Nightmare Disorder/Sleep Terrors
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