Nightmares During Pregnancy

[pastelpig]

Hi All,

I am around 8 1/2 Weeks pregnant, i am totally over the moon.
However, i am suffering really badly with vivid night terrors/nightmares, to such a point that i wake up and i am petrified and teary every time.

I know this a normal thing to experience, i just wondered if anyone had any advice on how to ease them?

Many thanks

Congratulations on your pregnancy! I don't have any words of wisdom to offer I'm afraid, other than to say in my experience they got less frequent the further into pregnancy I got.

I'm totally with you on this, was just googling what this is all about and whether I can stop it.

I'm roughly 5w. Had been getting very vivid but fairly ordinary (if random) dreams for weeks, however in the last few days they have developed into full on terrifying things. Sat up this morning and had to talk myself down from a pounding heart-rate and genuine fear and confusion. And I say that as someone very rational and used to busy/stressful environments and whatnot. How bizarre.

omg yes i went through a couple of weeks of this, it was horrible! gave me night sweats too. Have you tried maybe a nighttime tea or some lavender spray? try to make your bed as comfy and relaxing as possible. Thats all i cant think of - sorry! xx

Having poked about online a bit more, there doesn't really seem to be an answer.

The cause seems to be either more interruptions to sleep (of the kind that don't wake you up) due to pregnancy symptoms e.g. full bladder, cramps AND/OR brain going a bit hyper with the excitement and anxieties that come at this early stage and processing it all.

I also found this about children's night terrors on the NHS website and it seems to suggest that increases in deep sleep due to tiredness can also be a contributing factor (which I think is definitely right in my case):

"A night terror attack may be triggered by anything that:
increases how much deep sleep your child has, such as tiredness, fever or certain types of medication
makes your child more likely to wake from deep sleep, such as excitement, anxiety, sudden noise or a full bladder."

The advice I've found for pregnancy does seem to be: give yourself a calm environment, meditate etc OR sleeping tablets (which I thought was way OTT, surely!).

I already drink herbal teas before bed (though something at the back of my mind says they need to be used sparingly in pregnancy?). I might try Lush's Sleepy lotion tonight.

You are all so lovely and helpful, its nice to know i'm not the only out there suffering so badly!

Hopefully they will start to subside as the weeks go on.

StargazyDrifter thank you, a trip to the shops is in order i think!

Thanks again ladies

Yes i had them for weeks and have done in all my pregnancys. 15 weeks now and thwy seem to of gone this time. X

I had them around 13/14 weeks, very upsetting to the point I nearly cried at my midwife appointment, but baby is fine and the dreams have subsided thankfully.

I’ve had a few really disturbing/upsetting ones 😰

Keep having a recurring dream of being eaten by a crocodile. Very strange. But very very realistic at the time!! Wake up terrified and unable to go back to sleep.