Recurring nightmare

LegacyUser

Just woke up again having had a dream and was frozen stiff and in quite some pain.

Basically, the dream is that I'm in a house and i dont feel safe, i feel an overwhelming sense of doom, like im gonna be attacked in my sleep or something. People try to attack me or break into the house or something and I'm terrified.

Not sure what happens next but then i find out all my friends and family have been murdered and i freak out and try to run away / get away from it.

This may seems like nothing but it is genuiely distressing me and causing serious insomnia. I've also been finding it really difficult to sleep lately. I'll get an hour at around 3am then wake for an hour and a half then get maybe 3 hours max. Then i sleep ok in the evenings cos im so wrecked.

So, any ideas on ways to get into a healthy sleeping pattern and interpretations of my dreams?

I wouldn't imagine your sleeping pattern would affect it. My sleeping pattern is all over the shop, but i rarely have nightmares.


Might you have seen a film, read a book, heard lyrics of a song, watched a TV show, etc. or something like that that had a similar storyline that may be subconsciously stuck in your head?

Have you recently discussed death with your family? Been thinking about "What if" your family, or members of it, died?


Could be just a subconcious thing that will go away sometime soon, when your mind gets over it.


You could try watching a film before you go to bed. Not some light-hearted comedy, though. Watch an intense, interesting film. Something semi-realistic (that doesn't involve mass-murder or death, etc.). When you get into bed, try to think of the film, as if the storyline applied to the real world and you were trapped in the middle of it. It may change your dream to a less-frightening tone, and you may get over the current nightmares you're having.



I'm no expert on dreams or your unconcious mind, I'm speaking as just the average joe (or average Shane, as it were) so my advice is strictly something that i would personally try myself, and may not help at all.

Pebbles68

I sort of know how you feel although not quite as scary, just a need to constantly run away from something and that sense of doom.
I've been looking for ways of dealing with this - I found the following and am thinking of giving him a call...

http://www.aidansloan.ie/hcforum08/viewtopic.php?t=1718

Das Kitty

I reckon you're stressed.

Is there anything that could be causing you stress in your daily life?

Once I got so stressed I was having nightmares all the time, I actually wasn't getting any deep sleep just constant dreaming so I'd wake up more tired than I went to sleep, I knew I had to change something when I was lying on the sofa drifting in and out of sleep and I woke up to see two skin-heads crouched by the fireplace, I screamed the house down! They weren't there at all I was just stuck somewhere between dreaming and awake. I can understand why people believe in ghosts now though! I was shook up for ages after that.

Dizzyblonde

+1 for stress being the cause. Stress can do all sorts of weird things. If you can get to the root of what's stressing or worrying you, the nightmares should stop.

jessbeth

For some reason it sounds like you may have a fear of abandonment. Could that be true? It might just help to sit down with your family and friends and get some reassurance. I would recommend practising progressive muscle relaxation, you can download free pod casts for this on itunes and just type it into google to get some advice about it. A relaxed body equals a relaxed mind. I would also recommend not drinking any caffeine drinks after 16.00 and avoid chocolate and foods that pump you up with sugar late in the evening. Get some regular exercise and the best thing is try and stick to a sleeping pattern. If the dream is recurrent and keeps popping up again and again it might be a good idea to invest in a few counselling sessions to get to the route of it. Good luck.