Bad dreams and false awakenings - anyone experience this?

[Makemeawinner]

I’ve always had weird or sometimes bad dreams but recently I have been experiencing a horrible phenomenon which leaves me feeling awful all day long.

So, I will be in the middle of an unpleasant or bad dream but then will wake up, only to find that I haven’t actually woken but am still ‘stuck’ in the bad dream.

An example was the other week. My alarm went off and I got out of bed, then opened the curtains (as I do every morning) only to find that when I looked back at the bed it was made of concrete and when I walked out onto the landing all the other doors (including to my dc rooms) were bricked up! I then woke for real and was left feeling unsettled all day.

I had a dream ‘thing’ this morning - I was on a walk with my family and suddenly started being attacked by large alien drones, we managed to get into a house but they still attacked us through the walls with laser beams! Luckily, my dh alarm went off and he got out of bed which woke me, only yet again, I wasn’t awake and we continued to be ‘attacked’ by the alien drones. After this time I did wake for real. It was around 4am and I just laid there for hours in a hot sweat, panic and feeling very unreal, feeling frightened that my reality wasn’t real.
I now feel very anxious and unsettled.
I have googled and find it’s actually a thing and this is called False Awakenings.
I am under a lot of stress atm, am perimenopausal too so I dare say these things aren’t helping but what on earth can I do to stop this? It’s horrible.
I don’t drink, I walk the dog twice a day for exercise and listen to relaxation every night.

The whole thing freaks me out!!

Have you tried magnesium ? What are you doing to destress ?

DustyLee123 I have tried a few different forms of magnesium but I have bad IBS and they have given me a worsening of my IBS. I listen to hypnotherapy and meditation every day.

Yes, I get this. I've always had very vivid, weird dreams, I get night terrors, hypnogogic hallucinations, sleep paralysis, the works! The false awakenings are very disconcerting!

NorthWestThree they really are so disconcerting aren’t they? I suffer sleep paralysis too, that terrifies me. So you know what causes your sleep issues? Have you tried anything to help ease it all?

I've had sleep issues ever since I can remember. I've tried going to the GP several times over the years but have always been dismissed. I remember as a teenager the doctor telling me to listen to calming music as I fell asleep. I've had therapy ("close your eyes and imagine what the hallucination might say to you if it spoke" nonsense), I've tried sleeping pills. I've tried keeping a food diary to see if it is somehow linked.
I have no idea why it happens! I've not suffered any major trauma that I am aware of. I've tried all the "sleep hygiene" tips, I can go for weeks and weeks and be fine, then suddenly I'm screaming in my sleep because there is a demon in my room...!

NorthWestThree it’s just horrible. I too have had sleep issues since I was a child. I honestly thought I’d overcome them but over the last few years they seem to have returned with a vengeance.

I get a lot of bad dreams and occasionally false awakenings, always have, no idea why as my life is generally untroubled.

To stop the dream lingering all day I get fresh air asap. Every other morning I bolt straight into our garden in my nightie, this helps to shake it off. Sounds corny but I also take the view that I feel dreadful and my day is going to be uphill so I may as well do something nice for someone (odd job around the house that isn’t mine/phone a friend who I know is struggling) and this switches my brain somehow off myself and I feel better. Finally I can’t watch any of the stuff most people love as it goes straight into my dreams. So Game if Thrones and all the crime series when kids are murdered, anything with domestic violence etc are out.

I think people who don’t get these intense dreams don’t understand the hold they have over you, how real they continue to feel long after you have woken up. It is boring for family members too so I just get into the garden asap and shake it off.

What 'age group' are you in? My dreams became fairly traumatising during perimenopause, even bouts of sleep paralysis that still upset me if I think about them nearly 2 years on, just horrific.

JeanMarsh I can not watch anything that is even slightly upsetting these days, it goes straight to my dreams, I have to watch light hearted stuff.
Viewfrommyhouse I’m 50 and feel I’ve been in peri for around 5 years, everything in my life seems to have become these last 5 years!

Yep. I'm 48 and same. Its been, frankly, fucking horrific.

My DF, in his 70’s, has very upsetting dreams so I wonder if it’s an aging thing.

Viewfrommyhouse I really could not find more fitting words for this shit parade - I feel your pain!

See your GP and ask for a referral to a professional