Crazily vivid nightmares - any tips?

[Muffin7]

Morning. I am nearly 5 weeks pregnant and for the last week I have had barely any sleep due to horrendously vivid nightmares. I always wake up after the nightmares with a super fast heart rate, shaky hands and I'm also usually very sweaty. Has anybody experienced this before? Is there anything I can do to try and get a better night's sleep? I am exhausted, and the nightmare usually plays on my mind throughout the day. Thank you!

You have my sympathies, nightmares are awful.

Any idea what causes the nightmares? Is there any sort of theme? I haven't had any for a while but mine either tend to be: I'm looking after a baby/pet and forget about it and eventually find it starving in a cupboard or (related) a house and leave it all unlocked and come back and find it being burgled, or that someone close to me has died.

The usual advice is to try to influence the nightmare so you take control and make a better ending. If you can try to realise you are in a nightmare at the time that is the best way to start. I think this is how I managed to reduce the frequency of mine. Good luck xx

Sorry, they're dreadful but I'm not aware of a real fix. I was told it's hormones fluctuating, my dreams stopped after a couple of weeks. You could try napping in the day, exercise can help you feel better, don't eat too close to bed time, have a warm milky drink before bed, but ultimately you just need the hormones to settle a bit. I had a really nasty vivid dream where the baby got it's cord wrapped around it's neck while I was having a scan and I then spent a whole week freaking out about it and nearly cried at my 16 week midwife appt (this despite having felt the baby move and telling myself repeatedly it's just a dream) thankfully she found the heartbeat or I'd have stressed right up to the 20 week scan.

Thanks so much for your replies, I really appreciate it. The dreams are always along a similar vein, usually I have accidentally killed somebody, last night's was a toddler that I had accidentally pushed out of a window!

I think I need to try and relax more in the evenings, I'm always go go go right up until I go to bed. It could absolutely be hormones though, which of course I can't control.