Night Terrors

There was a period of time when I was a little kid that I suffered from night terrors. Night terrors are different from nightmares. While nightmares occur during REM sleep, night terrors occur during what is called slow-wave sleep. Also night terrors are not about specific events like nightnmares but instead are associated with more of a panicky, horrifying feeling. I can actually remember having one at least once. I remember being aware that my parents were both there talking to me, trying to calm me down but I also remember being truly horrified almost as if I were being chased by something indescribable that was going to do me harm. When I've talked to my mom about these she always points out that she was reading The Exorcist at the time and my screaming in horror at something that wasn't there freaked her out a little.
So the other day I was driving to work listening to our local NPR affiliate and a show called Radiolab came on. The segment I caught was at first talking about how most animals (other than land mammals) are able to be literally half asleep: while one hemisphere of the brain is asleep, the other half is awake. This actually, is tangentially connected to night terrors. Anyway, here is a link to the episode. It's very interesting whether or not you've ever woken up screaming.