[Pastel Kitten]

For as long as I can remember, I've had incredibly vivid dreams and nightmares. They happen nightly, and I can remember them in great detail. As a result, I often wake up feeling exhausted regardless of how long I've slept. I recently had a terrible nightmare that I was being stalked by a random guy I met in a bookstore who kept telling me he wanted to rape and kill me. I was so scared when I woke up that I couldn't go back to sleep. I'm really sick of all of these dreams...I just want peaceful sleep.

Does anyone else go through something similar? If so, have you figured out any ways to lessen the severity of these dreams? I've tried listening to calming music before/while I'm sleeping (like binaural beats) but it hasn't worked.

[Wander]

Hi Pastel Kitten. Sorry to hear you're having nightmares. They can really mess with you, I know. I have a history of trauma and I found processing that lessened the severity and frequency of my bad dreams. I don't know if that relates to you though.

[Pastel Kitten]

Originally Posted by Wander

Hi Pastel Kitten. Sorry to hear you're having nightmares. They can really mess with you, I know. I have a history of trauma and I found processing that lessened the severity and frequency of my bad dreams. I don't know if that relates to you though.

I do as well, although my nightmares only sometimes reflect what's actually happened to me in real life. A lot of the time, they are completely different scenarios that have never happened to me..but boy are they vivid. Always takes me quite some time to stop feeling disoriented after waking up from those.

[faerie_moon_x]

I've always had extremely vivid dreams my entire life. I remember as a child I used to have very vivid dreams that I could transform into a panther and I honestly believed it was real. I also have a lot of nightmares. The most common nightmare I have is getting caught in a tsunami. The most recent one was I was in a mall with my husband and kids and we were separated, and I was trying to run from the water and find them.

I also have the issue where I sleep but I don't really rest. My mother-in-law (who is bipolar I,) said her first psychiatrist told her that is part of bipolar - sleeping without rest. I don't fully trust her, though. (She also believes that she had a blood test proving she was bipolar, I'm guessing it might have been a thyroid test.)

Anyway, I'm not sure if the dreams are because I'm incredibly creative or because of the bipolar or both. I'm also a writer. I've had some trauma, such as my mom died when I was 13 and I lost custody of my oldest son to my ex (due to being homeless) when he was three and then didn't see him for over a year. I'm not sure if that adds to it.

[cowboy87]

I suffer from night terrors when I do not take my Abilify or some other antipsychotic. I have woken up in the middle of the night sweating, heart racing, and disoriented. I found there are a few things I can do to lessen the chances of having bad nightmares. First no caffeine, alcohol, or eating a couple hours before bed. When I have had an very stressful day, I listen to music while I fall asleep. Last if I am having trouble sleeping I take some sleeping medicine, it tends to block out dreams period.

[Pastel Kitten]

Originally Posted by faerie_moon_x

I've always had extremely vivid dreams my entire life. I remember as a child I used to have very vivid dreams that I could transform into a panther and I honestly believed it was real. I also have a lot of nightmares. The most common nightmare I have is getting caught in a tsunami. The most recent one was I was in a mall with my husband and kids and we were separated, and I was trying to run from the water and find them.

I also have the issue where I sleep but I don't really rest. My mother-in-law (who is bipolar I,) said her first psychiatrist told her that is part of bipolar - sleeping without rest. I don't fully trust her, though. (She also believes that she had a blood test proving she was bipolar, I'm guessing it might have been a thyroid test.)

Anyway, I'm not sure if the dreams are because I'm incredibly creative or because of the bipolar or both. I'm also a writer. I've had some trauma, such as my mom died when I was 13 and I lost custody of my oldest son to my ex (due to being homeless) when he was three and then didn't see him for over a year. I'm not sure if that adds to it.

Interesting, because I've also had dreams involving running from tsunamis or water (or in some instances...running INTO them, believing I had the ability to stop the tsunami with my body). Is this possibly related to feelings of grandeur? I don't really get a significant feeling of grandeur in my waking hours. Nothing crazy, that is. In my high phases I feel very overconfident and unstoppable in the sense that nothing could ever get me down again, but I don't end up believing I have powers like I do in my dreams often.

Another common dream theme I have is roller coasters, for some reason. I'll be riding along the track on the roller coaster normally, only to find the track cuts off at some point and we all go flying off. Or, just with the tsunami dream, I'm somehow able to stop the roller coaster with my own force of will before we crash, etc.

Sometimes if I'm lucky, I can wake myself up if I see "signs" that my weird dreams are turning a little too weird...so I can stop the nightmares that way. I definitely do feel mentally exhausted upon waking very, very often, even if the dream was not a nightmare, because of how purely vivid it was.

