Nightmare Disorder/Sleep Terrors

[Kristine]

I have suffered from some sort of sleep disorder for nearly 20 years. I have always been a vivid dreamer, and have had recurring dreams and recurring themes in my dreams my whole life. As I grew into an adult, I began to have terrible nightmares. For the past ten years, I have had cycles of intense nightmares, and what I can only describe as sleep terrors. When a terror occurs, there are physiological changes in my body in terms of elevated heart rate, shortness of breath, uncontrollable shaking, and at time an inability to determine whether I am awake or still dreaming. The cycles of nightmares do not follow any noticeable patterns related to stress, etc. I do experience anxiety about going to sleep when these cycles occur, and do not get adequate or restful sleep during the cycle. This makes functioning during the day difficult.

My family doctor recommended that I see a psychiatrist about this problem, and indicated what I fear, that I may have a nightmare disorder or sleep terror problem.

I did say these patterns don't normally coincide with particularly stressful times in my life, however I feel I may be going into another cycle and a lot of things are happening to the people I love around me.

I don't know what to do. I've had my former professors tell me to try lucid dreaming - it doesn't work. It only makes me aware that I am in a nightmare *sometimes* and still I can do nothing to stop it. It doesn't reduce the fear or anxiety. I have seemingly developed a "totum" in my dreams (orca whales) that can sometimes calm me and shift the focus of the dream, but this is very rare.

Do I need to seek medical help for this? Is this condition treatable? Am I overreacting. I did seek therapy for this condition at one time and my therapist was shocked at the level of intensity in my dreams.

My husband has been present during one of the "terrors" and said that I stopped breathing at one point......and then began what he thought was hyperventilating prior to waking me up. In this instance I cried uncontrollably for about ten minutes after waking up.


I know this is alot of disjointed information...and I apologize. I didn't sleep well last night.

Help!

Kris

[Dr. Adams]

In most cities there are sleep diagnostic centers which can readily determine the nature of your sleep architecture. This may be a neurological problem. They will make recommendations as to sleep hygiene in the event that you are taking in substances that potentiate your problem. This is an effortless way of determining cause and approach. There are numerous medications that may help you with sleep problems. I hope that is helpful.

[RanRoc]

I too suffer from frequent night terrors. I went to a sleep lab for observation because I thought I may have sleep apnea. But the tech told me that I didn't have sleep apnea, and it was more like night terrors (I would stop breathing and it would seem like I was awake but paralyzed, but I was really dreaming, then i would suddenly wake up gasping for air). The sleep doctor explained to me that sometimes people will partially wake in the middle of a sleep cycle, or start waking too early before the cycle is complete. He reassured me that this is not dangerous, but whenever I feel I can't breathe it's hard to convince myself that I'll be OK. I do notice that this occurs when the temperature is warmer in my bedroom. I try to keep the room temperature fairly cool, and the night terrors happen less frequently and less intensely (I could be "paralyzed" for a shorter time and qake faster). As far as lucid dreaming is concerned, I too learned of this as an undergraduate, but it only helped me with bad dreams...I haven't had a scary or bad dream in years. Just to share, I used to have bad dreams about the devil or demons and things, but one night I primed myself for the dream and in it I decided to stop running and "fight" back by yelling at a vampire to leave me alone. I haven't had one of those dreams since.
-RY

[Beth Norris]

I have had nightmares my entire life. When I was a child, my parents had to sit with me so I could sleep. It was common for me to have the same nightmare or a nightmare that would begin where it had left off the night before. Now that I am an adult, I do not sleep well for weeks at a time. When I first got married my husband encouraged me to see a therapist because my sleep problems were affecting the whole family. I went to a therapist who tried to insist that my nightmares were caused by some type of withheld trauma - namely my father sexually abusing me as a child. This was a bunch of b.s. since my father was never anything but a loving, caring man who was my best friend until the day that he died. I left the therapist's office that day and never sought professional help again. I have asked my family doctor for sleeping pills but he tells me to cut down on caffiene and all the normal, common sense things one would try on thier own. None of it helps. I finally found a doctor that prescribed me Elavil? but it made me feel terrible the next morning and I could barely function at work. My nightmares are intense and frightening to the point that sometimes I am afraid to go back to sleep. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and see things from my dreams. When I freak out, my whole family suffers. I'm afraid to ask for help again and am not even sure that anything will help. So I guess I just have to deal with it like I always have- bags under my eyes and dragging my butt at work. Not all of my dreams are nightmares. I had a dream of my dad after he died that I swear was no dream. My dad was an alcoholic when he passed away and that is what killed him. Since no one knows what happens to us after we die, I was worried about my dad. I had a dream that my dad was standing before me wearing a shirt that I had given him, looking healthy and young again. He told me that he was happy now and I should not worry about him anymore. Usually, though, my dreams are not so pleasant but just as memorable. Is there something wrong with
me? I dream of a house. It's not always a house at first. But whatever form it takes, it is always the same house when I enter.