Nightmares or night terrors? how do I help?

[Iamjustthemilkmachine]

Ds is 10 mo, we cosleep and he's never been a good sleeper, waking every 2 hours almost every night. Now lately he's started to wake up (or not? not sure) and sit up in bed in the middle of the night, and then starts to scream; he then can't stand being in bed and I have to get up and walk him about the house until he stops crying when taken back into the bedroom. He eventually feeds again and falls asleep, but not very deeply. We play on the bed during the day to make sure he's not scared of it, also in the bedroom floor, etc. What can I do? I'm leaving the side light on as this seems to help a little. I'm not even sure they are nightmares and not night terrors, but when he sits up and cries i can't not cuddle him and try to comfort him, but I know I shouldn't if it is the later, how do I tell them appart? what can i do?

The only thing that worked for DS is that I would pick up a book and start reading it in a very calm, low, slow voice. After about 1 minute he seemed to snap out of it and would come lie next to me and go back to sleep

I've found that DS has fewer night terrors if he is not too hot. So have turned down the radiator in his room a little and he wears pants and vest (or pj bottoms and vest if it's really chilly here) instead of full pyjamas.

Definitely seems to help him!

How interesting cocktailsorcakes, I was thinking if ds might be too cold! will experiment with that, thanks.
africagirl1 your solution seems interesting as well, so you wouldn't pick him up, just start reading? I'll definetly try that, thanks!