When I met dh 14 years ago he had quite regular night terrors. They were quite bad and he used to imagine things coming through the walls and would leap out of bed and knock picture frames off walls etc. They've calmed down over the years and now only happen once a fortnight or month and mostly only involve him sitting up quickly in bed and thinking he's choking on something, or running to the bathroom because he thinks he needs the loo. Until last night.
I was woken at 1am by him leaping around the bedroom screaming and waving his arms in the air, rampaging around the bedroom ripping wardrobe doors open, knocking clothes onto the floor absolutely terrified (fast breathing, fast heartbeat etc). When he's had these episodes he doesn't respond well in his sleep to being told it's not real, so my usual method is to very calmly tell him to keep calm, I know how real it seems but im here and will help him. After a while he comes around and wakes up properly full of embarrassment. But because I was woken so quickly from deep sleep and it was such a shock to see him like that, I wasn't prepared for it and so said 'for goodness sake, it's not real! You're dreaming'. At which point he grabbed my wrists and held me down and said "Listen! I saw something on my phone this morning about things dressed as elephants coming through the walls!" He's never, ever been physical with me before during these episodes and I was genuinely scared. I changed tack and spoke calmly to him and eventually he let go of me and slowly woke up, realising what had happened. He was of course mortified and very embarrassed and apologetic. He'd managed to hurt himself too - a big lump and bruise on his shin from when he was leaping around.
Within minutes he was fast asleep again but I was really unsettled by the thought it could happen again and he might smother or strangle me next time. Stupidly I Googled night terrors and found that some people can become violent to partners etc. It took ages to go back to sleep and I was on edge all night. I mean, we have since giggled about the elephants comment because it's all just so surreal and tbh humour helps us cope with it. But ultimately I was scared.
AIBU to be worried or have I been watching too many films and letting my imagination run wild? This has never happened to such an extent before and I have no way of knowing if it will happen again. It was all very bizarre. Unfortunately it seems the condition is hereditary and our ds has inherited it, though thankfully not yet to this extent. I do worry about him too though as we've also found him sleep walking around his room.
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AIBU?
To be scared he'll hurt me in his sleep
52 replies
LittleLionMansMummy · 03/06/2016 08:18
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