I’m not on meds and have been trying to sleep at the time and length that my body wants to. But I keep having nightmares. Like one after the other. Sometimes I go through long stretches (like weeks) where nightmares plague my sleep and I’m afraid I’m falling into one of those phases again.
So far I’ve had dreams about:
Mutated humans finding people by sound/light and attacking them (recurring)
My finger being amputated and me never being able to draw again
The one about the other patient shooting me
Dying by strangulation in my sleep (that was fun getting back to sleep after that one)
Someone driving woodchips under my fingernails and making me lick up the blood
Being forced to walk through acid until all the flesh on my feet and ankles burned away
Lying awake during an autopsy unable to speak or move but feeling all the pain
Being chase by a predator animal and crawling into a long pipe that got so small I couldn’t get out of it without going towards the animal. So I just had to wait for the animal to drag me out by my feet and kill me
A mass shooter coming into my job. And I crawl into a narrow but deep bin and a coworker climbs in on top of me but the shooter sees the coworker and shoots her. Then I feel her body go limp on my back.
…
I wish I didn’t have to remember my dreams when they are bad but I don’t know how to make them stop. I wake up at least once a night heart racing. I’m not on meds so it’s not that. I’m getting enough sleep besides these damn nightmares. I make sure I’m completely relaxed before bed. I haven’t seen a horror flick in maybe 2 years. I don’t know man. All I can think of is stress.
Anyone else deal with bouts of bad dreams? How did you get them to stop?
That has a lot of themes of paranoia and exposure to psychosis… Sounds like trauma…
I’d make an attempt to feel at peace with things and try to develop a stronger sense of knowing that you’re dreaming.
Most of those sound like direct metaphors to suffering psychosis…
Surprisingly the most normal dream is the one where your finger is amputated…
I’m no doc or dream reader… but it sounds like you really are struggling to accept your life with the illness and feel a lack of strength in facing it… beyond that you feel that it is unexpectedly going to destroy you… or leave you without the capacity to continue to function (paint).
I believe you will grow beyond those things in time… I used to have horrible nightmares…
You might want to consider trying something new as a hobby that stretches you… what I mean is you need to feel growth and strength over weight that is placed before you… you need to prove to yourself that you have the opportunity to be strong and not let the illness get the better of you.
Well I have experience with nightmares (mostly linked to my trauma) and something I found helped was writing down the dream (or recounting the dream if you dont want to write) and then changing what happened in the dream.
So instead of it being stuck waiting for the predator to drag you out and kill you give yourself the ability to shrink and imagine yourself getting away that way.
And how ever you make yourself survive in the dream is ok it doesn’t have to be logical like the one where a guy shoots everyone just try to imagine how different it would have been if everyone was wearing bullet proof vests and then Spiderman shows up and punches him
Now it might not help all the time but I found it gave me a little relief and helped me convince myself that my nightmares are just a bad dream and I’m safe.
I have a lot of dreams about being in weird hospitals that don’t even exist. But what’s weird is that in my dreams they’re always in the same odd locations in the city I grew up in and lived most of my younger life. I’m either escaping and running away, or wandering room from room, trapped in there. I used to have weird dreams about playing video games designed for schizophrenics, on a special hand-held device while climbing in huge trees. Lots of odd dreams about doing drugs, even though I’ve been fairly clean for over 10 years. All of it uncomfortable to think about when I wake up.
There are medications that your pdoc can give your for persistent nightmares. And they work too. They make your dreams nice and sweet. There are several. I forgot their names.
This is a fantastic idea! Sometimes when I wake up I try to write it down or say them out loud or at least google something about them. Like the mutant dream I woke up and started googling to make sure nothing like that exists. It helps sometimes in making sure I don’t have the same dream again but changing the storyline is better than that idea. Hopefully it will transfer into me being able to decide how the dream ends before I wake up !
I’ve heard of them before. A few people in a group I used to attend took them. For the most part the worked but someone mentioned low sex drive with them and I can’t afford that😔 Personally I’m not big into meds for no life threatening situations but I think it’s important for others to know these types of things exist too so thank you!
@bittercat I was having very disturbing dreams that were waking me up every night, my heart was racing and my adrenaline pumping. I was not able to calm myself down or get back to sleep. I was going a little nuts because I wasn’t getting enough sleep. Then my doctor recommended a medicine called prazosin. It is actually a blood pressure medicine. But the VA discovered that people with PTSD nightmares stopped remembering their dreams and being woken by them if they took this med. So now it’s used for nightmares for people with PTSD and it works for me. I only have to take 5 mgs a night and I barely remember my dreams at all. Once I got up to the right dose for me, I have not been woken by a disturbing dream once. I highly recommend this medicine for anyone plagued by nightmares. It’s called prazosin.
Oh wait, I’ve tried trazodone. It’s great for putting me to sleep but it’s also too good at putting me to sleep. I’m drowsy for houuuuuuuuuuurs after a full nights rest, even at the lowest dose. For a while I was cutting it in half and was still unable to wake up to my alarm clock to get to work on time. It was a disaster!
A little yeah, I’ve woken up a few more times with nightmares stuck in my head. Sometimes I wake up afraid, knowing that I had a bad dream but can’t remember anything about it. So I think that might be a good thing. Although maybe not because I can’t remember them to change it or make sure I don’t have the same one again. I dunno.
Well a little improvement is a step in the right direction!
Well if you can’t remember it the plus side is you don’t have to remember what scared you afterwards but I know it’s not fun to wake up terrified.
I find having water nearby helps sometimes taking a drink can help remind your body that it’s not in danger. also I use chocolate (or any candy really) cause I find focusing on the taste is good for grounding me back in reality. Also maybe try to focus on things like the weight And texture of your blankets cause it can also help to ground you.
And of course deep breaths cause you need to calm that heart rate!
I hope these suggestions aren’t too overbearing! And I wish you the best of luck and the best sleep!
I won’t be able to reply on this thread after this cause I’m new… but I hope you feel better! keep me posted!
Not in the slightest! I always appreciate suggestions like these. I need them! I was thinking about buying a weighted blanket just because I like to be a snuggled up when I sleep. You think I’d work as a grounding tool?
I’ve never used a weighted blanket but I’ve heard a lot about them and i think they’d be great for grounding! If you can I think it’s definitely worth a try
