Nightmares?

[Skywalker]

So...anyone here ever suffer from chronic nightmares? I have been having them multiple times a night for a couple months now. Usually very gruesome horror movie scenarios where I am either the victim, the perpetrator, or a bystander who is helpless to help. It is giving me insomnia since I am nearly terrified to fall asleep.
My family is overall horrified and says I could be the next Stephen King if I wrote this crap down lol.
I believe it is stress induced? Seeing my doctor on Friday. Some have recommended meditation, or other things but nothing works as of yet.
Has anyone here suffering from nightmares / night terrors? And was there any relief? I just don't know what torture scenario is going to await me tonight.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

I haven't had them in a while, but my recurring dream is always about falling. For a few years it was falling in an elevator, and then it switched to falling in a plane crash or else witnessing a plane crash. At it's worst I would wake up 3x per week with those, for the better part of a year. It is definitely most prevalent during big life changes in my case.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

I occasionally have nightmares and my husband will wake me up. I’m usually kind of whimpering or crying out for help. I don’t know what causes them. I can remember having nightmares as a child. I have had anxiety issues most of my life so I suppose that could contribute to it.

 

[BrianL]

I don't have a lot of actual nightmares, but I do have very stressful dreams where I am in stressful scenarios. usually it's like school or work and I've forgotten something important. I also have the ever pervasive Disney dreams where I am just being thwarted getting to what I wanted to do. They do manifest more when I have a lot of stress or anxiety. Sometime I wake up with my legs contorted straight up - that's when I know it's pretty bad. I do notice that I sleep better if I take some Advil PM, but i don't do that unless there is also a little pain/inflammation. I think you can get ht e"PM" part on it's own though - Diphenhydramine I believe it is.

 

[kymom99]

My worst nightmare usually involves me driving and either I can’t open my eyes to see where I’m going or my brakes won’t stop. I have these types of dreams frequently. I’ve read that they are the result of feeling like I don’t have control of my life, which makes sense. And often I actually do feel that way.

 

[mickey916]

I get them all the time. For me it is definitely stress related. It's called Nocturnal Panic Disorder. I have tried pretty much every remedy other than prescription meds. Meditation works a little. Melatonin did nothing for me. A weighted blanket has helped the most...

Edit to add: For some reason the only nights in recent years I didn't have them was when we were in Disney! Guess that's my happy place.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I have a long history of night terrors where I'd wake up with my dream overlaying the real world and could move around in the dream so like the worst sleepwalking ever and terrifying for my DH. They haven't resurfaced in a long time, you have my sympathies because fear of sleeping is a terrible thing. They will probably end as suddenly as they began.

I use nightlights when they would happen and always have them when I am alone so I can see what is around me when I'm in that twilight. I allow nothing upsetting into my world at night so no news or dramas after dinner. My phone is off in silent mode with volume all the way down. At bedtime I watch silly sitcoms with the TV on a timer so my days close in a light sort of way & don't watch very scary things anymore. It seems the mood of the TV carries into my sleep so it's an endless stream of The Office and such.

Best guess is emotion is the thing that is echoed in the night terrors so if I can pinpoint the thing that is making me feel the way I do in my dreams they generally subside. It's like my mind is trying to tell me what to pay attention to in my world, as in, "You have seen this before, pay attention!"

 

[Mysterian]

I’ve heard that if you daydream about facing off or belittling your nightmare monster/sequence, it can help mitigate nightmares. Like if you’re plagued by Samara from The Ring, you imagine slapping her in the head with a Kermit doll. Or picture her dancing in a country line dance, with boots and a cowboy hat, of course. She becomes less frightening this way.

I also have the occasional car/loss of control dream, school dreams, or scary dreams about minor real world stuff.

The frustrating ones I have involve some sort of repeating sequence that has no reasoning. Like scattered brain garbage collected from the previous day.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Yes. Horrible dreams. Would wake up screaming and scaring everyone in the household!

Thankfully, thanks to a thread here, I realized it happens commonly in peri-menopause!

Not going to link any one article, but it might be helpful to research it!

Thankfully I only have them once in a while now, and they’re not usually as bad as before.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I have nightmares on a regular basis. In fact, night before last I had one. It was pretty mild by nightmare standards, but I tore up the bed and woke up drenched in sweat. I have woken up in the middle of the night (and woke up others) with screaming for some of the rougher nightmares.

The most recent one, (night before last) was kind of an insult. I have been so sick lately, (negative for Covid thankfully I suppose, but whatever this is seems to be worse than Covid) that I was in bed from like 8:30 pm til 6:00 am and got 4 1/2 hours sleep. I spent the rest of that time coughing, and the little sleep I got was that nightmare. Ugh.

 

[Meglen]

Your not listening to any music while you sleep are you? I tried that special beat for sleep type and it gave me the worst night terrors of my life.

