Nathan Leer locked eyes with the black spider on the ceiling. He blinked, hoping it would disappear. But, instead, the spider grew bigger, its large green eyes and deadly retractable fangs beginning to envelop the room.

“No,” he said. “Leave me alone!” To his ears, his voice sounded eerily surreal.

Growing larger, the spider blasted a sinewy web that landed above his head. Another one followed, and another and another and another, wrapping him in a death trap. He knew it wouldn’t be long before the giant spider was upon him, injecting him with its venom, killing him and then tearing him apart limb by limb—an agonizing, torturous death.

He let out a blood-curdling scream and began tearing frantically at the web. With much effort, he freed himself. He bolted upright in bed, darted into the hallway and closed the door, trapping the spider inside his bedroom, narrowly escaping a grisly end. His heart pounded in his chest. His breath came in short gasps. He was sweating profusely. He walked into the bathroom, relieved himself, and began to leave. He bumped his head on the corner of the door and the sharp pain and warm blood dribbling down his nose, into his eyes and mouth brought him back to reality.

He woke up.

He had very little recollection of the night terror, only some vague unease about narrowly escaping some impending danger. But the small cut on his forehead and the blood terrified him. Holding his hand to his head, he sat down on the couch and waited for his breathing to normalize and the fear to dissipate before disinfecting and bandaging the wound. He returned to bed. Just a nightmare, he thought, as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

But, according to experts, Nathan, didn’t have a nightmare at all. Although he is a product of my imagination, his terrifying experience describes night terrors, a phenomena suffered by millions of people around the globe. Experts claim night terrors are completely different from nightmares. Nightmares usually occur while you’re in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep and night terrors generally occur while transitioning from level 3 sleep (Non-Rapid Eye Movement or NREM) into level 4, the REM stage. With nightmares, although you wake up frightened, you often remember them. Many experts believe these bad dreams are merely the brain’s way of organizing and processing information. Or, as I like to believe, taking out the garbage.

According to Doctor Jeff Schmidt, normally when you sleep your brain suppresses your ability to move, Mother Nature’s way of keeping you calm and immobilized. Not so with dread-producing night terrors, which he believes tend to be genetic. Signs and symptoms include intense heavy breathing, profuse sweating, screaming and flailing, even punching. Sometimes your eyes are open and you can even carry on a conversation with an awake person, although your chances of making much sense are rather slim. Sleepwalking or parasomnia is also a form of night terrors, and that’s where it may become dangerous. If you see someone during an episode of night terrors, it might appear as if they’re looking right through you, like they’re possessed by an evil demon. They might be talking, ranting and raving, and then abruptly return to a calm and peaceful sleep.

But, Schmidt and other sleep therapists maintain, unless they’re wandering around in a potentially dangerous situation, although you might be creeped out, don’t try and wake them. Sometimes, when someone experiencing a night terror is awakened, they will attack the person who woke them. That could get ugly. So just ignore them, he says, as night terrors are for the most part transient. Chances are, it will pass and the person will return to a normal sleep.

Schmidt says about 10 to 20 per cent of children have night terrors but usually outgrow them by the time they reach adulthood. But, however rare, night terrors do carry on into adult life. I probably have an episode of night terrors about once or twice a week. I used to chalk them up to nightmares and embrace them as my subconscious mind taking out the garbage. I now know the difference.

During my episodes of night terrors, often the sound of my own voice would wake me up. Many of my house guests have reported hearing me shouting or talking in my sleep; although fortunately I’m not aware of any sleepwalking events. Thank God, thank somebody.

What causes night terrors?

Theories abound: Prescription drug use, stress, lifestyle, sleep deprivation, diet, heredity, even possession by a demon. And of course the psychologists and psychiatrists are constructing theories. Some doctors believe night terrors can be symptomatic of a neurological disease. Night terrors are classified as a mental and behavioral disorder according to the ICD, the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, a health care classification system maintained by the World Health Organization.

Wow, heady stuff. If I extrapolate from those so-called findings, I have a mental and/or behavioral disorder (in other words I’m bat-shit crazy), and I may suffer from a neurological disease. And the prey-trapping spider web expands. Maybe I’m a stressed-out, drug-addicted, sleep-deprived, junk food-munching, demon-possessed monster.

That would be a tough pill to swallow, although it would make an amazing horror novel.

But what can I do about it?

Psychotherapy? Counseling? Moderate doses of prescription drugs? Change my diet? Get more sleep? Change my lifestyle? Visit a priest and get exorcised? Rush to the hospital emergency ward for an MRI to see if I have a neurological disease?

Thanks anyway, but I think I’ll pass. As I found a way to come to grips with my sleep paralysis and frequent nightmares, so too have I found a way to come to grips with my episodes of night terrors.

I’m going to revisit my dear old friend, notable psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung. He’s dead, God rest his clever soul, so he won’t be shrinking my head. I’ll just take comfort in a term he calls “Shadow Integration.” The Shadow describes the part of the mind which we have denied, disowned, or outright rejected. It’s our dark side. But Jung maintains that while the Shadow operates as a reservoir of human darkness, it’s also a wellspring of all human creativity; not something evil or bad, just a part of ourselves that we’re unwilling to face. Shadow Integration means going to the source of the fear and forming a relationship with your dark side. By doing so, the Shadow becomes a source of warmth and positivity rather than a destructive force.

Since night terrors are a part of that mysterious dream landscape of the subconscious (part of my Shadow or my dark side), I embrace the strange episodes as a source of warmth, comfort and positivity. Call it self-justification, but I spin my own web and it’s threaded with strands of creativity, possibility, and opportunity.

Sleep well, my friends. Sleep well.