Nightmares!

[Janknitz]

I haven't been sleeping well lately.

I'm sure it's stress. I'm having trouble both falling asleep and staying asleep. Usually I can fall back asleep pretty quickly with CPAP, but not lately. My AHI is the same as usual, about 0.2.

I'm also having some very vivid nightmares. Last night, it was a very vivid dream about war, with bombs being dropped on my city--that's been the theme for the past few weeks--understandably due to the political situation.

After a few nights of this, melatonin and GABA give me a good night, but I don't want to be taking them every night--I find the efficacy diminishes when I do.

Any other suggestions? (Yes, I should keep the news off, but I just cannot!)

[Pugsy]

I had a particularly rough December myself. Stress over life in general and then some extra issues with my mom.
I had one nightmare where I was trying to scream for help and I guess eventually I did because I woke up hubby and all the dogs and cats who of course came right to my defense. I didn't sleep the rest of the night.

I am better now (compared to December) but still sleeping like crap and not getting enough sleep. Pretty sad when 6 hours is now a "good" night.

I wish I had a good solution to offer but I don't. Just wanted to let you know that you aren't alone. The mind is a powerful tool and sometimes it's a friendly tool and sometimes it's our own worst enemy tool.

[chunkyfrog]

(Gasp!)
So I'm not the only one?
Not surprisingly, I don't feel any better.

[Tinben]

I was actually talking to my sister today about all the negativity in world today. You can’t even look up the weather without seeing something negative that adds more stress. I have actually had COVID related dreams. Mostly about being around people without masks and most of time they are related to me.

[Julie]

Have you tried either the Gaba or melatonin alone, in diff. amts, times, etc?

[Janknitz]

Thanks, it helps to know I'm not alone! I would say that it's a menopause thing, but my husband doesn't sleep too well either (and often wakes me up by ripping the covers off me with his own frustration. But he takes prescribed trazadone and goes back to sleep. I don't want to go there.

[Pugsy]

I cheated. I had 3 Valium 10 mg tablets rat holed from when hubby had them prescribed to help him prior to some dental procedures (big baby) and I cut them in half and took them when I had gone enough nights without sleep. There were some nights I was only getting 2 hours. I simply couldn't turn off the brain.
Sigh....those are gone but sometimes there is a time and place for such medications.
I can't do Melatonin at all (causes vertigo really bad) and I don't think I ever tried gaba. Maybe I need to check it out.

[zonker]

forum friend rickblaine mentions this in another thread-

Hi kjvh2004,

If the primary presenting problem is anxiety, and you are genuinely open to all suggestions, I suggest you look at Havening.

Havening is a new therapeutic method, one which has been developed in the last 10 years by two American researchers. It uses some of the more recent discoveries in neurology.

It is highly effective. And it is quick. A handful of sessions rather than months or years.

Here are some web links:

https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/the-si ... Bnjg3gdMug

https://bottomlineinc.com/life/emotiona ... bkIqc3l0R0

If travel or cost make getting to a practitioner difficult, you can apply this method to yourself. Here is one of several sources covering self-application. If you go to this web page and look at it, and also the links on the right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQXbZmuSbFs

RB.

[babydinosnoreless]

We are on mandatory ot. I work from 1:30- midnight. Last night I had a nighmare that my boss caught covid and came to work anyway because mandatory OT. Smh. 2021 isn't starting out any better than 2020. When I worked at the school the kids had a saying fml. I never really understood it till now.

Sleep, whats that ?

[Pugsy]

A word about this "stress" thing.
Some people have a high empathy level and they just feel other people's pain more than others and it simply causes more worry and more stress and it's who they are. It's how they are built. It's always been one of my strong points as well as one of my weak points. Sometimes it's not good for me to feel other people's pain so much but we just can't turn off the way we are with a flick of the switch.

[Janknitz]

We are on mandatory ot. I work from 1:30- midnight. Last night I had a nighmare that my boss caught covid and came to work anyway because mandatory OT. Smh. 2021 isn't starting out any better than 2020. When I worked at the school the kids had a saying fml. I never really understood it till now.

Sleep, whats that ?

My theory is that something that starts out good will end badly, and vice versa. 2020 didn't start out too badly, but immediately got terrible (February was probably the worst month of my life--BEFORE covid). So I think this year starting out badly might be a good omen. At least I hope so.

[cpap2]

I am always having vivid nightmares, with the same theme, and characters. I wake up with my heart racing. And then a restroom break. It takes a while to get back to sleep after that, I will lay in bed thinking about the dream instead of telling myself it is just a dream. Last night, I had three nightmares, all with the same theme, but different variations.
Prior to CPAP use, I always had dreams/nightmares, but they weren't so intense, and I could get back to sleep in a shorter time, because there was no time spent putting the mask back on. By the way, I am "happy" with my mask.

[Pugsy]

I am always having vivid nightmares, with the same theme, and characters. I wake up with my heart racing. And then a restroom break. It takes a while to get back to sleep after that, I will lay in bed thinking about the dream instead of telling myself it is just a dream. Last night, I had three nightmares, all with the same theme, but different variations.
Prior to CPAP use, I always had dreams/nightmares, but they weren't so intense, and I could get back to sleep in a shorter time, because there was no time spent putting the mask back on. By the way, I am "happy" with my mask.

If you are remembering a lot of dreams then you are waking often during the night. We don't remember dreams unless we wake up during a dream long enough to form a memory. We can dream in any sleep stage as well...it's not just REM like a lot of people think.

You probably should try to investigate why you are waking up so much because that isn't good at all.