 

[easyas123]

I suffered a traumatic situation several years ago, and after it was over I experienced several nightmares related (none gruesome ) to the situation that ripped open the mental wound over & over again. Dreams were not always the same, but the theme was always the same. I did/do use OTC sleep meds and some herbal remedies (same one recommended by both my acupuncturist & my Dr.) but I was determined not to take RX sleep meds. Therapy over the situation itself and time has brought the dreams to a presumed stop, as it's been over a year since I had one. The situation I experienced was 8 years ago, so I had the dreams for a while...with that being said, I've always had insomnia, but father has insomnia, my grandfather and my son are sleep walkers. We've got some weird sleep stuff happening in our family I guess!

Ironically I had a panic inducing dream last night about packing for a trip, I get those every time I travel long distances, so it's become a bit of a funny thing - we know when I start having them that our trip must be soon

 

[DLgal]

Recurring nightmares are a hallmark of suppressed trauma. It's a manufestation of PTSD. Therapy can help, in particular insomnia specific therapy using a combination of CBT and EMDR. You might not even be aware of what trauma you are holding onto (you may have either suppressed it so long you don't have a conscious memory of it or it occurred when you were too young to have an active memory of it).

I can tell you that I have a family member who this was happening to. Turns out this person has some very severe PTSD that had been suppressed for so long that all kinds of medical issues have resulted because of it. This person was conditioned to believe that the trauma experienced was normal and that they needed to just "get over it."

There are medications that you can take specifically to help with nightmares. I recommend you ask your doctor for a referral to a psychiatrist and consider finding a good therapist to help you work through whatever is causing your sleep issues. Sleep is essential for good health and a lack of sleep can be extremely damaging both physically and neurologically.

 

[mamamary]

I would have pretty much the same nightmare over and over. One thing I had read at the time (maybe 4 years ago) was to draw the image. Now I just drew the monster that was the recurring figure. I drew it from the back (no particular reason ) but there was no mistaking who it was. I then took a picture of what I drew and I look at it occasionally. For some reason that helped me.

 

[piglet1979]

My son got them all the time when he was little. He would wake up screaming at about the same time every night. The doctor had us interrupt his sleep cycle. So before we went to bed we would rub his back just enough that it would break the sleep cycle but not wake him up. This is what stopped his. Though he was very young so may be very different as an adult.

I would get the occasionally. I had 2 different ones (being trapped in a burning house fire with my brother and my cousins and I being chased by someone trying to get us) until we moved from the that house. I will also get them if I watch scary things closer to bed time. Scary can be very mild scary. I had nightmares from Ghostbusters. Legends of the Falls gave me nightmares for an entire summer. When I was pregnant with both kids I had dreams every night that I was being fired from my job. There was nothing I did to stop any of them. They all stopped on there own.

I hope you get some relief soon.

 

[JLTraveling]

I mean, Robert Louis Stevenson locked himself in the attic for two weeks to write down his nightmares, and we got Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. So maybe your family is onto something.

I go through periods of really intense nightmares, generally when I'm under stress. I've been doing a few things recently to try to help:

1. Sound machine--I rotate between jungle sounds, rain, and a couple of others
2. Planetarium--I project the starry sky on my ceiling every night, and it makes me feel peaceful
3. Sitcoms--I think someone mentioned this one upthread. It's become my nightly ritual to watch two episodes of old sitcoms right before bed. I loved sitcoms as a kid, plus I think seeing everything neatly wrapped up in 30 minutes help me relax. And now that it's become a habit, just the act of watching cues my brain for more restful sleep.
4. Reading--I ALWAYS take something light to read to bed with me. Nothing I'm super into or I'll end up staying up. Just pleasant and mildly interesting. It helps keep my brain from stirring up

It's not a perfect system, I've actually had some nightmares the past couple of nights. But overall, it's reduced both the number of nights I experience them and their intensity. Good luck!

 

[StevieTimes]

This is a terrible suggestion; are you in a state that allows thc? A small edible or similar equals no dreams; or so I've heard.

 

[Aimeedyan]

Have you taken any medication prior?

It took awhile but I realized that if I took Benadryl before bed, I had night terrors 100% of the time. It was awful for me and DH, as it always woke him up too and I was terrified to go back to sleep.

I still have them when dealing with high levels of stress but nothing like when taking Benadryl.

I also end my day by watching a funny, familiar sitcom in bed (usually rotate between the same 3-4 sitcoms). It helps a lot, too.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

It was weird, I had 2 nightmares last night. I woke up from one, only to go back to sleep and have another. They were not "gruesome", but very unsettling nonetheless.

I cannot say that truly believe in hauntings 100%, however my deceased ex-husband has a "recurring role" in many of these nightmares. I know if it is possible to haunt somebody, he would be doing it to me. I know it SOUNDS ridiculous, but it happens so much that I am beginning to wonder.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Any better Skywalker?