Vivid nightmares and sleep paralysis?

[Scarlet6]

The past 2 months has been a nightmare. I'm kinda starting to be afraid of sleeping.
My dreams are usually scary, but lately they became terrifying. (For example: rape, old man chasing me, bitten by a tiger ... etc). I wake up frightened and I don't want to sleep.
All my life, I had long undisrupted sleepless nights. But lately, I wake up several times at night and don't always fall back asleep!

Last night I had another horrible dream, my family was shot and I wish it ended at that. That was just the beginning of it ... ugh :( .
(No need to get into it.)

What's wrong with me?
I was actually so happy yesterday and I went to sleep just fine. I exercise/walk everyday and I don't see why I keep having night terrors.

I've had sleep paralysis 3-4 times in my life (many years ago) and now I'm worried it's gonna happen again. I hope none of you experienced this.

It was never this bad.

What do I do? Any ideas?

[Titsywoo]

Is there anything you are worried about? Or have you started eating later at night - carbs in particular. Both these things tend to cause nightmares for me.

[rosesandcashmere]

I've had these for ten years now. They came suddenly and GP thinks they will go just as quickly (I don't want to try pills). They do tend to come when I'm overtired, or don't realise I'm stressed. Bedtime at the same time every night helps. They also get easier to deal with (sometimes) when you get used to what's happening. I would suggest a trip to the GP in the first instance as asking for help reduced mine without even doing anything else. Sending they are really shit :(

[rosesandcashmere]

Also worrying it will happen again is a self fulfilling prophecy. Tell yourself that it probably will happen again but when it does - you know what it is and you know that you're safe.

[ThinkOfTheMice]

How warm is your bedroom? Cool it down if it's over 20c. Being too hot can trigger them.
When go they happen? There's usually a pattern of X mins before waking/after falling asleep. Set your alarm for half an hour before that. Get out of bed, walk around and get back in.

[Scarlet6]

I have been eating late at night which I should stop.
Yes, I recently moved to a new country and everything is all over the place so you can say I'm pretty stressed. Maybe my body is expressing it during sleep?

I'm really thinking of going to a GP because I'm starting to not like sleeping and that's a problem.
I don't know what I should do tbh.

My bedroom can get pretty warm so you might be right. Also the alarm thing does work sometimes! Maybe I'll do this technique more often..