Really late to the party and this will likely get buried, but I think it's worth it:
Night-terrors (nightterrors sp?):
When I was 8, up until about 12, I would have night-terrors sometimes. If not night-terrors, then very bad nightmares. Quickly, what I've been told is the difference between the two is that one is a very bad dream, and the other (terror) happens during a different stage of sleep and often times the subject is somewhat conscious during the dream, often hallucinating and sleepwalking. Most of the time growing pains, being too hot (father didn't like to use the A/C) or sick is what triggered them for me.
Long story short, I open my eyes while in bed and within a couple seconds of assessing my emotions and why I was awake, I began to realize I was having a night-terror, except this time I had control of my functions. I knew something was outside of my window (blinds were closed) but was too scared to find out what it was. I finally mustered up enough courage to face my fate (my night-terrors often involved a convincing emotion of impending death) and see what was outside of the window. As soon as I got up and touched the blinds, two red eyes pierced through, the windows crashed and this like, 6-headed, 8-armed, scores of eyes monster reaches in and bites me on the neck. When I came too, I was on the ground crying hysterically, with my mother trying to wake me up. I was clenching my neck with open hands. I rushed to the bathroom and looked in the mirror to see 6 diamond shaped bruises on my neck in a crescent orientation. Like, legit diamonds. I thought it was from my fingernails, but they couldn't have made that shape.
After this, my mother took me to see the doctor first, then our pastor at the time. Both said they had heard of it before, the doctor sighting research into young children (boys especially) up to the age of 12 whose brains cannot properly shut-down for sleepy-time and they cause immensely realistic dreaming and sleepwalking. Doc said he even heard of children waking up with burns on their hands from where their night-terror involved them touching a hot stove. The brain literally is convinced it's actually happening and has the body react to the situation.
TL:DR; I dreamed I got bit by a monster during a night-terror and woke up with what actually looked like bite marks on my neck. Turns out my brain didn't develop a "sleep" mode until puberty hit.