Nightmares/Reoccurring nightmares

[brokenlight]

Does anyone have any advice for nightmares/reoccurring nightmares?

I have struggled with them my entire life.

[Marnie22 Volunteer]

Years ago I used to see a counsellor who helped me examine my dreams, particularly recurring ones. I found that talking about them out loud to another person was sometimes all it took for me to suddenly see a meaning to them. Writing down dreams can also help. The counsellor told me that people that appear in dreams are often representing aspects of yourself - perhaps you dream of someone you think of as strong - this could be about the strong side of yourself. Most dreams are about yourself and aspects of your mind. Houses are often representing your mind - different rooms being different aspects. Basically most dreams are trying to help you understand yourself.

At the time I used to have horrible dreams featuring a member of my family. The counsellor said that next time I had the dream I should challenge that person and tell them that I didn't want them there. I said I didn't think that would work because I would be asleep and wouldn't be able to. I was really amazed when I had the same dream again, because in the dream I did what the counsellor had advised and I stopped having those dreams! I have found that once I really understand what the dream is about, I don't have it any more.

I apologise if this is a messy load of confused stuff. I hope some part of it is helpful to you.

All the best.

[Billsfriend in reply to Marnie22]

Wow, that was a lot of very helpful information. I remember learning to confront the monsters in my dreams long ago. It worked Soo well that my nightmares ended.

Of course after years of freedom from them, I totally forgot! Thanks again for reminding me. I've been haunted by nightmares for years!

[brokenlight in reply to Billsfriend]

Thank you for sharing and for being here Billsfriend ✨

[brokenlight in reply to Marnie22]

Thank you for your response Marnie22.

The information and suggestions you shared were great and really helpful!

It’s been so nice to have a break from the nightmares! Thank you so much ✨✨✨

[Marnie22 Volunteer in reply to brokenlight]

I am so pleased for you. Thank you for the good news.

[Beingindependent Volunteer]

I’m sorry you’re going through that it’s such an awful feeling and to wake up quickly because of scary nightmares

What I would do is I would think of a situation that’s very happy before I went to bed either made up or something real even like a good looking star or celebrity and imagine something really wonderful happening just you know create something in your mind or maybe walking through a garden filled with sunflowers or just some thing that you think is funny is very beautiful or fun or something to be really nice to happen

and I found that that really kind of relaxed me enough to go to sleep

I also started taking melatonin gummies it’s over the counter and it’s not a drug it’s a vitamin and that has really helped with sleeping and usually wake up refreshed

I sound like a commercial

anyways but if you can relax yourself before you go to sleep then usually you can wake up relaxed and not have those images of the night

now if you’re going through processing the memories of what happened to you that I noticed that sometimes it plays out in our dreams that’s our unconscious mind trying to deal with what has happened to us

so that is kind of difficult but find your relaxation and calm before you go to sleep so perhaps that will work I hope it does

[brokenlight in reply to Beingindependent]

Thank you for your reply Beingindependent.

I really appreciate your compassion and your suggestions. And it’s awesome that you have found things that work well for you.

I’ve been wanting to try melatonin so thank you for the reminder 🙂

[sbielski]

I have reoccurring nightmares and it’s like I’m back in situations I was in when I was younger. It’s scary to me because when I wake up I feel like they were so real. I have severe panic attacks as well so right now I’m on Xanax, I know a lot of people talk bad about it, but it has been helping me. I have also been told to confront the person in my dream, but I just shut down in my dream like I did in real life.

[brokenlight in reply to sbielski]

Thank you for you reply sbielski.

I can relate to the intense realness, to the scariness, & to the panic attacks.

Xanax was helpful to me for many years and then it wasn’t.

I’m glad that you have something that works for you.

It’s also very brave of you to confront the person in your dream, even if you do end up shutting down.

I’m going to try that too.

I had a night terror last night and woke up feeling like I used to feel 10 years ago. It was the worst...

Best of luck to us both! And thank you for being here ✨