Nightmares are frightening dreams that usually awaken the sleeper from REM sleep.
Nightmares have sometimes been referred to as dream anxiety attack, terrifying dream or REM nightmare. Nightmare is the preferred term and has been widely used to describe this condition for many years in the pediatric and adult literature. However, it is preferrable to use the term nightmares for the REM phenomena, as they differ radically from sleep terrors. We welcome your comments, suggestions, or notification of sleep related information.