Nightmares

**Magicme** · 21/07/2010, 10:17 AM

Does anyone here suffer from nightmares regularly? I am getting to the end of my patience with my disturbed nights.

Last night was one of the worst ever, I dreamt that the house was on fire and that it was malicious and that someone had removed the handles off my bedroom windows so I couldnt escape. I lept out of bed (really!) and was trying to open the windows but couldnt and I started trying to break the window by thumping it and screaming at the top of my voice. My sons were still up watching junk on tv and heard me as I ran to the bedroom next door and managed to open the window in there and was screaming "help help" out it. They told me it was ok and I woke up shaking and crying. It took me ages to get back to sleep and my throat is still sore.

I had only been asleep about 45 to 50 mins from last time I had looked at my phone.

I think I need to get some help on this one coz on Saturday night I almost rang the guards in my sleep as I thought I was being burgaled. This is the 2nd time this month that I have almost rang the guards in my sleep. I regularly open the front door and go outside to chase "burgulars" or to invite our football team in to the house (now that would be a nightmare!!

) but last night really scared me coz I was gonna grab the fire extinguisher from the hall and put it through the window. I could have wrecked my windows and or badly cut myself.

Any suggestions? Am at my wits end.

**Dodge** · 21/07/2010, 10:25 AM

You could've at least waited 24 hours after Bohs got batted by the Welsh before posting...

**the 12 th man** · 21/07/2010, 10:29 AM

I'd try changing your routine before you go to bed,like if you don't read in bed to fall asleep start doing it.

What you eat before going to bed can have a say on your sleep/dream patterns so have a look at that.

Try a bit of excercise so that when you get to bed you are more inclined to need sleep if you're genuinely tired.

**Lev Yashin** · 21/07/2010, 10:34 AM

Have to agree with the 12th man...I used to have messed up dreams(nothing close to what your having) but I stopped eating after 8 o'clock made sure I was worn out before I got into bed training normally did that or going for a run or whatever and i stopped watching tv in bed..it has made a difference, I think I get into a deep sleep quicker now.

**Magicme** · 21/07/2010, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by the 12 th man

I'd try changing your routine before you go to bed,like if you don't read in bed to fall asleep start doing it.

What you eat before going to bed can have a say on your sleep/dream patterns so have a look at that.

Try a bit of excercise so that when you get to bed you are more inclined to need sleep if you're geniunly tired.

Thanks for that. I have been kinda keeping track on my pre-bedtime routine to see if anything is setting me off but it seems no matter what I do, I have some disturbance. I am exhausted as it is when I am going to bed, and have tried going earlier or later to see which is effecting me. I would occasionally read or go online on my phone or listen to my ipod or do none of those and still I wake up shouting and screaming, talking nonsense or sleep walking. Its just wearing me out. I had something to eat not long before bed on Monday night and while I didnt have a nightmare I still got up in the middle of the night and looked out the window a bit panicked and then noticed that an ambulance was in my neighbours drive way. It may have woken me going in but am not sure if it was that or I was just panicked as usual.

I often dream of mice or rats or that I have lost a favourite piece of jewellery and wake up hardly able to breathe and searching for it.

It worries me now coz of the "danger" I put myself in last night. I have sleep walked in a hotel out the door a few times but luckily have left the door open or would be screwed! One time I spent a few minutes pushing on parts of the wall in the hallway of the hotel I was staying in coz I was convinced there was a secret door to the roof garden (the hotel didnt have a roof garden btw). The unusual thing is that I generally remember the dreams when I sleep walk but not other times.

It probably is just stress related but I am not anymore stressed than usual lately.

**dahamsta** · 21/07/2010, 10:49 AM

That'll be the crystals Magicme. I recommend a course of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

* I haven't actually read it. I don't have enough patience to be a proper atheist.

**Magicme** · 21/07/2010, 10:57 AM

Ummm not sure about that Adam. I haven't time for much witchery these days. I was just reading there that people with low cholestrol can have more of a tendancy towards nightmares and mine is 3.7. Strange piece of info.

**Real ale Madrid** · 21/07/2010, 11:39 AM

If you are afriad of sleepwalking - what I used to do is lock my Bedroom door and drop the key into a bucket of cold water beside the door. Try and throw a few ice cubes into the water to keep it cold for a few hours. Then if you try and leave the room while sleepwalking you will know where the key is and the cold water will wake you up. That should stop you from doing damage to yourself anyway. ( I know it sounds funny but trust me it normally works )

As for the nightmares - well I'm not sure but could you get one of your sons to sleep in a camp bed or something in your room for a week or so. Being anxious going to bed is not going to help you at all. If you know you are safe in the room before you go to sleep - you are much less likely to have a nightmare. Try having some relaxing music etc on before / as you go to sleep as well.

And I would definitely go to the doctor and tell him. What works for one will not work for another. Everyone is different. You defintely need professional advice.

