreams of helplessness. I try to wake up but often am too deep in rem to actually wake up. My eyes flutter but as soon as they shut I'm back in whatever circumstance. Most often ghosts.

Not shadow people like sleep paralysis. But actually like "boo!" Ghosts. It's silly but they prevent my movement and I recognize I'm asleep but they lock me still so I can't make myself move to wake up. An effect of deep rem and melatonin abundance but I interpret as something fearful and dangerous. So I feel terrorised.

Hence night terror

Used to have night terrors. Would 'wake' up during the night with sort of both dream and reality happening at the same time.

I'd wander around the house terrified knowing I was about to die and that it was going to be horrible. It felt like a roulette wheel had come up on my number and there was nothing I could do to stop it. You're also super paranoid as you can't tell what's real so you can't trust anyone or anything.

Would usually last around 10 mins and then for the next 30mins or so I wouldn't want anyone near me just in case.

>>17260151
>>17260125
>>17260150

So the difference between the two is that nightmares suck but aren't truly horrifying?

>>17260088
For me:

A nightmare is finding yourself in a scary situation, but part of you knows it's dream and you are able to just change dreams or situations easily.

A night-terror is when what you are experiencing is so fucking real, no 'dream feeling'. It's yourself, your conscious mind experiencing a scary situation, 100% sure this is it. All emotions are amplified. Terror amplified like you have never experienced terror before.. And usually you wake up from being to fucking terrorized and your heart is pumping, you are all sweaty. etc.

>>17260088
That is an A++ belly