weird vivid dreams seeping into waking time, bit scared

[sleepylady]

Hello,

I wondered if anyone else had had similar experience with very vivid dreams and continuations into waking and how they dealt with them?

I'd be rambling on forever if I described it completely but here's a couple of examples:

A few weeks ago I got up to my son in the middle of the night, his crying woke me from a very vivid dream and as I was feeding my son in his room I kept on thinking the man who was in my dream was out in the corridor waiting for me.

I knew at the time it was irrational but the more I thought about it the more I was scared that my imagination was working so hard that I'd imagine him into existence. He didn't appear in the end but I needed a big cuddle from DP.

Then only this morning DP let me have a lie-in, I was awake while he was giving DS breakfast but they went out for a walk and I eventually dozed off. I had a really weird dream and when I woke up it was like I couldn't snap out of it. I couldn't really move or speak and I kept on seeing and hearing things, but I was awake. It was really scary. I saw my son's pram above my head being thrown down at me (by DP, if I'd been able to talk I would have screamed at him). Then I kept on hearing DS babbling and crawling around outside the room but he wasn't there.

Then finally I could see a video monitor on the wall next to my bed with my DS crying on it.

What was worse was I kept on thinking I'd woken up, turned on the light and snapped out of it, only to find that I'd dreamed that too.

Alongside this I've been really strangely anxious, not all the time, but for example Dp went out cycling today and after about an hour and a half I couldn't stop thinking that he'd hurt himself, my heart was racing, I felt sick, and I broke down in tears when I saw him.

Also we were talking about the financial crisis on Friday and I cried inconsolably for half an hour (we have no savings, mortgage etc. so nothing to worry about really, so was quite irrational).

I'm sorry this is so long but I've never felt like this before.

I've always had vivid dreams (except when so sleep deprived by DS that I was getting too little sleep to get REM). I've also suffered from depression before, but never this anxiety where my heart goes so fast and I feel sick with worry.

I'm so scared the vivid dreams will turn into waking hallucinations. I'm a logically minded person but I don't seem to be able to snap myself out of it.

Any experiences, words of advice welcome!!

Thanks.

I have really vivid dreams where I keep thinking I've woken up... then something really weird happens and I realise that I haven't woken up at all! Sometimes it really scares me.
I also sometimes confuse dreams with reality. I can dream something and be convinced it actually happened, but when I tell someone about it I realise that it is so bizarre that it must have been a dream!
I know other people like this, so I don't think it is anything to be worried about. I hope not anyway!

I have dreams like that when I am stressed.

Trumpetgirl - I guess like you I've had these dreams before (probably for years) but they've never scared me as much or followed me so far into my waking life. Usually turning on the light and having a cuddle with dp would reassure me I was back to reality, but it doesn't seem to be quite working.

I had a couple of panic attacks years and years ago and managed them myself and so they never became a problem (i.e I recognised what was happening and taught myself how to deal with them). I hope I can do the same again with this but I thought it was worth putting it out there to see the experiences of others I guess.

Hi sleepylady, I get these types of dreams when I am really really tired (ie no sleep for 2 days - studying all night and children all day or several nights in a row of heavily interrupted sleep). Sometimes it can feel as though my dream is affecting (effecting?) me all day, I feel odd and out of sync with the 'real' world. Does this bare any relation to your situation? I used to find it really frightening. I don't think there is anything 'sinister' about it (or rather I hope!) I am sure it is just an exhausted and stressed brian.

I have been single for over a year now and woken up absolutely petrified (and once ended up crawling into dd's bed because I didn't want to be alone!) and unsure as to what was real and what was in my head. I get these phases from time to time and don't know what to do about them, but they do pass.
I honestly thought for years that I was levitating before falling asleep but realised after a particularly bad night that it wasn't real!
Hope you come out of it soon.

Thanks for all the replies... good to know I'm not alone at least!!

The funny thing is I don't feel particularly stressed out most of the time and this has only started since LO started sleeping through the night so I should be less tired than I was. Prior to that I was being woken up every couple of hours or so and my brain wasn't really getting a chance to move into the REM cycle of sleep where all the crazy dreams happen.

What's happening now is that I'm not sleeping through the night, I tend to wake up at the end of a sleep cycle and so remember my dreams very well. I think after being up so often for 9 months or so my body can't get used to letting me sleep for long periods.

The only other thing I can think of is that I've been anaemic on and off (on at the moment) so that could be adding to the tiredness.

No scary dreams last night at least though.

Thanks again ladies, I'll just see how things go and hope for the best!

From what you write I would suggest you see your Dr. It might of course be nothing, but there is something called puerperal psychosis and it happens after childbirth. I too have had occasional vivid dreams and been unsure of the difference between waking and sleeping but if it was happening this much I would want to make sure it was not something else that needed treating.

Also I have a vague memory tht it might suggest thyroid problems or another hormonal imbalance so you might want to get checked out

op sounds stressed and tired. stress and tiredness are not to be underestimated ime... the words are perhaps overused... but it honestly sounds like you need some TLC, to get more sleep, and try to stop worrying that youre going out of you mind, coz that stress is making it all worse.
hope you feel better soon

actually, as flighty suggests, i would see your gp anyway, explain how youre feeling. if there is nothing to worry about, it will set your mind at rest, and if there is something 'they' can do to help you, you'll be getting that help.

Think I will visit the GP, need to sort out heavy period/anaemia problems anyway.

The funny thing is I'm absolutely fine today (except the tiredness/headache of low iron levels) and feeling positive, not stressed etc.

So right now the whole thing seems silly and I almost wonder why I bothered writing it last night! It seems so terrible one day and then so trivial the next.

Will see about an appointment and post back

sleepy, know what you mean about the switching back and forth; i have that. when im bad i cxant imagine what its like to feel ok, and when im fine i think 'what on earth am i making such a drama out of??'
its 'normal' for that to happen. and it stopped me getting help a lot sooner when i couldve done with it tbh.

I've been having these dreams since a teenager. At first I was terrified and thought I had died, but now I sometimes even enjoy them. Look up 'hypnogogic dreams' online and you'll see they are well described and some experts think they're responsible for people thinking they've been visited by aliens or ghosts in the night! As someone else said, it's to do with your sleep mechanisms not working properly. I definitely get them when a bit stressed. I think they also run in families because my mum and brother have them too.

Sorry that should be hypnagogic dreams or hypnagogia.