I keep acting out crazy nightmares - has anyone else had this?

[whippetdaughter]

AIBU to ask if anyone else can relate?

Last few years I wake up during the night and it as if the dream extends into being semi-awake. I “believe” that there is an intruder trying to kill me/ my (lovely and asleep) DH is about to kill me or is not really my DH but an intruder. It has also happened on a trip away with one of my DC where I got up in the night checking doors and windows convinced intruders were in the room. After a minute or two of checking the room/ “escaping” to the bathroom and putting on lights etc I am able to see this is not real and come out of it. Some nights I go back to sleep and it happens again.

I have no history of actual serious trauma or intruders and during the day I am not having any strange fears or beliefs.

Has anyone experienced anything like this? Any tips?

This has been happening to me for literally all of my life. It runs in my family (DDad and DB are just the same) and it gets worse for all of us when we're tired, stressed or something has changed in our sleeping environment (e.g. staying in a hotel).

Have you recently had a baby or possibly started with perimenopause? I found both of those events made me significantly less fun to share a bed with 😁

My best tip is to practice good sleep hygiene and take episodes as a sign that you're more stressed/tired than usual. (I'm neurodiverse and terrible at feeling how I'm feeling, so for me these episodes are often how I realise I need to give myself a break.) Also, make sure your partner (or anyone else who might hear you crashing around) knows you're prone to doing this, and if they hear you doing it, they should speak to you calmly and tell you it's just a dream.

YANBU to ask!
Its always god to hear that something we are worried about is happening to someone else and we are not alone!

When I was a teen I had a recurring dream that I had murdered someone and buried them in the back garden and the police were closing in! On waking up, for a minute or two, I’d think it was real and be in total panic until I came round and realised it was a dream.

Kind of funny really because I’m a pacifist Buddhist vegan, and really wouldn’t harm a fly, let alone murder anyone, but it wasn’t funny at the time!

No experience OP but it sounds distressing! Have had sleep paralysis & some v involved nightmares that are difficult to kind of come round from but none where they extend into my waking state! I’d ask for a referral to a sleep clinic although you may have a long wait/may not have one in your area. When it began were you going through any major stressors or changes in your life or anything? That’s prob too obvious a suggestion but our unconscious fears can do all sorts to sleep IME - even if they’re just regular & not nec traumatic ones (eg a work situation or issues attached to being a parent, or going through loss etc). But a sleep clinic would know I’m sure!

Thank you all! It’s hard to relate it to stress etc, it doesn’t seem to follow any pattern. It did start around perimenopause but I have been on hrt for a while.

The thing with a sleep study is that there can be weeks between it happening so it would likely not capture it. I was thinking of setting up one of those pet/ baby camera overnight to see if there are other times it happens when I’m not aware. My poor DH! If I wake him talking nonsense he does very calmly tell me to go back to sleep.

Just curious what kind of progesterone do you take OP? I take Utrogestan & can’t take directly before bed as it gives me the most terrifying nightmares always about being murdered/killed! They’re way more sinister than any bad dreams I’ve ever had & psychologically more real somehow. I take it in the day & that puts a stop to it. Bit harder if you’re got the mirena coil or something tho!

That’s interesting about progesterone! I take cyclical so two weeks on and two weeks off and sleep really well with progesterone. It is actually more likely to happen when I’m not taking it. When you get the nightmares do you get up and behave as if it is happening? That’s the part that concerns me.

Sounds like night terrors to me.

I used to get them all the time, have actually injured myself running into walls and doorframes trying to get away from whatever was ‘chasing’ me.

Personally they were stress related and I dint get so many these days thankfully.

@whippetdaughter no thankfully they stop when I wake up don’t think I cld handle it if they didn’t!! Oh well just a thought 🤷‍♀️

Sounds like night terrors.
Non REM parasomnia.
Very bad in my teens, twenties, though not diagnosed then.
I slept walked as a child.
I have all sorts of stories!

I am medicated (muscle relaxant) at night.