To still be shaken about this nightmare.

[ItsBloodyFreezingg]

I have an infection at the moment causing fever and chills, nausea and broken sleep. I just feel shit basically!

I am assuming it's due to this that I have been having quite vivid and horrible dreams the past few nights. They are more like hallucinations because they all take place where I am (in my bedroom or my house in general etc...) But I am definitely asleep and dreaming.

Usually I wake and I realise it's not real and I'm okay but last night I had another nightmare and I can't shake this uneasy and scared feeling this morning.

I can't even tell you what this dream was about. All I remember was being in my bathroom and there was a really awful/scary noise. The description that came to me was that it sounded like you'd expect something supernatural/demonic to sound. I woke up really suddenly and my heart was like it was about to beat out of my chest and I was sweating and really panicked. I actually had to wake DP to console me because I was convinced I'd heard this noise in the bedroom and it's what had woken me up.

I got up at 6am and honestly since then I've just felt panicky and strange and on edge. I don't even want to go in our bathroom?! It really frightened me and I don't want to go back to sleep!

Does anyone else get nightmares as an adult? Have you ever had one that really affected you? I feel like a giant wimp, I'm an adult woman who won't go in her bathroom because of a bad dream!! but I just can't shake it!

I had a nightmare a few years ago that still haunts me because of just how frightening and awful it was. These things can haunt you! It’s not because you’re a wimp, it’s because brains are powerful things and yours has experienced something distressing.

No advice but hope you feel better soon

Are you taking any medication/pain relief for your infection?
Firstly, look at the side effects of those, especially if you're taking them with pain relief. It's very common to experience very vivid dreams on certain medication so please don't worry.
Might be worth popping to your pharmacist for a chat.

I'm on antibiotics and taking the odd standard painkillers from Tesco (paracetamol and ibuprofen).

I'll have a read on the leaflet with my antibiotics.

Yes, I have had the same nightmare twice and it still makes me feel awful when I think about it. I know mine is related to anxiety/stress. But yes -I feel unsettled for days afterwards.

I dream I have murdered some (that isn’t in the dream, I just know that I have done it), and that I am covering it up, but I know that I am about to get caught, and I am desperately trying to cover my tracks. It is horrible.

Stay well hydrated, have a nice sweet hot cup of tea and watch something easy to distract yourself. Hope you feel better soon.

When I'm ill I have nightmares. I put it down to the fact that my body is just working over time. When my fever subsides it's back to normal.

Metronidazole gave me horrible nightmares.

I've had dreams that left me out of sorts for a full day. It's no fun.

In your case I'd put my favourite upbeat song on and 'reclaim' the bathroom. Have a nice shower or soak in the bath and reset your brain. (You're basically proving to yourself that nothing bad is lurking in there. I've had to do the same in the past but for my car... When I was due at an important meeting at work. That was fun 😂)

I've had some awful nightmares when ill but am finding that I get a lot more nowadays when I'm stressed and yes, they leave me unsettled for a long time.

I had one a few months ago when I was in the sea and desperately trying to climb up the cliffs to safety but as high as I climbed, the waves still crashed over me and pulled at me and I was literally clinging on with my fingertips to the rocks until they rolled back and I climbed a bit more before the next ones came. It took a good 6 hours for me to calm down after waking up and I can still vividly recall the terror I felt during the dream.

I've had two stand out horrific nightmares as an adult. Both times I soak up in floods of tears and had to get up and have a cup of tea to calm down.
I won't post about the details because they are disturbing. My palms are sweating thinking about them now.

Hope your better soon OP, I agree with pp reclaim your bathroom.

Thanks all. Well I'm glad it's not just me then (but I'm sorry you've experienced such frightening dreams too!). Aren't our brains cruel?!

I will have to have a bubble bath later, although I may wait until DP is home from work and at least in the house somewhere rather than on my own!

I don't even scare easily. I'm not one to flinch at scary films or worry about the dark, being home alone etc ... But this felt so real! I honestly thought I'd actually heard this noise.

I've got goosebumps again now!

I've had some weird dreams brought on by fevers.

Random trivia - the scene near the end of the first Terminator move when the terminator comes out of the lorry fire came from a dream James Cameron had when ill. He wrote the movie backwards from there.

Any kind of dairy or illness leaves me drifting in and out of the same bit of dream all night long. Super clear and lifelike, it keeps waking me, and as soon as I close my eyes, that same small section of 'footage' starts to repeat. Has sometimes left me feeling a bit haunted during the day.
I used to think getting a new partner sent me loopy, but now realise that part of the whole starting-to-date-someone-new thing, is going for a pizza (back in the day), and the cheese would send me delirious all night, and i'd blame the new body next to me.

It’s frightening to think of what our brains are capable of. It’s like having two different brains, the one I know every day and then the one that unleashes some truly horrendous and sometimes very disturbing stuff during sleep. And then the good brain can’t understand what’s gone in even though it’s done it to itself 😂 does that even make sense?!

Oh this is horrible. I can only relate as i suffer from nightmares frequently, the way I cope is by sharing them with friends and making it a running joke that my brain is truly fucked.

Hopefully the feeling of unease will pass in the next day, xxx

I suffer with nightmares when I'm stressed so I can relate!
You're not a wimp - although the situations and events we dream are not real the emotion and reactions we have are real, and that's why they upset us so much.
I used to work in elderly care with dementia and it was something they taught us that the person may forget the event but they still feel the emotion, and the trainer actually likened it to dreaming - you can't remember why you feel like that because the memory is not stored - but the emotion is real and not forgotten as it's experienced in a different part of the brain. Amazing really.
Hope you feel better soon.

And then the good brain can’t understand what’s gone in even though it’s done it to itself 😂 does that even make sense?!

Yes totally makes sense! And is very annoying.

Not had a bath yet but DP is home now so I'm feeling for confident about using my bathroom again!

I do feel a bit nervous about going to sleep tonight though.

I regularly get incredibly vivid nightmares. They are linked to my migraines. I’ve spent all day trying to shake off the one I had last night. I honestly have no idea how my brain comes up with some of this stuff.

On the flip side, I also get incredibly vivid and amazing dreams. So amazing, that I often wish I didn’t have to wake up.

Yes. A couple of times and it properly freaked me out. Once we were away from home in a holiday rental for a weekend. It was SO vivid and SO plausible that we sat up together all night and went home the next day. That one, years later, I’m still not sure if it actually happened or was a nightmare. Balance of probability a nightmare, but I’m not 100%.

Then I used to reasonably frequently have nightmares that my partner was cheating on me and it was all so ‘real’ I’d wake up crying. I’d wake him up for a cuddle and he was lovely about it. I STILL couldn’t shake the feeling for at least a day.

It’s horrible. Be kind to yourself.

I've been having horrible nightmares lately, I think due to medication. The latest one was so bad I woke up feeling quite terrified. I had to sleep in a different bedroom the next night which sounds ridiculous writing it down but I hear you OP! YANBU.

Then I used to reasonably frequently have nightmares that my partner was cheating on me and it was all so ‘real’ I’d wake up crying. I’d wake him up for a cuddle and he was lovely about it. I STILL couldn’t shake the feeling for at least a day

I had dreams like this regularly when we were first together. It's awful. I'd feel really sad and in need of reassurance all day!