Forgive me if this is the wrong forum, obviously I’m new here. I ran across this site while doing some research on dreaming for a Psychology paper, and the topic fascinates me. In particular, I would like to know how LDs might associate with Night Terrors. I have a form of NTs, which also combines sleepwalking, and I am honestly rather curious if it could induce an NT or if it could actually be used as a cure for them. Does anyone have any experience or theories?
Well, I think that it can be a cure, you realize your dreaming and you stop being scared, interact with whatever is chasing you etc.(ask who they are, and why they are trying to scare you etc.). You may also be able to induce nightmares, not sure.
Are night terrors the same thing as nightmares (very frightening nightmares of course)? Or is it different? If it’s related with sleepwalking, it’s perhaps different, cause sleepwalking occurs during n-REM sleep and nightmares occur during REM sleep (as far I know, but I may be wrong).
It’s possible to create nightmarish situations in lucid dreams, though most of the LD’ers prefer to create pleasant events… I don’t know why… 
On the opposite, I know that Pr Antonio Zadra, who is working at the Psychology Department of the University of Montreal and at the Sacré-Coeur Hospital Sleep Laboratory in Montreal, Canada, has leaded some recent experiments about overcoming nightmares through LD’s. I don’t know if it’s easy to find those articles.
Pr Laberge at Stanford had written some articles about overcoming nightmares too. You can find some of them at the Lucidity institute website.
I also did my uni papers on sleep related disorders, including dreaming, lucid dreaming, insomnia etc - it sure is an interesting area in Pyschology!
Nightmares and night terrors are distinctly different. Nightmares are obvious, basic definition being scary dreams. The official classification of a nightmare used in much of the research which I read essentially said that a dream is considered a nightmare if the subject was so scared that they suddenly awoke. I don’t personally agree that you need to wake from a nightmare, but there you go!
A night terror does not actually occur during REM sleep, in fact it occurs when the subject is in deep sleep (or stage 4 sleep). Usually to know that you even have night terrors, another person tell you (ie your partner) that you woke up in the middle of the night screaming. In addition, you don’t tend to remember night terrors.
On a personal night I (apparently) used to suffer night terrors a lot, as my partner told me that I used to sit bolt-upright in bed every night and start swearing my head off. I never remembered in the morning though, and was quite scared (being only ‘18’) and wondered what the grief was wrong with me.
I don’t know how you would go about relating lucid dreamig with night terrors, but there may be a connection to explore somewhere. Perhaps increased levels of lucidity somehow affect the degree or severity of night terrors? Not sure.
I know some research by Zadra that you’re probably speaking about, and actually have access through the uni database. But I checked about 6 months ago if it were legal for me to post professional research on this forum - it’s not. 
Yes, that’s it exactly. I suppose that my question was more along the lines of something like, if I tried to fly in an LD, would I jump out of my bed and hit the ground? Is it possible that being conscious during these night terrors, and being able to comprehend them make them even more frightening? I’ve decided to go ahead and try some of the methods, I’ll report back results…
Sorry for the double-post, but I just realized something…Could I use this to my advantage somehow? Will my real-world body to, say, pick up a pen and write what I’m seeing as I’m dreaming?
In LD’s your body stays still in bed while you dream, it’s all in your mind. I don’t know if you can be lucid during sleepwalking, I’ve never had sleepwalking before, but it doesnt sound possible to me.
It’s considered as impossible, as your body is paralyzed during REM sleep. It seems impossible during n-REM sleep too : I don’t remember I have seen a report from a LD’er to who such a thing occured. We had such a discussion about this topic some months ago, but it would certainly be hard to find it.
I remember a girl has said she wrote down a fragment of dream unconsciously. If I remember well, it was on another forum. It was not really related to LD’ing, it happens when she was enhancing her dream recall. But she didn’t post again and we don’t know if she was joking. Most probably, she half woke up, wrote two words and didn’t remember later she woke up during the night.
I don’t know if it’s easy to be conscious during sleep stage 4. I suppose DILD’s to occur during REM sleep. Some WILD’ers have been mesured during a modified sleep stage 1 or 2. Anyway, I don’t think it’s a good thing to start from this presupposition (“being able to comprehend them make them even more frightening”) cause LD’s are what you expect them to be. It would make a good horror movie screenplay though. 
most dreams occur in REM sleep, or stage 2 sleep. Night terrors occur in Stage 4 sleep, or delta sleep. don’t know. maybe you would have a jump to alertness with lucid dreams. maybe it’s not possible. As far as i know, Night terrors pretty scary. it’s genetic, so hopefully lucid dreams will help.
Thanks for the help, everyone! No LDs, yet, but I’m still trying and will report back my results.