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'm so sorry you're going through this right now. I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this but have you had your thyroid checked? My dad had a period of awful vivid nightmares and he had undiagnosed thyroid problems. They went away once medication was sorted. Hope you have a peaceful night very soon 💐

This may help: edition.cnn.com/2020/09/04/health/how-to-stop-nightmares-in-adults-wellness/index.html

Nicotine replacement therapy (especially 24 hour patches) can cause this. (I know you said 'no new meds ' ... it's just in case you aren't thinking of them as meds).

Another one that has suffered with them only during pregnancy. I know you said this isn't the case with you but it may be hormonal somehow. Feel for you OP as it's very unnerving.

I've been getting disturbing and violent dreams recently. Nothing outstanding has changed in real life. I've had them before and they were around times of stress and also about not feeling heard.

Some of them are too shocking to even detail here. Horrible. I just try and ignore them.

I don't watch any horror type films as I'm always worried the images will occur in my dreams.

I've had amazingly beautiful dreams too though so I think I must just dream very vividly. Not pleasant when they're so violent though.

I can totally relate to this @scarydreams It's what I call a dream within a dream within a dream. It first started when I went onto Mirtazapin. I'd be asleep but then I felt like I was awake & something was there which terrified me & I knew I had to switch my bedside lamp on to wake up properly but it was always just out of reach or something was stopping me. Eventually i would wake up & I would have to physically get out of bed then when I went back to bed I would have to have my lamp on low. I would then spend the next couple of nights I would be scared to go to sleep. I came off the meds & it stopped for a few years then I had a breakdown & the night terrors started again. I can go years without & then can gave 3 or 4 a month. Now I feel like I'm awake but I can't move. I'm shouting for my husband but nothing is coming out. It can feel like I'm calling for an hour or so when in reality it's probably only a couple of minutes. If I'm tired in the day (ra, fm, cfs) I'll nap on the sofa so if it happens my husband is close by.
I now take magnesium tablets in the evening, read quietly in bed then sleep with the radio on low. Maybe talk to your GP & see if they can help? Good luck ♥️

I had a series of nightmares similar to this, although I can't remember anything beyond being pursued by a dark and menacing figure. For some reason I thought I was being bothered by a ghost, got really, REALLY annoyed and decided I'd had enough. I was so damn angry that the next nightmare I had ended with me turning on the dark 'thing', shouting at it that I wasn't scared of it anymore because I was furious, and to leave me alone or I'd find it and kill it.
Nightmares ended!
I'm not certain what the cause of the nightmares was, because I think if it was just my own subconscious my method for dealing with it would have worked just as well as for the ghost option. I was as surprised as I was delighted, so I've no idea if this would work for anyone else!
I've also experienced unpleasantly intense dreams if I've accidentally left a nicotine patch on overnight. Not bad dreams, just extremely and uncomfortably intense.
I really hope you get this resolved OP, interrupted sleep is bad enough when it's benign and NOT preceded with a terror of going to sleep.x

When I had this it was the first warning sign that I was reacting to a component of my new contraceptive implant.