Night time hallucinations / panic

[Littlepond]

Ever since I can remember I’ve suffered with night terrors and hallucinations. I “wake up” and “see” all sorts of things in my room. It’s scary. It takes me a little time to actually wake up and realise they are not real. My heart races and I’m shaking, it takes a while to calm down and get back to sleep.
This is happening more and more frequently and I don’t know what to do over the years I’ve spoken to various GPs and therapists and no one has an answer for me.

Last night I woke up and saw three men walking into my room. I screamed in fear. Next thing I know my 8yr old daughter is coming in the room to check I am ok cos she heard me scream.

I’m starting to dread going to sleep in case it happens. I do all the things I’m supposed to, lavender, calming music, etc. Nothing works and it’s getting worse. Monsters and spiders and people and things, all in my room and it’s terrifying.

It happens everywhere I go. I woke my whole family up on holiday once yelling terrified in my sleep.

I am so tired I went to bed at 8.30 tonight and 2 hours later I still can’t sleep.

I’m in my 40s! What bloody adult has scary dreams and wakes up screaming? Ridiculous and pathetic but i don’t know how to stop it.

Do you have them all the time or only in periods of stress/low mood?

My god this sounds awful I really feel for you. I've had very very vivid nightmares the last few months where I've woken up sobbing or terrified and it's affected my mood all day. However I'm pregnant so can see an end. Would you consider trying something to help you sleep deeper so you don't dream, maybe that would help? I hope you find a solution as that feeling of dreading going to bed is awful

I get them all the time but more frequently in times of stress I think? sometimes I can go months in between it happening, then I’ll get a week where it happens almost every night
It feels like a taboo subject too it’s embarrassing to tell people I have nightmares and wake up screaming!

This used to happen to me. It was more likely to happen if the room was warm and I was sleeping on my back. Could that be the case for you?

I sympathize as I have suffered from night terrors all my life as well. I think I inherited them from my father who also had the same problem all his life. I have found doing yoga in the daytime helps me sleep well at night and make them less frequent but then sometimes they reoccur and I can't get rid of them again for months. It is usually in times of high stress that they are really bad for me.

So yeh same physical steps as what you would normally do to relieve stress then plus hypnotherapy or mindfulness techniques.

I also suffer from night terrors. I find they are linked to heightened stress and anxiety, except that most of the time I can't tell you what is causing either of those things. I try and remove stimulants from my sleeping environment e.g no phone for prolonged periods before bed, break from the TV, warm bath before bed etc etc
I also find "this works deep sleep pillow spray" to be effective sometimes.

Don’t sleep on your back. Solved my issues almost entirely.

Interesting about front sleeping.

Have you tried a night light? This is on the PTSD website as a suggestion. Personally I find boyfriend pillows quite good too (actual pillows though could be a boyfriend too!)

Thanks for all the suggestions. I definitely try and sleep on my front or side, sleeping on my back feels weird and I don’t like facing the ceiling.

Will try some pillow spray.

Hadn’t thought of a night light, my room isn’t pitch dark as I live on a main road and the street lights shine in through my blinds.

Last night big round things flew into my room and I woke up screaming again