People with a nightmare disorder have a severe problem with nightmares. Nightmares happen frequently in childhood, especially between the ages of three and six. Most children outgrow them. In a few people, they continue into adulthood. Females are more likely than males to have nightmares.
Nightmares are different from sleep terrors.
Adults may start having sleep terrors between the ages of twenty and thirty. You are more likely to have sleep terrors if someone else in your family has them or if they sleepwalk. Sleep terrors occur more in young boys than girls, but affect about equal numbers of men and women. Counseling and therapy often helps people with nightmare disorders. Sometimes medicine helps with sleep disorders.