What kind of night terrors did you have as a child?

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I never had any real nightmares as a child. I dreamt of ghosts sometimes and those were kinda scary, but I never woke up crying or anything.

The worst dream-related experiment I ever had was when I tried lucid dreaming. I read that you can enter a lucid dream if you lie on your back and resist the urge to move for about 20 minutes. Well after a few attempts it succeeded, but I was so surprised that I entered sleep paralysis instead. That's when your body is still paralysed but your mind is awake. You can't move and it feels like you can't breathe, plus you hear extremely loud noise like a train driving through your head and you have hallucinations. I could see a demon with red eyes sitting on my chest.

It wasn't actually very long, but after I finally woke up I had trouble falling asleep for almost a month because I was so afraid it might happen again.

I had recurring nightmares where a crowd of people was surrounding me and closing in on me, getting nearer and closer and just staring at me.I had the feeling that my skin and muscles became numb, like when the dentist injects into your gums. I woke up screaming and the bed was drenched in sweat.This went on till I was about 8, and then I began dreaming of flying through the air, and I would wake up just before I crashed.

Now I don't have nightmares.

Technically, night terrors happen during non-REM sleep, so there will be no images to remember and most people do not even remember having had them because they are asleep when it happens.

I did have bizarre nightmares, though. I had (have?) a phobia of spiders. I used to dream that I was in my bed and my entire bed was covered in spiders and spiderwebs, as was my entire room. I don't understand the mechanism of this, but sometimes, I would wake up, open my eyes and see the spiders and spiderwebs, but I was momentarily completely paralyzed and unable to even make a sound. Then slowly, I would be able to move, and then the images of the spiderwebs would fade.

The most frightening part was being awake and being unable to move. As I got older, I was able to teach myself that it was only a dream and it seemed that in controlling my panic, the phase between opening my eyes and being able to move has decreased.

I still have this happen sometimes.

I had the same physiological response to my dreams as you..my bed was soaking and I was also burning up..snap!

Quoting wikipedia:

More formally, it is a transition state between wakefulness and rest characterized by complete muscle atonia (muscle weakness). It is thought to be a result of disrupted REM sleep which is normally characterized by complete muscle atonia that prevents individuals from acting out their dreams. It can occur at sleep onset or upon awakening. Sleep paralysis has been linked to disorders such as narcolepsy, migraines, anxiety disorders, and obstructive sleep apnea; however, it can also occur in isolation.[1][2] When linked to another disorder, sleep paralysis is most commonly seen in association with narcolepsy which is a neuromuscular disorder.[2]

I had night terrors when I was five. Apparently I would scream and try to climb the walls. But most people on this thread are talking about nightmares instead.

I had night terrors. I would be standing on a patch of grass, surrounding by blackness like when a video game hasn't loaded all the graphics, and there would be a small dent in the ground. I would be compelled to walk into the dent, and then sheer terror would sweep over me. I remember being compelled to answer questions- I think this was reality bleeding through as I regained consciousness, as my dad would ask me questions to "pull me out".

Sometimes I would remember the terror, sometimes I wouldn't know anything had happened.

Attic + dinosaurs in attic