Dreams

[Curry223]

I can’t get rid of the nightmares…

[SavingGrace Administrator]

Hello!

It's good to hear from you - and I'm sorry that you're experiencing bad dreams, which are nightmares

It can be hard waking up, from my experience, and it takes a while for me to realise/recognise that the nightmares are experienced during my sleep. It can take up to a good hour or two - trying to change and nudge my waking consciouness out of the sleep-induced dream, which has left me confused and distressed.

I have these from time to time now - they seem to come in episodes. Is that also how you experience them maybe?

They can feel so real and so overwhelming - so much so, that I do have to get up and out of bed and make a cup of herbal tea, or read something positive, or anything.

As I say, it has been a while now. Yet I know that the fear of bad dreams can also lead to a fear of going to sleep..... and consequentially, difficult thoughts and emotions.

A good night-time routine can help - in my experience.

Whenever I fail to meet that 10pm deadline, I always suffer. Maybe you'll find your routine bed-time clock/hour?

I call it my pumpkin time.

And, also, I managed to succeed for a long time, in avoiding those 'getting to sleep thoughts' by negotiating with myself: a promise to my self that I would address my worries during my waking hours - but that my sleep was necessary... so very necessary.

It is worth - I feel - the next day, after a bad dream, just trying to hold an overview of the episode and the 'issue' contained. trying to address it in waking consciousness and perhaps saying confirmations: such as "I am strong, I am ok, I am safe"...

`reminding ourselves that the present is in fact 'safe' and that we do have authority and are engendered to let our inner selves recognise, that we are can be ok.... and will be ok.

Bad dreams can seem so real.

Sending my blessings. SG xxx

[012703060610 in reply to SavingGrace]

MINOR TRIGGER WARNING

Thank for for sharing your experience with nightmares. I never know if what I am experiencing is common, normal or off totally. Mine also come in waves during peak anxiety. So I have a tough time going to sleep because of all of this....worrying for a terror nightmare. I can usually orient myself in about an hour but never get back to sleep. I find I need to simply get up and try to do something productive. I have a revolving set of nightmares depending on which trauma I'm reliving. The people, places, and times seems to change a bit in my nightmares. This has left me to question at times if what happened to me is exactly how it happened or if my mind is messing with me. For example, I had three c sections and at the birth of my third and final kid, the anesthesia didn't hold so I felt the entire surgery until they could get him out. My arms were strapped down, I was screaming like a dying pig or something. Then they just drugged me to oblivion after it was over. I didn't read the post op notes until 5 years later.....and man, the write up is even brutal. It hasn't manifested in any further medical fears, but it has manifested in a way that is linked to my divorce. I was served papers just three short months after he was born and I went through that ordeal. I was in counseling for it and then boom, divorce papers. He faked caring for me for more than two years as it turns out. That dream changes all of the time. Sometimes it's my current husband and a new kid or it is at a different hospital facility. It's that particular dream that pops up the most. I wake up drenched in sweat each time.

[Curry223 in reply to SavingGrace]

I’m glad I’m not alone! Thank you for the recommendations

[Nathalie99 Partner]

Hi Curry,

I am very sorry that you are experiencing nightmares. They are the worst.

Do they happen regularly and are repeating?

Sometimes changing where you sleep might help. I used to try the sofa if I started having a nightmare in the bedroom. It was helping some of the time to some extent.

Then I worked with a specialist to treat recurring nightmares with some specific protocol that was tried for military veterans. I'm still using a modified version of it.

Eventually working on the events that caused the nightmares in therapy helped but it is insidious the way things are linked.

Trying to wake up and walk, go to another room, do something, get involved with reading something or watching something can help distract you and put your mind on something else.

Trying to sleep in another room if at all possible might help.

I hope you get a good night's sleep, it is so important...

[012703060610 in reply to Nathalie99]

I like the idea of moving rooms. I used to do this as a kid when I couldn't sleep. I would go to the basement where it was cool and had a nice long couch. I will ask my PTSD counselor about this military method as well. EMDR worked but we found it stirred up a little too much so we are trying to focus on the present trauma I'm living in. Thank Nathalie99.

[Curry223 in reply to Nathalie99]

Thank you so much! I will definitely find distractions and talk to my therapist about this!

[Nathalie99 Partner in reply to Curry223]

I hope you will find help and relief, Curry.The method was called Imagery Rehearsal Therapy.

[SurvivingEveryday]

Same here. They keep me up. Have you tried lucid dreaming, or dream journaling? I did this for a month- I would wake up and IMMEDIATELY write down my dreams. I did it after naps, after a night's sleep, everything. Then I would review it and look for patterns and try to notice things in dreams. I wasn't the BEST at lucid dreaming, but eventually I got to the point where I would consciously notice things in my dreams and ignore them (i.e. a person, or a place, a sound even.)

It worked for me, maybe it could help you too.

[Curry223]

no I have tried those methods but I will definitely check them out! Thank you so much