How do people really act when having nightmares? I know the whole "catapult awakening" (sitting upright as soon as you awaken) is mostly fake, but how about people who are still asleep?
The ‘catapult awakening’, I think, comes from the sensation of waking up from a nightmare. For me personally, when I wake up from a nightmare, it feels like I throw myself halfway across the bed; that’s just the ‘springing awake’ kind of motion that comes with the shock of the dream waking you. You’re still lying down, but it does very much feel like you’re thrown out of the nightmare, so to speak.
The physical act of leaping upright or out of position does happen in some people, particularly children, because it’s a common symptom of night terrors. So the ‘catapult awakening’ is not exactly a ‘myth’.
Other than that, it is common to see/hear the following in a person who is having a nightmare:
Mumbling, shouting or a yell (the latter, sometimes as they awake);
Tossing and turning from side-to-side or writhing;
Quickened breathing, irregular breathing or ‘sighing’;
Violent thrashing in some cases;
Rapid eye movement (like the eyelids are flickering; this can happen during non-frightening dreams too).
In night terrors, you’re more likely to see the violent thrashing, and it’s also pretty common for the person to wake up and not understand what’s happening. They might not recoginse you if you try to comfort them. You can tell when someone is suffering a night terror because they look as though they’re panicking during their sleep.
You might find a phenomenon called ‘Sleep Paralysis’ interesting. This is something I suffer from myself, so whilst I can’t comment on what I look like on the outside, the inner feeling is very interesting (and terrifying!). It basically feels like your body is paralysed, but your mind is fully awake. Sleep paralysis is likely to happen as you go to sleep, or as you wake up and is sometimes accompanied by a hallucination, or a feeling that someone is in the room with you.
That has been the case with all instances of my sleep paralysis, at least. My mind wakes up, but my arms, hands, legs and feet tingle like they’ve gone to sleep. Even though I’m frightened and trying to wake up, my body doesn’t obey, and it feels like it takes so much effort to make a noise. Instead of screaming like you want to, it just comes out like whimpers. The presence in the room is usually at a doorway for me (or where I know the doorway to be) and is just a shadowed figure staring or looming towards where I’m lying.
The waking-up part comes when the figure can’t get any closer or when I’ve tried to move enough for to finally succeed, heheh.
I hope this helps you out, Anon! Followers, feel free to contribute your own nightmare experiences.
I use to be pleauge by nightmares. I would toss and turn and even scream in my sleep. One time I had an anxiety attack, causing me to curl into a ball and talk in my sleep louder than normal. I don’t know what all I did, but I was shaking for hours afterwards. Thank goodness a family member woke me up before the nightmare went too far. - anonymous
Night mares can be just bad dreams, night terrors, and even just plain weird/gross/extremely confusing dreams. These odd dreams often feel “blurry” for me, going by swiftly and I often wake up more tired than when I went to bed as well with a headache. - anonymous
I can help with what sleep paralysis looks like from the outside since my boyfriend has it and talks about similar dreams that you have (being awake but can’t move): it involves at least in his case a lot of twitching and also whimpers. Also I can see his eyelids flutter a lot. He has it often when going to sleep. When I try to ‘wake him up’ it will seem like he’s not fully awake but will turn and fall asleep without other disruptions. - anonymous
I just saw your nightmare thing, and it’s actually quite interesting. For me, especially when I was younger, I wasn’t always able to tell whether or not I was asleep, and if the nightmare got bad enough, I would start screaming in my sleep, eventually screaming enough to wake myself up, and every single time my parents would be running into my bedroom as my screams woke me them up too. Just thought I might add that to your explanation. - anonymous
Just thought I’d comment on sleep paralysis as well since you asked. I’ve been having it for as long as I can remember and it usually occurs when I’m sleeping in a new place for the first time or if I’m very tired. I get both visual and auditory hallucinations and sometimes I go straight back to sleep and only realise what’s happened later on when I’ve woken up proper. Other times i realise what’s happened and can’t go back to sleep.another interesting thing is that i am almost absolutely still while sleeping. Even if I’m having nightmares and I wake up, no one would know because i don’t make any sounds or move a muscle. The only reaction i make when waking up from nightmares is to open my eyes. I’m not sure if that’s related to the sleep paralysis but it’s interesting. - anonymous
I’m reasonably certain that when you’re dreaming, ie when you’re in REM sleep, you’re not /supposed/ to be moving much at all besides the eye movement; you should be paralyzed. I imagine there exceptions, probably corresponding with a sleep disorder or other health issues. Things like night terrors, sleep walking, sleep talking, etc, occur during the stage right before REM sleep - anonymous
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