Recurring nightmares-argh!

[Globules]

I had a really disturbed night last night.

I had the nightmares that I have about every 6 months. I wake up, but I can't make a noise. I try to scream, but can't. I'm voiceless. I feel wide awake, but silent.

It terrifies me so much that I actually wake myself up in order to make sure I can still speak. I have the same dream 3/4 times in the same night, then don't have it again for several months.

What recurring nightmares do you have?

That sounds terrifying! I suffer quite badly with nightmares, I wake up in a proper sweaty panic and can take quite a long time to calm down. My most common ones are the classic anxiety dream of running to catch a train, often weighed down with lots of baggage. And one that makes me seem really quite paranoid (which is odd because I'd say I'm really the reverse in waking life) where I believe my family and friends all know something I don't and are trying to trip me up or catch me out - or worse, shadowy forces / people are observing my house and watching me sleep. The absolute worse one I get (made worse by the tragic recent AirIndia disaster and the awful videos on line, but I've been having it for years) is that I am watching a plane crash into a city, I am a detached observer from afar, no chance of being hurt myself but absolutely powerless to do anything, it's horrible!

Have you found anything that helps with them? All the advice I've been given is around good sleep hygiene (maintaining room at the right temperature and dark/quiet helps a bit) and addressing stress and anxiety in your waking life (I had some counselling about totally different things, which did reduce the frequency/intensity of the dreams a bit, although when I then stopped because I felt I'd worked through and felt better about the conscious stuff, the dreams came right back ). I've also tried some hypnotherapy, aromatherapy and yoga, none of which did anything at all for the dreams...