Very Vivid dreams and nightmares

[KenC]

Many of us struggle with sleepless nights or nightmares, and today I was sent a link to this webpage by a member of the Royal College of Nurses. I confess that I have not managed to read it all, but what I did read was very interesting.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2649672/



I have often had horrendous nightmares which are very vivid many of which can be described in great detail long after waking up.

I have also wanted to get out of bed during the night to visit the bathroom, and have never been very sure that I actually got out of bed, until I hit the wall in the bathroom to make sure I am there.
Sometimes if I wake from the vivid nightmares, I get out of bed and sit in a chair, but these sometimes start all over again when I go back to bed.

One night it all came to a head when I tried to escape from the nightmare by climbing out of the bedroom window, but my wife woke up just in time, as we were in a hotel and on the third floor.

I suppose the lucky part of that night was the fact that the window would only open about 3 inches, and it’s was the sound of me trying to force it that woke my wife up.

On another night I was standing in the corner trying to get away from the horror, and as explained before I could describe it all to my wife when I settled down later in the day.

This is all very distressing when it happens and there are times when I really don’t want to either go to bed or go to sleep, because it sometimes terrifies me of what may be coming.

I know that it’s all part of my illness, but to be honest it still does not help. There is medication which helps but mine was reduced as I just could not wake up at all and that was disastrous for me.

 

[Josieb]

Thank you for the link. You're right it is interesting. I had been doing a lot of reading up on the circadian rhythm and the use of melatonin to help both mum and me get some better sleep.

 

[Josieb]

Wikipedia's entry on melatonin is very interesting and was one ref. point, along with Dr Mercola. I had already read the Circadian Rhythm about five years ago and I have been using a light box and daylight bulbs due to SAD. So I use the box on mum along with VitD and Vit K m7 and sublingual b12 and things have improved now we just get a bit of talking in the night. I am also buying a table tennis and hope to get her to bat about a bit

 

[Barry]

Hi Ken
This is a good article and I can observe many similarities between your circumstances and my own although ‘as far as I know’ I’ve not tried jumping out a window and certainly not from the third floor, which sounds pretty scary! Apart from that, I can concur with what you’ve written.

Barry

Now in my eighth year with mixed dementia, Alzheimer’s, LBD, and Parkinson’s disease…

 

[KenC]

Hi Barry

I have only to my knowledge tried to get away from these horrors by climbing out of a window once. But that night was quite frightening and it would not stop.

Hopefully it will never happen again, but we can never be quite certain of anything in this illness as you know yourself from experience.

Best Wishes

Ken

 

[Big Effort]

Dear Ken,
This sounds awful. I sympathise. I know this is no help, but I don't have dementia (or if I do it is as yet undiagnosed), and I am familiar with this.

Prior to joining this forum, I used to spend a lot of time using brainwave entrainment systems. I am a professional insomniac. Using what I have learned about brainwave frequencies and how they affect us, I would say this.

Nightmares and subconscious stuff often 'bubbles up' into consciousness when we are in theta range (access to subconscious) during lightish sleep and also delta (deep unconscious sleep). A side affect of using brainwave entrainment which manipulates users into the theta/delta range is exactly how you describe. Really upsetting, ugly stuff can surface. We brainwave entrainers try to be positive about this and tell ourselves that deep stuff is being transmitted from unconscious to conscious mind. For you this feels dreadful as it is a nightmare, and obviously you are taking considerable time to truly wake up.

While it is not fun to try to escape from hotel windows on the 3rd floor, perhaps you can just do as the brainwave entrainment crowd do: accept this is deep unconscious stuff, and let it surface. When you are awake (in a beta and alpha brainwave state), you can gently play with the dream content and see what it means, or could mean, to you.

I have several CDs to aid me to sleep at night, they use alpha and theta frequencies, birdsong and the like. You could try this to put you to sleep, and leave it on for long stretches (playing on repeat mode), as this could keep you out of the deep delta or nightmare zone. Just an idea. If you are interested, let me know and i will tell you what I use and where to get it.

Just showed this to my husband. He asked me to tell you he has always been gripped by nightmares about witches, monsters and the supernatural. Indeed this is true and I often wake him because the grunts and squeaks he emits are actually screams in his nightmare. We then gently analyse them together until something makes a bit of sense.

Remember you have lost your home - a place we consider safe and sacred - to flood damage. This is distressing to whole, healthy brains. Perhaps you should cut yourself some slack and think this is how your unconscious deals with deep trauma.

I am not trying to make light of your predicament, merely to say that we 'normals' suffer from gripping nightmares and also from high anxiety.

Now i am going to read the link you posted.
Sleep well and peacefully, Ken. Love BE