Character has a nightmare

>character has a nightmare
>they wake up all sweaty jerking out of their bed screaming for their lives
this literally never happens IRL

It happens to me all the time. But it's actually due to sleep paralysis after the nightmare and me willing myself to breathe again.

light sleeper here i have had it happen a few times from nightmares where im drowning or when someone just walks in my room while im in a deep sleep. I have a weird sense when i sleep that if I feel any other presence around me I wake up immediately in fright without me even realizing until im actually awake. my friends say i would be the perfect night guard

Happened to me once when I was a kid. Dreamed I dove into a foxhole and a grenade landed in the foxhole with me, I turned around to get up and run and I woke up exactly like in the movies. Only happened that one time though

I've literally woken up screaming and throwing shit around like a crazy person

My psychiatrist says he thinks it's a panic attack

Have you ever had a wet nightmare before?

This does happen to people.

>character has a nightmare
>remembers the whole thing in specific detail halfway through the next day when telling someone about it

Do you have to be such a drama queen?

Not him but people have similar problems when they've had a lot of trauma in their formative years. I've woken up screaming a couple times in my life.

I've woken up in a start, sweating, but I can't say I've ever screamed before.

>sleep paralysis
Is this shit actually a real thing that happens or is it just a meme? Every time someone describes it it just sounds like being too lazy to get up or just having a dream about you being in bed.

>character sees something that scares him a lot
>suddenly dies
what in the fuck?
This shit happened in Congo btw, but I think I've seen it elsewhere too.

Some people have a problem where the awareness part of their brain wakes up, but the body control part doesn't. It leads to intense horror and the feeling that something is on your chest holding you down.

it's not voluntary

When I calm down I feel very silly

Truth.
>it doesn't happen to me so it doesn't happen lul

it's happened to me once, i was having a dream that culminated in coming face to face with the devil, and despite the fact i'm a fedora it scared me more than i've ever been scared by anything

Like how rare, because everyone and their mother seems to have some experience with it

dude, i had an ex who once leapt out of bed screaming, nearly knocked me over and who had to be restrained for a few seconds before she chilled the fuck out. dreams fuck some people up i guess.

I had it ONCE when i was a kid. never slept on my back again

I don't have that experience man, I only know one guy who has this.

its not that rare desu. you may have actually experienced it as some point and written it off as a particularly lucid nightmare.

>it's relevant to the plot and reveals their true feelings

those are called night terrors not nightmares. there are a difference

pretty sure your gf was already fucked in the head
sounds like the kind of people who kill you in your sleep

Most people have probably experienced it at some point in their lives, but I think it's more common in people dealing with high stress, anxiety/panic, and sleep disorders. And for some reason it seems to occur more often when sleeping on your back.