[Pastel Kitten]

Originally Posted by cowboy87

I suffer from night terrors when I do not take my Abilify or some other antipsychotic. I have woken up in the middle of the night sweating, heart racing, and disoriented. I found there are a few things I can do to lessen the chances of having bad nightmares. First no caffeine, alcohol, or eating a couple hours before bed. When I have had an very stressful day, I listen to music while I fall asleep. Last if I am having trouble sleeping I take some sleeping medicine, it tends to block out dreams period.

I'm very sorry to hear that. Night terrors are truly...well, terrifying. I've only had one in my life (as far as I know). I was napping with my boyfriend and I suddenly sat up in bed screaming from the tops of my lungs for no reason. I kind of felt "trapped" in the scream, and couldn't stop for at least half a minute or something. If waking up sweating and anxious is considered a night terror as well then I guess I have had more, then. I'm currently unmedicated...so maybe waking up anxious will stop once I get on a good med combo. What kind of sleeping medicine do you take?

[WibblyWobbly]

My nightmares started with my trauma. Most of them are "unrelated" to the trauma in that the characters or situations are different, but they all have one thing in common, fear. I often have a feeling of loss of control. There is a medication that treats nightmares called prazosin (Minipress). It's very helpful but I had to stop taking it because I have naturally low blood pressure and it was just dropping too low.

[Pastel Kitten]

Originally Posted by WibblyWobbly

My nightmares started with my trauma. Most of them are "unrelated" to the trauma in that the characters or situations are different, but they all have one thing in common, fear. I often have a feeling of loss of control. There is a medication that treats nightmares called prazosin (Minipress). It's very helpful but I had to stop taking it because I have naturally low blood pressure and it was just dropping too low.

My nightmares include the same theme of fear as well. Might be related to my trauma afterall. My blood pressure's nowhere near too low..in fact it's a bit too high at times, so maybe prazosin is an option for me.

I have vivid dreams of tornadoes. My ex husband taunting me. And dogs trying to attack me. I had night terrors titrating off seroquel. I literally was crawling up the bedroom wall trying to get away from biting snakes. I was screaming and crying when i woke myself up. Sorry you are going through this. Its not pleasant.

[cowboy87]

Originally Posted by Pastel Kitten

I'm very sorry to hear that. Night terrors are truly...well, terrifying. I've only had one in my life (as far as I know). I was napping with my boyfriend and I suddenly sat up in bed screaming from the tops of my lungs for no reason. I kind of felt "trapped" in the scream, and couldn't stop for at least half a minute or something. If waking up sweating and anxious is considered a night terror as well then I guess I have had more, then. I'm currently unmedicated...so maybe waking up anxious will stop once I get on a good med combo. What kind of sleeping medicine do you take?

I call my night terrors/nightmares aka voodoo sleep. I sleep walk often, sometimes I am aware of whats going on and sometimes not. Sometime I wake up and chase after sounds that sounds like people whispering outside my window, or aliens running across the roof of my house. The sleep walking does not bother me too much since I do not tend to do anything dangerous. The really scary ones are when I lay down and see shadows moving or hear voices coming from under the bed and when I shut my eyes I literally feel my soul or brain or something has dropped from my body. I can not move my legs or my arms. My breathing because different. At this point I begin to dream and it changes from a serial killer stalking me, being lost at sea, ( one of my biggest fears), being possessed by a demon, or being infected with some kind of deadly disease. When I wake from fear I try to scream or move and I can't. Then I finally get sensation back into my body and feel like I got hit by car. My adrenaline is racing, my heart feels like its about to tear. My lungs are gasping for air. I remember the dream for a few minutes and I am still locked into this world of psychosis where I have attacked myself, or jumped of the bed, or sometimes faint. But abilify and seroquel have taken those number of nights to from 3-4 times a week to about once a month.

[HollowRhythms]

Hey Pastel,

I can relate so well.. I dont like calling them nightmares, but any vivid dream, whether it's good or bad i am sooo exhausted the whole next day. It also happens quite often. I've always wondered if it happened to others, thanks for your post Also i hope they get less and less for you. . . it's not easy.

[Pastel Kitten]

Originally Posted by cowboy87

I call my night terrors/nightmares aka voodoo sleep. I sleep walk often, sometimes I am aware of whats going on and sometimes not. Sometime I wake up and chase after sounds that sounds like people whispering outside my window, or aliens running across the roof of my house. The sleep walking does not bother me too much since I do not tend to do anything dangerous. The really scary ones are when I lay down and see shadows moving or hear voices coming from under the bed and when I shut my eyes I literally feel my soul or brain or something has dropped from my body. I can not move my legs or my arms. My breathing because different. At this point I begin to dream and it changes from a serial killer stalking me, being lost at sea, ( one of my biggest fears), being possessed by a demon, or being infected with some kind of deadly disease. When I wake from fear I try to scream or move and I can't. Then I finally get sensation back into my body and feel like I got hit by car. My adrenaline is racing, my heart feels like its about to tear. My lungs are gasping for air. I remember the dream for a few minutes and I am still locked into this world of psychosis where I have attacked myself, or jumped of the bed, or sometimes faint. But abilify and seroquel have taken those number of nights to from 3-4 times a week to about once a month.

