Dream worryier(sic?)

LegacyUser

Hi,
For the past month especially I've been having dreadful nights sleep. After an hour or 2 my dreams will start to focus on things that don't particularly worry me in real life but when sleeping anger and frustrate the hell out of me. They eventually cause me to wake up, and almost emidiatly i will fall back asleep and go straight back into the annoying dream. After a few cycles of waking and falling asleep I just have to leave the bed to wake up completely and escape the memory. What really worrys me is that I now expect this on a nightly basis, and am only getting an hour or two of solid sleep a night. The only times I get a full nights kip is if Ive been out drinking, so is having a night-cap the way to go? or is there something else i can do?

Wibbs

I'm not sure how to advise. The one thing I would advise is to avoid the nightcap. That's one route to becoming dependent so not such a good plan. maybe others have better counsel.

all the stars

what is the dream about?
Dreams are things that you need to look at/ deal with in waking life sometimes..

Marksie

I am not sure whether this is a PI or something for the parrotsnormal forum.
Depends on what your view on dreams is, whether its a subconscious expression etc. of your stresses.
In which case deal with the stresses either by relaxation or calming techniques, or other means which can allow you to switch off

RedXIV

when i was but a sprog i had convinced myself that on august 17th of every year (this is true! don't mock) that i would have the exact same nightmare. and i did, from ages 5 till 9 and i can still remember it vividly. admittitly i'm at a stage where a giant cat with the joker from batmans face is more humourous than anything else but when i started to become irrationally afraid of august the 17th, my folks sought help. and it came in the form of hypnosis. i can't remember exactly the technique but he establishes a sort of "safety catch" in your dream, something or someone that you can touch and it brings you to a happy place.... thinking back, it's a bit mad but it worked for me!

Find a hypnotist, thats my advice!

Beruthiel

getnosleep wrote: »

is having a night-cap the way to go? or is there something else i can do?

I agree with Wibbs, that's the road to no where. I've heard warm milk can help.
More importantly, what has changed in your life recently, if anything?
Have you changed your eating habits or what you are eating?
There's a reason this has started just a month ago, so look back carefully and see if you can spot what it is.

estar

having a nightcap will only disturb your sleep pattern further

as it is proven that it causes early morning waking over time

so avoid.

having had insomnia for a year about ten years ago i can only
offer what worked for me.

1. have a sleeping ritual -same time every night
2. sleep in a clean airy and tidy room
3. have some exercise during the day so body and mind are equally tired
4. write down any thoughts just before you go to bed, a diary, to offload
the mind. keep that diary and if you are woken by dreams, write them down
it will clear your mind.

they say that dreams are the brains way of filing away what has
happened during the day - categorising it, filing it into memory
making connectiosn between it and other memories

what is going on in your day to day life at the moment
do you have lots of worries?

or a lot of activity and busyness?

thats my tuppence

estar

they do say that if you can avoid it at all

- dont get out of the bed, just lie there,
either turn on the light write in your diary and then
lie in the bed.

as by getting out of bed you are establishing a behavioural
pattern that your body will learn pretty fast

it took me about 3 months to unlearn the getting out of bed
after waking early thing, once i had been doing it for a year
as i used get really really bored.

remember your dreams are meaningless. scary, they might be
but they are just your brain filing away.

i also think that yoga is fantastic for insomnia as it relaxes
you and also teaches you relaxing breathing techniques
that can be used in the bed.

like the squeexing and relaxing every muscle thing

thats what i do now if i wake early.

starting with my toes i squeeze and relax every muscle

hold for ten and relax for ten, breathing in and out at
the same pace.

LostinBlanch

OP Acupuncture can also help deal with vivid dreams causing insomnia. Also take the other good advice on here about not having a drink before you go to sleep, also try and look back to see if there is anything that could have caused the dreams in the first place.