RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (Full Version)

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Missokyst -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 11:22:26 AM)

When I was a kid I used to be able to dream of things before they happened.  Earthquakes, car accidents, people dying, bad stuff, were normal for me until I was 8 or so.  I would wake up sweating, trembling, and nervous for the rest of the night. 
Sometimes, because I started into art when I was very small, I would draw what I could remember, which.. when you see a vase shattered in exactly the position you drew 3 months prior, can freak you out. 
So I started sleeping with the overhead light on, whereas before when I was younger, I only used a nightlight.  It got to the point that when I pray (and I still do, nightly), I added in, and please do not let me have any bad or true dreams tonight.  I think whether you believe in god or not, that telling yourself you prefer not to have dreams at least puts that in your head.
My bad dreams since have been very few.  I do still get them occasionally but not with the power they had when I was younger.  But, I still sleep with the light on, though now it is not the overhead variety any longer.
It helps when the dream is so great I need to write it down to remind myself in the morning. 
Kyst




candystripper -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 1:50:34 PM)

Daes..with all due respect to the pervious posters -- I think what you describe is not nightmares like we all have but rather 'night terrors'.  I'd suggest researching the syndrome yourself and seeking whatever treatment best suits you. 
 
I'm a little concerned about your experience during the movie Sunshine.  I think it sounds like a dissociative episode...but my opinion, based only on what you've written, is worthless -- and a single isolated event does not sound like the illness at all.
 
If it's of any consolation to you, I believe you have a much more serious type of ailment than those of us who have insomnia or who suffer nightmares, and are entitled to feel its worth working on because it disrupts your life to a degree.
 
candystripper
 
 



popeye1250 -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 4:16:21 PM)

Buy a gun.
Keep it unloaded next to the bed so that you can "shoot" the monsters and bad guys.
Monsters and bad guys are afraid of guns.



kiwisub12 -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 5:26:45 PM)

I sleep with a fan on , and a cd on repeat of a thunderstorm. very soothing.
also, as a kid i learned that if i have a nightmare, if i get up and go pee, i won't have the same dream when i go back to sleep.



Lucylastic -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 6:14:31 PM)

I have phases of nightmares usually following a theme... the only thing that works or seems to work for me is to actively think of the horror before I go to sleep, try to look at it logicallly, it doesnt seem to keep me awake with worry , it calms me..but then I am a little strange anyway.
Im another one who sleeps with a fan running to cover noises, creaks, doggy sounds etc etc.
I hope you find something somewhere to help
Lucy



candystripper -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 6:32:48 PM)

http://www.nightterrors.org/
 
A place to begin, Daes.  Evidentially night terrors are thought to be a form of sleep disorder.
 
If you conclude this is applicable to you, a word of caution:  I have had two sleep studies done, at two different clinics...one run by the Cleveland Clinic.  I found a lack of follow up care and other deficienies.  Evidentially the sleep test is billed as a single event, and pre and post test care is therefore contra-indicated from a cost perspective.  Ask a lot of questions about the entire process before choosing a clinic to be tested at, or you will have little to show for it other than a very disturbed night.
 
I wish you the best....this must be quite dreadful, but  treatment is possible.
 
candystripper



Aneirin -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 6:34:11 PM)

I have nightmares on a regular basis, and often if I wake, I want to go back in to sort the problem out, so force myself to sleep. Often if I don't wake half way through the dream at it fades on it's own, I just lie there thinking wtf was that all about, something my subconscience was trying to work out and what glimpses I got of the movie made little sense and leave me questioning all day. The worst of dreams is what I call a waking dream, where I dream I have woken, got up, dressed, washed and fed and gone out to do whatever I do, only to wake in a panic and find myself still in bed having slept late. These, are common, what is scary about them, it sets up a deja vu sort of thing, where I sort of know something as it happens, as if I have been there before.

So, I am on meds, meds that mess with serratonin, and although the dreams are not new, I have always had them, The meds cause me not to worry too much., a case of can't be bothered with cryptic ideas, meds I think.

And I do drink coffee, quite a lot of it, and yes I know it is a stimulant, so might well be influencing my dreams, but often with the dreams, I feel I seek them, an adventure to be had.

Horror films, well, though I used to like them, I don't seek them anymore, as though I have grown out of that phase. But I will agree with others here, having the tv or radio on when going to sleep is not good, because you do pick up what is going on and the mind makes up it's own story. Odd to think really, how aware we actually are when asleep.



Tantriqu -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 6:35:05 PM)

First, get a routine:  exercise a few hours before bedtime, then shower/brush/floss.  No caffeine for 12 hours, no alcohol, no drugs except an orgasm.

The most important thing to remember is something I learned when I was 8 and cured me:  there's nothing there in the dark that's not there in the light. 
Nightmares are basically about lack of control.  If you have a nightmare, turn on a light, write it down and write a happy ending, no matter how absurd.  If it gets your heart racing, burn it off by some boring exercise like cleaning your bathroom, then have an orgasm and get back to sleep.  It's always better in the morning.  

