Brain Tumor

[NotCool]

Dammit. I thought I was done with this stupid fear. Sorry for wall of text.

For the last months, my sleep has been extremely messed up. I usually go to sleep from 2:30am to 3:30am, and am able to sleep late most of the days because of my schedule.

Thing is, I regularly wake up frequently during sleep (every 2-4 hours or so, sleeping for 5 hours or even more is extremely rare), I experience nightmares very frequently, and had at least 5 sleep paralysis episodes in 6 months, which I believe started at the peak of my heart fear, at the approximate time when my heart anxiety was at it's highest.

Anyway, I dream too much. I think I spend waaay too much time in REM sleep, I wake up tired, and sometimes with weird tension/tingling headaches that don't exactly hurt, but they're not comfortable either. But my main worry is that I'm afraid that I have experienced nocturnal seizures - today I woke up in a messed up bed, disoriented. Twice when I got sleep paralysis, I "think" I was shaking. Way back I remember waking up with blood on lips (lips didn't hurt).

I suspected everything, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, and ofcourse the big BT (Brain Tumor).

I absolutely HATE asking for reassurance again, but if there is someone who has had similar experiences, I would be grateful for any input.

[LunaLiuna]

Either we both have the worst or we both have Anxiety. I suspect it's the latter.

Like you I seem to dream all night every night.

I can't give an exact explanation as, well, I'm no sleep expert. But I think it's something to do with a chemical called Melatonin being out of balance due to high amounts of stress, Melatonin regulates sleep and anything from stress, light conditions and sleep cycles can mess it up. This loss of regulation causes the overstimulation of various of parts of the brain that again, I don't know about which ultimately results in lots of dreams.

I've also heard that R.E.M sleep actually disperses suppressed emotions that have been felt during the day. Which unfortunately, when face with HA some people opt to surpress rather than accept and explore their feelings.

As for the head sensations and the blood, I've had similar, I'd wake up with a headache got too the bathroom to brush my teeth and then notice my mouth was bleeding. It wasn't untill I moved into a family members room because I was so scared that they noticed I was grinding my teeth to the point of cutting my gums and cheek, which a little inspection later confirmed.

I think the main thing to be aware of here is that sleep is the bodies primary source of healing, your in safe hands just give your body the rest it needs. Which isn't going too sleep at 3am! :)

Here's an article for you: http://www.why-we-dream.com/depression.htm

[NotCool]

Thanks, Liuna, that's a really informative article, and a reassuring post. I never before had so much trouble with sleep, I guess when you don't have any problems with it, you don't realize how valuable a quality good night's sleep actually is.

You mentioned multiple times in your posts, a lot of problems can be attributed to teeth grinding, which is a possible explanation, considering constant tension, and the fact that I find myself grinding teeth and clenching my jaw lots of times. I don't however feel that I do it in my sleep, although that would be hard to prove, since I don't want to record myself during sleep, but it's definitely possible. (scared of results lol).

I don't know, maybe some of the weird tingling head sensation is a part of unrelaxed neck and shoulder muscles, although they really do feel extremely strange, and they worry me.

I've got a question for you: did you ever experience weird convulsions, almost epileptic-like during sleep paralysis, like when you're trying to break free, and you can just feel that you're kind of shaking, sort of?

[Andy699]

I wouldn't worry. When I had my brain tumor anxiety I would think about it all the time and I used to dream about it loads every night. However, you're bound to dream about it if it's on your mind. For example, I had an argument with a friend the other week and I was thinking about it loads yesterday and guess what I dreamt about? Arguing with my friend. try and relax :)

[LunaLiuna]

I've got a question for you: did you ever experience weird convulsions, almost epileptic-like during sleep paralysis, like when you're trying to break free, and you can just feel that you're kind of shaking, sort of?

I wouldn't call them convulsions, but yes, when I get it I writhe about like a worm whilst groaning to try and break free. Oh how funny It must look :roflmao: