nightmares and night terrors

ooooo hunny! ((((HUGS)))) Usually there is underlying problems and your brain is trying to deal with them somehow!...I'm not a pyschologist by any means but that's usually where nightmares come from!!! Either that or you are watching too many horror show before bed time...I'm sorry I hope that helped some! ((((HUGS))))

I had this same problem and it resurfaces during stressful times. The thing that helped me was to start keeping a dream journal by the bed. You just scribble down what ever you remember and then go back over it later to determine what the nightmare means to you. Usally being stressed out or worrying can bring on these things. Being aware of what you are struggleing thru can also allow you to be able to determine when you are dreaming and you can work toward lucid dreaming which means you can control your dreams. Freaky right? Now anytime I start to nightmare I just take control of it and fly away! LOL!

I suffer with nightmares and night terrors too, I sometimes wake up and feel as though someone is sitting on me and preventing me from moving or crying out. When I can move again I have to leave the light on for a while and read or something to calm me back down again.
I can get them for no reason at all, I'm not stressed or troubled and I don't eat weird stuff before bed. I used to have recurring nightmares as a kid about faceless surgeons eek.

I don't know whether you believe in this or not, Laurel, but the feeling of something sitting on you and being paralyzed is called astral catalepsy- the idea behind that is that your spirit leaves your body while you are sleeping, which makes sense to me when you think about those dreams that were 'so real' you really felt like you were there, ya know? Basically, this is supposed to happen every night, and be a very natural and smooth transition. However, sometimes people wake up before they are compeletely back inside themselves - the pressure on your chest is well... you... and the paralysis comes from your body recognizing that your spirit isn't contained where it should be, and thus thinks that it's dying... but it isn't! I've never experienced it, but my mom has, and said it's a really awful feeling.

http://soulsreflection.com/astralcatalepsy.htm

Or just type astral catalepsy into google, and tons of things pop up. maybe you can find out a way to control it. Hope that helps! =)

Thanks I'll have a look at that site=) I've heard of it being called sleep paralysis before, whatever it's called it's really scary.

aww, thanks everyone for replying!!!

this is something ive dealt with most of my life--i remember having dreams about a cannibalistic clown when i was like, 2 years old.

ive also had that feeling of something crushing me, and i was certain there were demons in my room staring at me. it was one of the worst experiences of my life..... and ive had some doozies. o.O its also referred to as sleep paralysis--scientists explain it as waking up before the body regains conciousness.

i havent been able to ever control my dreams very well; sometimes i even realize im having a nightmare and when i try to wake myself, i become paralyzed and feel like im drowning.

this sort of thing went on throughout my childhood. id outgrown it, for the most part, by high school, but after being mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually traumatized by my sociopathic ex-fiancee, it came back, and instead of getting better over the past 4 years, its only gotten worse. i suppose it doesnt help that he and his friends are still e-stalking me, and theres nothing i can do about it. :-s

lately ive been having dreams that my current bf will leave me, or something happens and we are separated. they are soooooo vivid, and i often wake up confused as to how i ended up in my bed, still with him. ive always talked in my sleep (apparently ive had full-fledged conversations with my parents and even sat up during them, lol), but hes told me that i also cry, grind my teeth, whip around, etc...... ive even woken myself up by punching and kicking walls! a few nights ago he mentioned that i almost started singing... xD that was during a surprisingly normal dream. lmao!

anyway, sorry its so long, but that is a more detailed version of my ailment.

oh, and i do suffer from panic attacks, so im sure that has something to do with it. earlier, i was looking for homeopathic remedies (teas, etc.) for this problem, but didnt get very far, as im currently battling a cold, as well. :-P

thanks again, everyone! i hope i can finally solve this.

I think you're right that it's all connected somehow... though I'm not exactly sure how that is! I had night terrors when I was 2.... and my parents say I would actually be running around like something was chasing me, that I'd scream and cry and when they'd grab me, I'd be blank like I had no idea who they were. I don't recall any of this obviously, but I guess they eventually went away.

