terrible sleep problem

[hamster lady]

Hi everyone

I have had a problem with anxiety and panic attacks for over a year and a half now which started when I suffered a terrifying attack of palpitations and a very fast heart rate out of the blue in the middle of the night. This set of terrible anxiety and panic attacks and I eventually went to my doctor and had a thyroid test and an ECG which were normal and the doctor put it down to anxiety and I had been going through a really stressful time when it happened.

Unfortunately I have been suffering with terrible sleep problems ever since including waking up gasping for air, waking up with a jolt, waking up boiling hot and sweating and I have had really vivid dreams and nightmares almost everynight too. I also have really scary vivid hallucinations as I am dropping off to sleep and waking up, my eyes are closed when it happens and I am not seeing hallucinations at any other time, they are like weird fragmented dreams and I also hear people talking or shouting and sometimes it involves music! I have noticed that this happens more when I am really stressed and happens less when I am a bit calmer.

I have been back to the doctor about my sleep problem and she put it down to anxiety and I have just finished a course of telephone CBT which has really helped me with my panic attacks and agoraphobia but I still have this damn sleep problem! Sometimes my nightmares are so bad that I think about them all day and if I have a bad night I also have a really bad day with my anxiety levels being really high. I dread going to bed now, I used to sleep really well before that horrendous attack of tachycardia in the night! I am also struggling with a health anxiety about my heart too, even though I have been told my heart is fine I still have this underlying fear that there is something wrong with it and I still worry about what caused that first attack of tachycardia seemingly out of the blue in the middle of the night!

I was just wondering whether any of you guys have had trouble sleeping since you have had your anxiety and whether anyone has had those weird hallucinations when dropping off to sleep or on waking, I'm really worried that I'm going mad! Last night I was dropping off to sleep when I had a horrible hallucination of a black dog with demon like eyes running towards me, I woke up with a start before it reached me! I was really scared to go back to sleep after that but I actually had a bit of a better night for a change! I have tried lavender oil and doing relaxation exercises in bed but they don't always work. I really hope I won't always have this, I used to look forward to going to bed, I don't now. My anxiety levels are high at the moment because my youngest son has been poorly with M.E. since November 2010 and it is very stressful caring for him and I worry about his health all the time. I try my best to keep my anxiety levels down but I'm fighting a losing battle at the moment.

Any help or advice on getting a better night's sleep would be most appreciated, I'm getting desperate now! Many thanks in advance, hamster lady
:weep:

[Recsense]

I had very vivid dreams taking Tramadol when I done my back in, some strong medication can cause issues, I also had sleep apnia when I was at my heaviest, this has now stopped since I lost weight and started exercising.

I don't know that the above is anything to do with your issues, but I thought it might have some similarities.

Also sleeping tablets can be weird, I refused them and now have promethazine, a groggy antihistamine, i use it about once a week to ensure my sleep pattern does not go off, if that, just when im falling out of sync. That is enough for me and they are non addictive.

[Ingenious]

The vivid stuff as you are falling asleep is completely normal (though it might not feel like it!). It's called hynagogia (see this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia). I've had that all my life too, and it ranges from just totally bonkers dreams to vivid images, insights, dreams, seeing shapes and patterns and so on. Please try not to worry about that but if you can, embrace it as a normal, if unwanted, side effect of your brain doing its stuff as it shuts down for sleep.

As for bad dreams, they can seem problematic because you then worry about going to sleep and you feel you have no control over them. Having had periods of bad dreams, I personally found that welcoming dreams and even keeping a dream diary did take the edge off them, particularly as you record the good ones, and begin to see the bad ones are maybe not as often as you think.

Dreams are highly regarded by psychoanalysts as being a doorway to what your mind and subconscious are thinking (though they are usually heavily distorted by symbolism) and everyone does dream, the key is to change the rules a bit so they become something you welcome rather than fear.

Another advantage of a dream diary is you can record the nightmares and then talk to someone - a friend or family member - about them. When I did this, the fear and threat from them became much less. It can help keep them in perspective.

Is there anything you can do to make your sleep environment nicer, especially for if you wake up? A night light? The radio?

If you want to keep a dream diary and share these with someone else who does the same, feel free to message me.