**Magicme** · 21/07/2010, 11:58 AM

Originally Posted by Real ale Madrid

If you are afriad of sleepwalking - what I used to do is lock my Bedroom door and drop the key into a bucket of cold water beside the door. Try and throw a few ice cubes into the water to keep it cold for a few hours. Then if you try and leave the room while sleepwalking you will know where the key is and the cold water will wake you up. That should stop you from doing damage to yourself anyway. ( I know it sounds funny but trust me it normally works )

As for the nightmares - well I'm not sure but could you get one of your sons to sleep in a camp bed or something in your room for a week or so. Being anxious going to bed is not going to help you at all. If you know you are safe in the room before you go to sleep - you are much less likely to have a nightmare. Try having some relaxing music etc on before / as you go to sleep as well.

And I would definitely go to the doctor and tell him. What works for one will not work for another. Everyone is different. You defintely need professional advice.

Thanks for the above and maybe the locking the door might help but I feel it would add to my anxiety of not being able to "escape" and might make things worse! My aunt used to have to do that for my cousin as he was always unlocking the house door and wandering down the lane to the neighbours house and knocking on their windows!!

I dont think I could get my sons to sleep in the room with me coz on occasion when they have or we are staying in a hotel, I have frightened them half to death with my rantings and the last time I stayed in a hotel a few weeks back, my sister and my youngest were with me and I tried to run out of the room. At oxegen sleeping in a van with my eldest, the poor guy hardly got a wink the first night coz of my shouting and screaming and the next night I appeared to wake up and tell him "I always wondered how to spell "droid"" before turning over and going back to sleep. (Like wtf is that about!!!) The final night in the van I woke up at about 6.30am panicking that I couldnt breathe and trying to open the door of the van. Eventually he had to open it for me before I took an asthma attack with the stress of it and I could settle back down to sleep. So I cant torture them much more with it.

I have made a doctors appointment for this afternoon coz I am barely functioning I am so stressed about last night. Am lucky not to have done damage yet. I think I did set the healing of my broken ankle back a few weeks years ago by jumping out of bed and running across the room with it in the cast and the swelling took a week to go down after that incident!

Yup am a fruit loop asleep and awake.

**dahamsta** · 21/07/2010, 12:15 PM

Cheese is a killer. I eat cheese before bed when I want an entertaining night.

**Magicme** · 21/07/2010, 12:24 PM

Yeah I used to think that but the best night's sleep I have had in months was a few weeks ago when I had a few slices of pizza with my boys about an hour before bed! Maybe am such a freak of nature that cheese helps me sleep!

**osarusan** · 21/07/2010, 1:08 PM

If you think what you're having now are nightmares, just wait until after the Limerick game!

**DeLorean** · 21/07/2010, 2:07 PM

Originally Posted by dahamsta

Cheese is a killer. I eat cheese before bed when I want an entertaining night.

I just get a box of Kleenex

**Magicme** · 22/07/2010, 10:33 AM

I went to the doctor yesterday and he doesnt reckon I am mad (fool!). He is reffering me to a sleep clinic and gave me tablets to reduce anxiety before I sleep. So took a tablet last night, read a bit of a light fluffy chick lit book, and snuggled down for a good night's sleep. 30 minutes later my bedroom door opened just as I was drifting off to sleep and Dylan hobbles in on crutches...."Mum, I think I just broke my toe".

2 hours later, having bound his toes together, ice packed him, raised his foot, spoke to Doctor on Call, gave him diefene, I finally got to settle to sleep. Had a great night without nightmares and Dylan, following x-rays etc this morning, just has a sprained and badly bruised toe.

**Paddyfield** · 22/07/2010, 10:10 PM

My kids never sleep properly when there is a full moon. It's kind of weird.

As others have stated, I also don't eat after 7pm and only drink alcohol on Sat nights. I get out of the house every night, even it means a spin in the car or a walk for 20 mins. I don't watch TV for at least an hour before bed and only do some light reading or Facebooking before I go to bed (I am off to bed now in 20 mins!!!!)

**dahamsta** · 22/07/2010, 11:07 PM

The moon thing is mostly psychological. There's no real scientific evidence for it. Close the curtains.

**Paddyfield** · 23/07/2010, 8:41 PM

Originally Posted by dahamsta

The moon thing is mostly psychological. There's no real scientific evidence for it. Close the curtains.

Huh? Mostly psychological.No real evidence?
My kids are 4 and 2. One sleeps with a light on in her room while the little lad prefers total darkness. Neither of them can tell the time never mind be aware whether the moon is full or not. I don't understand it but one or both of them always wake up in the middle of the night when there is a full moon. Sometimes they will stay awake for an hour and/or wake a few times. Apart from when they are sick, they NEVER wake otherwise.

**thischarmingman** · 24/07/2010, 7:42 AM

Originally Posted by Paddyfield

My kids are 4 and 2. One sleeps with a light on in her room while the little lad prefers total darkness. Neither of them can tell the time never mind be aware whether the moon is full or not. I don't understand it but one or both of them always wake up in the middle of the night when there is a full moon. Sometimes they will stay awake for an hour and/or wake a few times. Apart from when they are sick, they NEVER wake otherwise.

Maybe you should knock the howling at the moon on the head for a while?