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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Just woken up from TERRIBLE dream....please calm me down?

26 replies

AjasLipstick · 20/07/2018 17:51

For context, I live in Australia where it's 2.15am.

I went to bed after a nice day. DH and I had been shopping this evening and had a nice time. No alcohol or drugs...we don't do either.

Kids were ok...gone to bed well.

Went to sleep at normal time, had a mad dream where I was performing in a play with people I've never met before...I even remembered the weird song we sang when I first woke up.

At the end of the play, I went outside and it was a back garden with a rushing, deep stream at the back. The water was sort of coming under the garden and then sucking back out into the stream. I stepped down the embankment and put my wellie into the water and then kept stepping.

And it was much deeper than I realised and I was suddenly underwater and going down...was TERRIBLE as I'm a bad swimmer.

I woke up at the moment I thought I'd die and I was struggling to breathe with a terrible weight on my chest.

My heart actually hurt a bit and it took a good while to calm down.

I'm not overweight or asthmatic...no history of breathing issues. Now I am paranoid someone I love is dead or dying!

OP posts:

MissionItsPossible · 20/07/2018 17:53

It’s just a dream.

HelloEllo · 20/07/2018 17:53

Is your DH not there?

honeyishrunkthekid · 20/07/2018 17:55

It's a dream. It's your subconscious. Not health related or anything. Maybe you're stressed?

Milfromhades · 20/07/2018 17:56

I always think a bad dream is your subconscious trying to tell you something. In this case it sounds like you could be getting into something dangerous or bad for you.

TruJay · 20/07/2018 17:56

Gosh I hate dreams like that, that appear so real that you actually have physical effects of it after having woken up and for some time afterwards.
I once had one where my brother was abducted and they kept calling us saying we could talk to him and we did but it turned out they’d just recorded his voice and he was actually already dead. They had killed him and chopped up his body and they delivered it to us in a bag, I was just about to open up the bag when I woke with a start. The grief I felt at losing my brother was horrific and totally real. I had the deepest, raw feeling he was hurt or in danger. I had to ring him at 3am to see if he was ok, bloody awful it was. Couldn’t get back to sleep, I was traumatised. My brother was fine by the way.
I hope you settle soon, it’s awful when you can’t shake the feeling something is wrong.

didyouseetheflaresinthesky · 20/07/2018 17:57

More likely to be this OP www.livescience.com/56422-sleep-paralysis-different-cultures.html

I've had it myself and it is absolutely terrifying. But it is just a dream. It will be alright and more than likely everyone is fine.

Omgyouatetheprincess · 20/07/2018 17:58

I’ve had dreams like this too! It’s horrible :( could it be possible that you’ve got low blood sugar?

GreatRailwayMaps · 20/07/2018 17:59

Bad dreams seem so much worse in the middle of the night don't they. My advice is put the light on, read something light hearted (mumsnet classics!) get your brain thinking about something else.
Keep telling yourself It was just a dream, don't dwell on it. Dreams can't make a loved one die - I dreamt someone died the other night, they're still alive.
Hope you get back to sleep soon

Original poster

AjasLipstick · 20/07/2018 17:59

DH is here but he slept in DD's room after she wandered into ours shortly after we got into bed. That's also a normal occurrence for us...happens about twice a week.

DD was snoring happily beside me!

Mil nothing I'm getting into at all. I've had a few worries about things recently though and they all came together so that's been a bit tricky.

OP posts:

Original poster

AjasLipstick · 20/07/2018 18:01

Princess not any more! I was so stressed I got up and finished a tub of strawberry icecream! I did eat dinner much later than usual due to shopping. That could have been an issue too I suppose.

Thank you Maps that's good advice!

OP posts:

Summersup · 20/07/2018 18:02

I was also thinking of sleep paralysis, that heavy weight on the chest is very characteristic of it. Sorry you had this, OP it is genuinely frightening.

SandunesAndRainclouds · 20/07/2018 18:03

Doesn’t a drowning dream usually mean you’re feeling overwhelmed?

Original poster

AjasLipstick · 20/07/2018 18:06

Rainclouds I have been feeling overwhelmed but things have begun to improve over the past week. Maybe it's because of the lifting of stress that the dream happened? Maybe it's my body and mind acknowledging the stress I've had has been more than I realised.