I'm so sorry you've had to suffer through these...I definitely haven't had anything nearly as intense as this, but I'm very glad to hear that your medications have significantly lessened the frequency of these episodes.

[Pastel Kitten]

Originally Posted by HollowRhythms

Hey Pastel,

I can relate so well.. I dont like calling them nightmares, but any vivid dream, whether it's good or bad i am sooo exhausted the whole next day. It also happens quite often. I've always wondered if it happened to others, thanks for your post Also i hope they get less and less for you. . . it's not easy.

Hi Hollow! Yes, you are definitely not alone..these dreams just need to take it down a notch, don't they? Thank you and I wish you luck as well.

[GoldenSnitch]

I'm sorry that you're dealing with this, but I'm glad that you asked the question!

I'm the same way. Almost every night I have some type of very vivid dream or nightmare, and I wake up feeling exhausted. Even my new meds aren't helping shut that off. In the morning when I wake up, I can remember most details of the dream/nightmare and I sometimes have a hard time knowing what is real and what really happened in a dream.

I can usually find something from my day that I spent a lot of time thinking about in my dreams, and a lot of my nightmares are about my phobias - for example, being stuck in a building with an illness epidemic that I can't escape, or being chased by a murderer.

I don't have any advice for you, but I can commiserate! I don't know what it is about me that causes this, but some days it does really suck

[Pastel Kitten]

Originally Posted by GoldenSnitch

I'm sorry that you're dealing with this, but I'm glad that you asked the question!

I'm the same way. Almost every night I have some type of very vivid dream or nightmare, and I wake up feeling exhausted. Even my new meds aren't helping shut that off. In the morning when I wake up, I can remember most details of the dream/nightmare and I sometimes have a hard time knowing what is real and what really happened in a dream.

I can usually find something from my day that I spent a lot of time thinking about in my dreams, and a lot of my nightmares are about my phobias - for example, being stuck in a building with an illness epidemic that I can't escape, or being chased by a murderer.

I don't have any advice for you, but I can commiserate! I don't know what it is about me that causes this, but some days it does really suck

Yeah, I definitely wonder whether or not some things in my dreams actually happened in reality! I once was convinced for a whole week that I had a very bad, permanent ink stain in one of my favorite sweaters...but when I went to wear that sweater again in real life, there was NO stain (or even a trace of it). Now..either my washing machine did a miraculous job of removing the stain, or it really was just a dream! So confusing

[DysphoricManicMom]

I have tornado dreams and tsunami dreams, or apocolyptic dreams. Ive read about dream meanings, whether or not u believe in that kinda thing its pretty interesting and makes sense to me.

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I believe we have such vivid dreams and nightmares because of thinking and feeling things so deeply and intensely.

Are you working or any other pressure to perform?

I have what I call anxiety dreams. They increase directly with any increase in responsibility or need to perform - they usually coincide with when I am working an increase directly with the level of performace necessary.

These are vivid nightmares. For example, when I managed a Starbucks I regularly got nightmares about never ending lineups and my being by myself. They usually involved customerss striking out physically. The dreams are terrifying as my life is in jeopardy.

Now I am not working and I feel to seroquel helps. I also am a firm believer in the light therapy I am starting. It has helped with putting me into a decent sleep routine. Keeping me awake during day time and aiding proper sleep during the night.

Is there any way to combat anxiety in your life?

[Row Jimmy]

Ever since I started on my Depakote, I've had all sorts of strange dreams....nothing scary - just odd - people and situations that don't make all that much sense to me.

[Pastel Kitten]

Originally Posted by rcat

Are you working or any other pressure to perform?

I have what I call anxiety dreams. They increase directly with any increase in responsibility or need to perform - they usually coincide with when I am working an increase directly with the level of performace necessary.

These are vivid nightmares. For example, when I managed a Starbucks I regularly got nightmares about never ending lineups and my being by myself. They usually involved customerss striking out physically. The dreams are terrifying as my life is in jeopardy.

Now I am not working and I feel to seroquel helps. I also am a firm believer in the light therapy I am starting. It has helped with putting me into a decent sleep routine. Keeping me awake during day time and aiding proper sleep during the night.

Is there any way to combat anxiety in your life?

I'm in a very stress free environment, and not required to do much of anything other than make sure the house is clean etc. I'm not sure where my anxiety is stemming from at all, a lot of the time..