Night Terrors???

So last night around 11:00, we heard a sudden loud yell/scream that kept going. (Usually he starts out softly and the crying accellerates.) Micah sounded terrified. I ran into his room and he was standing on his bed screaming. I picked him up and he kept saying, "I don't want to go to ...(I couldn't understand the word)." I carried him into our room because it was clear he wasn't going to calm down in his room. He ended up "sleeping" (he may have slept, but I sure didn't) in our room for about a half hour until Ryan took him back to bed. This morning Ryan asked him if he remembered being scared last night and Micah said, no. I said, "Do you remember sleeping in Mom and Dad's bed?" He said, "Yeah. How did that happen?" So we told him that he had had a bad dream and he slept in our bed for awhile.

I don't get it. We pray every night that Micah wouldn't have bad dreams. What purpose do they serve, besides disrupting all of our sleep? He has some sort of bad dream or terror 5 out of 7 nights a week. Why??? I think I've said this before, but I don't like that I can't protect him in his dreams. He has to face them all alone. Its scary to me. I only hope that God is using them to build his character, to make him courageous and brave. Otherwise, I don't see a point. Its yet another question I'll have to ask when I get to heaven.