Night Terrors Glossary of Terms

1. Causes of Fatigue Slideshow Pictures
2. Take the Sleep Quiz!
3. Foods That Help or Harm Your Sleep Slideshow Pictures

American Academy of Pediatrics: AAP. Its member pediatricians "dedicate their efforts and ...

Antidepressants: Anything, and especially a drug, used to prevent or treat depression.

Brain: The portion of the central nervous system that is located within the skull. It func...

Breathing: The process of respiration, during which air is inhaled into the lungs through ...

EEG: Electroencephalogram.

Electroencephalogram: A technique for studying the electrical currents within the brain. E...

Fever: Although a fever technically is any body temperature above the normal of 98.6 degr...

Heart: The muscle that pumps blood received from veins into arteries throughout the body. ...

Heart rate: The number of heartbeats per unit of time, usually per minute. The heart rate ...

Injury: Harm or hurt. To harm, hurt, or wound. The word injure may be in physical or emot...

Laboratory: A place for doing tests and research procedures, and for preparing chemicals a...

Neurology: The medical specialty concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of disorders o...

Onset: In medicine, the first appearance of the signs or symptoms of an illness as, for ex...

Paralysis: Loss of voluntary movement (motor function). Paralysis that affects only one mu...

Pediatrics: The field of medicine that is concerned with the health of infants, children, ...

Pharmacy: A location where prescription medications are sold. A pharmacy is constantly sup...

Polysomnography: Continuous recording of specific physiologic variables during sleep. Poly...

Recurrent: Appearing or occurring again. For example, a recurrent fever is a fever that ha...

REM sleep: REM sleep is the portion of sleep when there are rapid eye movements (REMs).

Seizure: Uncontrolled electrical activity in the brain, which may produce a physical conv...

Sleep: The body's rest cycle.

Sleep disorders: Any disorder that affects, disrupts, or involves sleep. The most common...

Sleep paralysis: A frightening form of paralysis that occurs when a person suddenly finds...

Stage: As regards cancer, the extent of a cancer, especially whether the disease has spre...

Sweating: The act of secreting fluid from the skin by the sweat (sudoriferous) glands. The...

Tachycardia: A rapid heart rate, usually defined as greater than 100 beats per minute.

Tachypnea: Abnormally fast breathing.

Tricyclic antidepressants: One of a class of medications used to treat depression. The tri...