As a kid, I always dreamt I had an evil monk in my room, until I realised it was my bathrobe!   Closed my closet door, and gone forever. 
I also had a recurrent nightmare about an evil 14th century queen, which I turned by directed dreaming into a historical mystery.  Falling can become flying.
Movement can make you hallucinate, so make sure you have blackout curtains.  If you need a nightlight, make sure it's positioned so there are no scary shadows, and make it a girlie colour like pink. 

Here's the biggie:  get an iPod with a comfortable earphone and load it with audiobooks.
I have all sorts, but all the antithesis of nightmares:  Jane Austen, kiddie books like Roald Dahl, Brit wit like Douglas Adamas, poetry, erotica, whatever your favourites are, in the most soothing of voices, and let them whisper lullabies to you all night.

Good luck!



Rule -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 6:40:40 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: faerytattoodgirl
sometimes i wake up after screaming in dream and my mouth is wide open but no sound.

Seems that you are visited by The Gentlemen. Only Buffy can save you. ;-)
 
All muscles are paralyzed during sleep to prevent accidents. So it is unlikely that you scream aloud during dreaming. Of course there are exceptions. Sleepwalker muscles obviously are not paralyzed. And many people talk in their sleep. I do not know whether sleepwalkers talk in their sleep during sleepwalking, though. Neither do I know whether sleeptalkers scream during sleeptalking.



Aneirin -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 6:50:38 PM)

Ooo, when I needed to sleep and could not get to sleep, I used to use music via headphones, the music was Tallis fantasia by Thomas Tallis, an orchestral piece, but it takes the mind on a journey. I think it is about twelve minutes long, but on listening to it with a timer, I never seem to remember hearing the music past four minutes.

Another I tried recently was one of the Mckenna hypnosis things in order to quit smoking, so far it has not worked, but it sends me to sleep well.

Nightmares though, they could be a symptom of anxiety, if you are at all anxious about anything, even the smallest thing, it can manifest itself in the dreams, as the subconscious tries to work things out when the mind is not concerned with the day to day program of running the body in our awake mode. Do you fear the dreams, perhaps if you took an interest in the dreams things might be better. Often I have researched things when awake from things thrown up in dreams, as if the dream was the mind requesting information to sort out a problem, sometimes research provides the answer the mind needs and it does not bother you any more.



faerytattoodgirl -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 7:14:22 PM)

quote:


Seems that you are visited by The Gentlemen. Only Buffy can save you. ;-)


tv isnt real...otherwise i could pull my evil lesbian twin willow out from the tv and into my bed...



Leatherist -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 7:21:06 PM)

Stop watching the evening news.



fluffyswitch -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 8:22:38 PM)

i have nightmares and night terrors all the time, and i always have. i sleep walk like you wouldn't believe too. i don't necessarily have to have a perceptable level of stress in my life to trigger it, but i've found that if i fall out of a regular de stress routine i start up more frequently (one of the psychs that i talked to once told me that my brain probably doesn't function right and i don't shut down at the end of the night during my encoding process the way that normal people does so that my dreams pick up on a lot more stuff than what they should). i don't have to be consciously stressed to have it happen. it makes life...akward sometimes, like the time i was running around my apartment screaming because i thought my roommate was being scalded to death in my shower.

i think i would try to find some sort of nightly routine that will put you in the sleep mindset, and attempt to 'embrace' the fact that you have these types of dreams. it sounds counterintuitive but once i stopped caring and stopped fighting them i started finding that dealing with these dreams was easier, to the point where i really have to be having a terror before it really bothers me. otherwise it's just how i am, and most people don't believe me when i talk about what i'm dreaming they think i make it up as i go along.



MistressPav -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 9:06:01 PM)

Lunesta helped me when I was going thru nightmares.

Make sure you're not eating a heavy meal within 3 hours of going to bed.

Make sure your body is burning enough calories (are you getting at least 40 minutes of aerobic exercise a day?) so that when you DO go to sleep, your body is too busy repairing tissues and rejuvenating to show you nightmares.



BrokenSaint -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 9:15:27 PM)

Meds may help, though I'd stress researching lucid dreaming and trying to train yourself to do it. Then when the dream starts turning to nightmare you can just go....hmm...well....fuck you, this is my head, then disintegrate the monsters chasing you, save your loved ones, or whatever else.

That being said most often I let my nightmares play out, and see what I can learn from them. I've realized a tendency for mine to play out along the lines of fears, things I'm upset about, etc. So I learn from them. I examine what they have to tell me about myself. Once I did that enough, I started calling them nightmares only for classification, as they no longer bothered me.



DominaYork -> RE: Nightmares - How do I make them stop??? (8/11/2008 9:52:31 PM)

This may sound like an odd suggestion but age can play a part and hormone levels too. The trouble with sleep disorders is that there are so many various types and causes. We all can say oh it sounds like this or that but we're all just shooting the dark here.

The freak out during the movie is troubling. Issues not dealt with pop up in the most unusual ways. If it's impacting your life talk to a professional about it, a doc or a psych or someone. Sleep is important!

Sweet dreams everyone.



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