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Sounds like DD when she was about 8 months. I think it was a mixture of going through a growth spurt, hitting a sleep regression and just becoming more aware of everything. First thing I did was make sure she went to bed without being overtired. (This is also about the same time we realized that her bedtime needed to be 6:30 instead of 7:00)

Then, it was kind of a guessing game - if she woke up within a couple hours of going to bed, then I would just rock her back to sleep because I knew she couldn't be hungry yet. If she woke up after 4 hours, I would give her a bottle and put her back down. Then, I would make her CIO (a little) if she woke up again in a couple hours, and sometimes rock her back to sleep if she got really upset. I wouldn't feed her again unless she actually acted like she needed it.

Eventually, she got back on a schedule... but she still does wake once a night.

My 8 month old has had night terrors for months, but it's not night terrors if she's remembering it or is awake. His night terrors happen typically every 30 minutes the first 2-3 hours of sleep, but the key is that he doesn't wake up. He might even sit or stand up, but he's full on asleep. He screams bloody murder, but he's actually in a deep sleep. If I let him cry it out for 2 minutes, it usually ends its own, and it's like it never happened. If your daughter is waking, it's much more likely nightmares or separation anxiety.

This is around the age when DD started exhibiting some mild separation anxiety, and she now gets sad and cries when we leave her alone in a room for more than a few seconds. Could this be what's going on in your baby's sleep? She wakes up and finds herself alone in a dark room w/out mom and dad, and it scares her?... That would be my guess.

Hmmm... then afraid of the dark? Does she fall asleep on her own? Or does she fall asleep in your arms first? If it's the latter, then maybe she is confused when she wakes up b/c she doesn't know where she is...

@Rainbow Sprinkles:
I'm thinking it could be a fear of the dark, but maybe nightmares. Or even just vivid dreams. They're just now really able to remember things, and having a really vivid dream could be scary if it wakes her up and she can suddenly remember it. Just weeks ago, it was very likely she wouldn't know why she woke up because she couldn't remember, so she just fell back to sleep. But now her brain is suddenly working differently and it's probably a really big change for her. She just might be more sensitive to it all. Just a thought.

@Rainbow Sprinkles: Sorry it took me so long to respond.

DD was definitely on her own schedule. She would wake up crying every time. What we found was when she would wake up like that, we had to let her CIO, otherwise she would continue to wake up at that time every night. After one night of CIO, she wouldn't wake up at that time anymore. (Well, until she got sick or was teething...)