It's helping me to talk here. I hadn't realised how stressed I've been.

OP posts:

Omgyouatetheprincess · 20/07/2018 18:08

Ice cream always helps hope you feel a bit better soon x

Member · 20/07/2018 18:10

Oh I hate these vivid dreams that seem so real - on the occasions I’ve had them, I’ve continued to feel weird the following day.

It could mean some underlying anxiety about something potentially overwhelming or just as likely,you woke up during the wrong bit of the sleep cycle.

TSSDNCOP · 20/07/2018 18:18

You poor thing, those sort of dreams leave me with cramps in my legs which I assume is adrenaline.

I have to get up and literally walk it off, then read or listen to the radio on headphones until I can drift back off.

Then I feel like I've got sodding jet lag all the next day.

Original poster

AjasLipstick · 20/07/2018 18:20

I hope not TS! I'm sure now that it was a combo of too much rich food too late...plus a coffee! (What was I thinking!?) and my recent stresses.

What I could get away with in my 30s I can't in my 40s it seems!

OP posts:

c3pu · 20/07/2018 18:23

I had an incredibly vivid and realistic dream once where I was in space. The mission was very important, and when the time came to go back to earth it was broadcast live worldwide, and I received a phone call from my kids saying that they would be watching me come back to earth. I was so proud!

Then there was a problem, the spaceship broke apart on the way back down and the heat of re-entry burnt us all alive as my children watched.

I woke up and thought "Fucking hell brain, that's probably the darkest thing I can possibly imagine"

Original poster

AjasLipstick · 20/07/2018 18:25

Good grief C3PU that sounds terrible! My rather ordinary drowning in a stream seems tame compared to that!

OP posts:

hibeat · 20/07/2018 18:26

Don't take the dream literally, write down what you cannot forget, what bothered you the most, then go to a dream dictionary, you will be surprised that usually the real meaning is right there, and it's simple. Man has been explaining dreams for 1000 years now. I'm not an expert but when the dream is gripping like that and it does not make sense you can transform it into something else that does.
Hope it helps.

Milfromhades · 20/07/2018 18:33

I woke up and thought "Fucking hell brain, that's probably the darkest thing I can possibly imagine"
Sometimes your brain can be a bastard!

MissionItsPossible · 20/07/2018 19:20

I think people put too much emphasis on dreams. I’ve always thought of them as your brain being allowed to wander without focused conscious which is why they are so random. I don’t believe in “it’s your sub conscious trying to tell you something”. That’s just my view though.

gingeristhenewblack43 · 20/07/2018 19:36

I often have really vivid dreams about the sea and boats, I always feel nauseous the next day and bits of the dream keep coming back to me. Probably because I'm scared of the sea and get sea sick on boats.

SandunesAndRainclouds · 20/07/2018 22:22

Dreams are incredible - I’m a vivid dreamer and can often relate them to something in real life and find that quite calming.

The dream sounds as though you’ve been a bit caught up in something, perhaps got swept away with it and didn’t realise and it overwhelmed you. Something extraordinary within something completely normal maybe?

Duskqueen · 20/07/2018 23:22

You have said that you have been feeling overwhelmed recently, this is most likely your subconscious telling you you feel like your drowning or it could just be a terrible nightmare.
I had a horrendous one where is was on holiday in a caravan with my mum and 2 DC (my DH wasn't there as he was at work for some reason), I was cooking tea and having a nice conversation with my mum, I finished tea and shouted the DC to let them know it was ready, then my DD started screaming mummy I ran outside and she just said my DS's name, I asked her where she was and she pointed at the river we were stood by as I saw my baby boy floating down the river with his head the wrong way round (obviously broken) I screamed no and ran into the river just repeating no and try it to get to him. I woke up crying. He had just started crawling (at an early age) and we had been having a conversation that day about how we would have to have eyes in the backs of our heads, as when crawling so young they don't understand dangers, I think that's what triggered it, I couldn't get back to sleep for hours after that. All I wanted to do was hug him and cry.
I'm sure everyone you love is fine and as I previously it will be because you have been feeling overwhelmed recently and it is just your subconscious.

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