Ace the AP Psychology Test 2025 – Unlock Your Mind’s Potential!

Night terrors are a sleep disorder that typically involves high arousal and an appearance of being terrified, often occurring during deep non-REM sleep. During a night terror episode, an individual may scream, thrash about, or exhibit signs of intense fear, although they usually do not remember the event upon waking. This phenomenon often affects children more than adults and can be triggered by stress, sleep deprivation, or other factors.

The other options describe different phenomena: rapid, rhythmic brainwave activity is associated with REM sleep and does not specifically characterize night terrors; uncontrollable sleep attacks refer to narcolepsy, a different sleep disorder; and a sequence of images and thoughts in a sleeping person refers to dreaming, which happens during REM sleep rather than during the episodes that characterize night terrors. Thus, the distinctive feature of night terrors is the intense fear and high arousal experienced during the episode.