Songfacts®:

• In October 2023 Dream Theater reunited with their legendary drummer Mike Portnoy following a five-album run with Mike Mangini behind the kit. This nearly 10-minute song is the band's first single with Portnoy since 2009 and the curtain-raiser for their 16th studio album, Parasomnia.
• If you're not already acquainted with the word parasomnia, it refers to the spooky and unsettling world of sleep disorders. We're talking nightmares, sleep paralysis, sleepwalking - the stuff that makes you wake up wondering if the Boogeyman moonlights as your personal sleep coach. Thematically, "Night Terror" plunges headlong into this realm with lyrics that evoke the sheer panic of being trapped in your own subconscious:
  
  Night terror
  Hysteria
  Nocturnal trial by fire
  Eyes open wide but I can't see
• The song opens with a display of rolling fills that remind you exactly why Portnoy is one of the most revered drummers in prog history. It's still every bit as intricate and sprawling as you'd expect from Dream Theater, but there's a certain tightness to it - almost as if Portnoy has gently coaxed the band to focus their energies, trimming away the fluff while keeping the spirit of excess firmly intact.
• The band recorded Parasomnia at their Long Island-based DTHQ (that's "Dream Theater Headquarters) between February and July 2024 with guitarist John Petrucci in the producer's chair.