It sounds to me that you have Sleep Terror Disorder Sleep terror disorder - children, causes, DSM, adults, drug, person, people, used Your T may not be familiar with that. But that, in turn, is thought to sometimes be caused by extreme stress, etc. which can cause PTSD, especially if you have not had the sleep terrors all your life but they just started after one of the hard events in your life you've poo poohed? If they started after your father left, for example, that would be the traumatic event for you.