What is the difference between Nightmares and Night Terrors?

Nightmares and night terrors are both scary sleep adventures, but they feel very different.

Imagine you're sleeping peacefully, and suddenly something spooky happens, that’s a nightmare! It feels like you’re dreaming about monsters or falling off a cliff. You might wake up scared, but you remember the dream clearly. Like when you fall asleep with a cookie and then dream it turns into a giant spider.

Night terrors are like big sleep fights, you're not dreaming, you’re just scared in your sleep. You might scream, sweat, or even sit up in bed. But when you wake up, you don’t remember the fight at all. It’s like being chased by a loud vacuum cleaner, but you forget about it as soon as you wake up.

• Nightmares are scary dreams that happen during sleep.
• Night terrors are big sleep scares that happen when you’re still half-asleep.

Both can feel very real, but one is a dream, and the other is more like a sudden sleep scare.