Even though the night terrors are gone, I still have panic attacks, and while they sometimes come on during the day, I usually wake up out of a dead sleep with them. It's like I'm terrified, and thinking of death, and shaky and nauseus, and it's awful. But about 10 or 15 minutes and they just.... go away. And thinking about it... I think I actually did read somewhere online that people with night terrors as children are more likely to have panic attacks - I just don't know why! It's really frustrating!

Also, from what I read, there's no cure for panic attacks, but meditation, yoga and lots of exercise are supposed to be the best things to keep them away - and I have a book on homeopathic remedies, and I know I read about panic attacks in there, so I'll go find the book and post the advice!! I must say, you seem quite active in your sleep, my dear!! Apparently I used to do that, too. I've been alseep with my eyes open, had conversations with my parents, sat up in the middle of the night and said Good Morning America!!! and went back to sleep, and once when I was little walked to my parent's room and demanded to know where the dinosaurs had gone! Haha!!!

Have you ever talked to someone about all the awful things your ex-fiance put you through? Maybe the stress over that situation repeating itself with your current bf is seeping into your subconscious somewhere and causing a lot of these problems. That's the hardest part - finding out where the blockage is and removing it. But theoretically, once it's discovered and fixed, the problem will go away. Hmmmm.

Now then! I'm off to find that book!

Okay so here's what I found! Although there isn't anything for panic attacks or sleeping, I did find stuff on anxiety and stress - and since anxiety attacks and panic attacks are the same thing, hopefully this will help! Of course, you don't have to do ALL the things listed - just pick what you like! Oh, and if you're wondering, the book is called 'The Doctors Book of Herbal Home Remedies' by the editors of Prevention Health Books =)

Anxiety:
* Take a capsule providing 60 milligrams of kavalactones 3 times daily (kava kava). Kavalactones are the active anxiety-fighting ingredients in the herb Kava
* Take a 150 milligram capsule of Valerian 2 times daily for calming nerves and help sleeping
* Drink one cup of chamomile tea 3 times daily as the active ingredient, apigenin, has a significant anti-anxiety effect
* Passionflower tea or tincture in times of great stress, rather than a daily tea

Anxiety-Free Tea:
*1 oz. dried siberian ginseng
*1 oz. dried licorice
*1 oz dried skullcap
*1/2 oz dried marshmallow
*1/2 oz dried valerian

To make, scoop out 1 tsp of the blend and steep in hot water for 10 minutes, then strain. Drink 1 to 3 cups daily as needed.

Stress:
*Chamomile tea 3 times daily
*Chamomile aromatherapy oil
*Valerian, Passionflower and Skullcap tincture - 2 droppers of tincture diluted in 1/2 cup of water 3 times daily
*150 to 300 milligrams of Valerin in capsule form 2 times daily, especially to help at night
*15 drops of Siberian Ginseng tincture daily or 100-200 milligrams in capsule form 3 times daily before meals - helps you stay calm in stressful situations
*200 milligrams of Kava Kava root extract in capsule form 3 times daily

Well it looks like the remedies are pretty much the same for these situations, so that makes it easy enough!

OMG, that is exactly what ive been hoping to find! gee, if only that book were sold in israel.... lmao. i guess i can just pm you whenever i want you to look something up; teehee!

it would be wonderful if i could afford a shrink--God knows i need one. i did try talking to a therapist when i was in college, but we really didnt connect. i felt like she wasnt taking me seriously, when i was having actual physical side effects from all the trauma i was enduring. now, im over it for the most part, except i think its stupid that hes still e-stalking me after four years, and now i have a weirdly jaded feeling that my bf is too good to be true, and its all going to go wrong (because with my ex-fiancee, it was literally a fairy tale romance until he went crazy). im pretty much positive that thats where my dreams of losing my bf come from. i do trust him with all my heart, and he is the sweetest, most caring and understanding person ive ever met. still, i feel like it CANT last, and even if he and i always are perfect for each other (and nobody falls out of love or goes insane), God or the devil or fate or whatever or whoever will tear us apart. I'm particularly afraid of premature death for that reason--every day before he goes to work, and then again before he comes home, i tell him to be safe.

