Tablet to aid sleep- too deep sleep for nightmares?

[bluecarrot]

A lady we know passed away 3 weeks ago after some time in hospital. My mum has a phobia of hospitals anyway, but she visited as often as she could. the last time she heard the lady beg for more painkillers but was told she couldn't have more :(

My mum has had nightmares every night since the death - kicking and pushing my dad, shouting and even appearing to stop breathing, then waking in a pool

Would sleeping tablets make her sleep in a state where she won't dream? I'm getting worried about her. She's starting to get stressed about it in the day time and it may be making it worse at night. I've suggested writing stuff down, speaking to someone about it ( its not this lady's death that is distressing her exactly, but that she keeps having dreams of family members and friends in the lady's position and its the residual guilt of feeling she didn't do more to help us.)

Any advice appreciated, thought I won't be back online til later in afternoon to check replies.

Waking in a pool of sweat

I think she should see her Dr. There are sleeping tablets that are only prescribed in the short term. They are usually enough to get back into a normal sleep pattern. I'm not sure how deep the sleep is as I think dreaming is in the RMS state of sleep which I think is light sleep. Just talking to the Dr may help offload what is worrying her. I hope she gets some help.

REM sleep not RMS

Thanks tabby. She won't "bother" the dr. I've encouraged her to go speak to a friend of hers today so maybe she can talk it through with them. Would regular OTC sleeping tablets help do you think?

She could try Nytol (not the herbal ones, they're rubbish!) but I would also suggest she keeps a journal and writes her thoughts down before she goes to sleep, it might help her brain process things and effectively purge those thoughts before she falls asleep. Might be worth getting her a hypnotherapy CD to get her into a calm state as she settles. What an awful situation :(