Why the fuck is this happening to me??

[scarydreams]

Has anyone ever been through a phase of having awful nightmares? How can I stop it happening?

basically I’ve never had a problem with nightmares before but now I get them every night. It’s always the same type of dream where I’m in my room looking at myself sleeping. Sometimes I’ll stay in my room but other times I’ll walk about my house but there’s a really menacing thing there and it makes the most awful laugh and I get a horrible dread feeling because I know it’s watching me and coming for me, then I run back to my room and go to bed and I end up waking up. It’s exactly like the movie insidious except obviously I’m not actually watching myself sleep, I’m just dreaming that I’m doing that, and I’m dreaming about the menacing presence but when I wake up it’s still bloody terrifying even though i know it’s just a dream. When I wake up I can hear the laugh ringing in my ears for ages afterwards, it’s horrendous

this has started out of the blue and I don’t understand why or how to stop it. Yesterday after it happened my heart was beating over 175bpm when I woke up because I was so terrified and my bed and pjs were absolutely drenched in sweat. I’m scared to go to sleep now because I know it’s going to happen.

please tell me someone has some advice on how I can stop this? I’m fucking petrified to fall asleep now because I know it will happen.

I always get nightmares when I am too hot at night and have realised for me it's definitely a temperature thing

I would approach this as a psychological / spiritual / emotional issue.
Whether or not you believe in 'woo' or the supernatural or are religious, using some techniques along those lines will assist your subconscious in tackling this.

Try a prayer for protection to a guardian angel or similar being every night before you sleep.
Try a space/house cleansing technique, e.g. candles, incense, etc. Google how to cleanse a space of bad energies.
Try visualisation - imagine yourself protected in a golden 'egg' of light while you are lying in bed, and try to make it as 'real' as possible in your imagination.
Consider going for some counselling if you have any trauma in your past that you need to address.

Write down your dreams, and then finish them off with non scary endings.
I’ve found it really helps. I’ve been on medication that gave me some horrid nightmares, but finishing them really did help

I've gone through this before with nightmares about massive bugs in my bed - horrible!

It seemed to be a pattern my brain got itself into, like a tic. Because I had that nightmare every night, I kept having that nightmare every night.

What worked for me was breaking the cycle. I lay down to sleep and repeated to myself, "you're not going to dream about bugs tonight" over and over again til I fell asleep. And it's never happened since. Good luck Op.

I had bad dreams like this when my thyroid was overactive.

Really important to switch off your phone before sleeping,
no screens for an hour before bed.
dreams are your subconscious working stuff out get a good dream book
good luck

I've prayed for you OP. I hope you have peace tonight. I believe you are really seeing yourself sleep. There's many things we don't understand! You should pray too.

Agreed! If you actually see yourself sleeping (very vivid dream) is a type of sleeping disorder, nothing to worry about but horrifying until you know what it is. Are you very very tired? It used to happen to me when I was too tired and my body would feel asleep but I had the sense of a big threat coming for me and I could not move. Some people have visual hallucinations apparently, I used to have sound ones (horrible violin sound)
I used to hear a noise before it started (similar to the beep on the ears after a concert) so I would shake my body to wake myself up before it started, wash my face to wake up and fall asleep slower.
Look it up and as you worry less it will hopefully stop, good luck!

Have you recently started taking the progesterone only contraceptive pill?
That gave me panic attacks in the night

Get the priest. Seriously, your dream gave me goosebumps 👻

My son was having nightmares so we tried saying a prayer before he went to sleep and they stopped. Even the Lord’s Prayer would probably be ok if you don’t know any. I’d also smudge the house with sage but that’s just me.
what you think at bedtime has an impact on your subconscious so you should bear this in mind. Singing a nice song in your head anything to distract from negative thinking.

The first thing is to rule out any medication change- so many standard medications cause night terrors, nightmares and so on, beta-blockers, anti-depressants, melatonin, magnesium (which helps you sleep but some people find it can make them have bad dreams), the Pill, opiates such as codeine or morphine, the list is endless on that front and people forget about that.

I have very sinister hallucinations on waking in the night which are due to meds, bit like the Death Eaters in Harry Potter swooping in, I do scream quite loudly. I know though that it's just a meds based hallucination and so go straight back to sleep. Basically do anything that works: rewrite the ending, have a light on low, pray, whatever makes you feel better as these things are horrible. This will end though, these phases usually do.

You tube nightmare completion technique.

I don’t know your age, but could you be peri menopausal? It’s all to do with oestrogen levels, it’s something some women experience. I went through a (thankfully short) phase of distressing nightmares.

Are you taking any Antihistamines? I get bad nightmares on Piriteze/ Cetrizine!

i get like this when I’m too hot. You’re maybe not even aware how hot you are so would check that. it’s been happening a lot recently with the change in weather.
for this reason I no longer shower or have a bath any later than 7pm (it’s like my body retains the heat) and by time I go to bed I’m boiled.

I sleep 9months if the year with a 4.5tog duvet and 3 summer months with a sheet. I am also worse on the lead up to my period.

I went through similar recently for a few weeks, thankfully they have stopped for now although I’m worried they’ll be triggered again! My DF had just been diagnosed with cancer and my DH was/is having health issues. Severe stress definitely plays a big part in them.

I was here to suggest this - I think it’s sleep paralysis

Does it happen at the same time every night?

Years ago I regularly used to wake at 4am in a state of absolute terror; shaking, sweat soaked, so paralysed with nameless fear I couldn't move. It never happened any other time.

Its caused by body chemistry and can be fixed with a course of medication. Don't suffer, go and tell your GP.

I was not in peri menopause but going through major life traumas when I was having horrendous nightmares on repeat, looking back, the dreams do reflect how I probably felt at the time

Stress? Unresolved childhood trauma?

My OH used to have terrible dreams when we first met. As he worked through the bullshit from his childhood over a period of months with me verbally, the dreams started to vanish. Now he rarely has them.

TowerRaven7 · 15/05/2023 20:35
Do you use any essential oils before bed? In particular I’ve used Vetiver for sleep and it causes nightmares for me, I believe there are others that are linked to nightmares.

Yes, anything that comes from the eastern practices, using oils which are not sanctified by a church , taro cards, immoral subjects occupation - understand this as you wish or as it always has been understood, are all unhealthy practices which impinge directly on the health of the spiritual part of your being

lots of hayfever medications, especially prescription ones that are a bit stronger, can cause nightmares or night terrors. benadryl for example is a hallucinogen, and people often abuse it deliberately to get high on it. (they go into a hallucinogenic state while awake of course due to high dose)
check the leaflets of any medications you’re on to see if they cause bad dreams, there’s also a website to check drug interactions to see if it could be adverse drug interaction.

Dreams are only nightmares because your subconscious wants you to remember the lesson and fix it.
it sounds like you are not listening

There are some very ahem, diverse views on here.

@scarydreams as I mentioned above I’ve really suffered from this sort of dream and also sleep paralysis. As I mentioned I do believe they are related. is really interesting on the subject. I really recommend you watch it.