maybe its my turn to go crazy??? i REALLY hope thats not the case. :-s

All of us who suffer from this...I thought all along that I was a weirdo for going thru it. I had a friend who guided me thru meditation and even entered my dreams.Part of the trick in controling your dreams is realizing that you dont want to awaken you just want the dream state to become peaceful, so you give yourself a cue in your dreams(I look at my hands) and then try to take control.She had me read up on transendential(sp?) meditation and that helped too. A great book called :Breath by Breath by: Larry Rosenberg was a great help in training my mind during both meditation and sleep. I would do this before bedtime and create a sanctuary in my minds eye that i can now go to during bad dreams, waking pain and panic attacks. It may sound kind a hokey and new agey but hey thats me. All my advice is givin out of love and compassion...so that has to count for something right? Good luck and sweet dreams!

I don't suffer from night terrors but this is something a dream psycologist or therapist can help with, usulay with what the others have said, its usually a sign of a anexity disorder.

meditation is key, try soothing teas, or talking about your fears. You are talking to us about it so that counts, but talk to your boyfriend too, it may help

sounds fine to me! at this point, im looking for all the help i can get! thanks!

also, gypsy, one of the teas you posted before looks remarkably similar to the Aveda relaxing tea, so i went and poured myself some (I have a little left from when i worked in an aveda spa, lol). now that i have a similar recipe, i wont be as stingy with the aveda stuff! ;) thanks. :-D

I go through stages of having messed up sleeping - at the moment I'm fine *touch wood* although a few nightmares are creeping back in. I've always talked in my sleep, mostly just mumbling but apparently the other night when I was at my boyfriend's I suddenly grabbed my ear and started shouting like it really hurt (I was asleep but it's quite possible - I have piercing infections so if he knocked it by accident I might have just been in pain while asleep) and then suddenly stopped shouting and was mumbling at him for ages before suddenly stopping and going "And then we had sex. And then we had sex." before going back to mumbling!
That's pretty much the worst I do around other people, but I go through periods where I have horrible nightmares; sometimes just flashes of dead bodies and blood and stuff like that, like a flashback from a horror film. I also have these weird dreams where I think someone is in my room and I'll sit up and talk to them and everything's fine, it's not scary or anything, and then I wake up and I'm sat in bed, often with the duvet wrapped around me (I sleep naked and my most common thought when someone in my room is "I can't let [insert name here] see me naked!"), and have even got up and put my dressing gown on a few times, once waking up as I was in the process of putting it on. It didn't scare me but it did mean I got very little sleep cause I was constantly waking up all night.

Lately it's just been a few dreams, like I dreamt the other night that my dad was telling me how worthless and pathetic I am, so I left the house, but found myself walking into the kitchen again, and every time I tried to leave I'd wind up back in my house with my father yelling at me. I woke up crying and shaking.

That sleep paralysis thing - I've had that a few times, and it's HORRIBLE. Although there are worse ones, which I've never had thank god but I know at least two people who have, which is this thing where you wake up and you either think an old woman is on your chest which is what's keeping you down, or you just see an old woman in your room. Andy had that and he said there was just this old woman at the end of the bed, and her mouth was open like she was screaming but he couldn't hear anything. I think that's terrifying. But yeah, not that uncommon - it's called Old Hag Attack or something.

Sorry, not much use, but you're not alone. I can't give any advice either as mine just come and go. One thing though - I have really nasty nightmares if I need the toilet in the night. I guess it's my body's way of not letting me wet myself or something, but yeah, I don't drink anything for half an hour before bed and go to the toilet a bunch of times, otherwise I won't make it through the night.

Glad I could help, Rachie! =) Now if only I could learn to like the taste of tea, maybe I could calm myself down as well!!! >.< What's the secret to making it yummy? ^.^

And Knittin' - that sounds awful, those nightmares of yours! >.< It's interesting that you wake up talking to people sometimes, though - and even more so that you aren't frightened by it! Eek!