woke up screaming last night

[VickieX]

i had an aweful nightmare last night
where a man came into my room, and as i went to call for someone, he strangled me, pulled me up and out of med my my neck, and started to beat me, and i was screaming so loud i woke myself and my parents up. all of today, minus this afternoon i've felt so shaky, and sick an anxious.

how the hell do you deal with nightmares, how do you stop them?

[Corinne]

I don't know how you can stop nightmares. I know eating before going to bed may bring them on. I've had dreams like that. I can understand how you feel shaky and nervous from experiencing that. It's only a dream. It could be connected to something you watched on TV.
Feel better. It's not real.
Hugs

[VickieX]

thats the thing, i dont eat before bed
and i didnt watch any tv last night =/
i'm use to getting nightmares and waking up from them
but this is the first time i woke myself up screaming
x

[Anxious_gal]

this sometimes works!
If you can remember!
While in your dream close your eyes. this will either put you into another dream or wake you up.
Or while closing your eyes in your dreams imagine yourself being somewhere safe.
Or call out for someone. For me sometimes its my grandfather (he's not alive) That comes and saves me.
And for some odd reason other times it's superman that's saves me!
This only works for me when I remember to do it in my dreams and i tend to have quite lucid dreams too.
hope this helps :-)

[mom1982]

A few months back I woke up from a nightmare, screaming out loud.
Is the screaming out loud linked to PA & Anx?

[Dave777]

Hiya, my partner wakes up screaming, frightens the life outta me ! :blush:

Dave:flowers:

[VickieX]

i don't know what its linked to ='( but its driving me crazy.

i'll try the closing eyes thing, and see if that helps

i'm at a lost end right now ='(
not just because of the PA's and anxiety
just everything ='(

thanks for all the replies though
x

[Redrainbow]

Are you on any meds vickie, because they can give you really nasty nightmares.

[VickieX]

nope not antmore, been off them for ages now
x

[Anxious_gal]

I get more nightmares when my anxiety gets bad.
I get a lot of nightmares, I'm have tempted to write them down as they are so crazy
do you think your nightmare my be related to a traumatic event?

[Redrainbow]

Yes, your right nightmares do disturb you well into the day, everytime you think about them again, hope you sleep better tonight.

[VickieX]

yeah i do think they're linked, but i stopped having them for a while so i thought they were all over,
and now they're back
worse than before

and its like the dream actually happened tbh, because i keep thinking of his face (the guy from the dream) and i cant sit on my bed without getting anxious because in the dream he came through the door to my bedroom
x

[mom1982]

I feel like that after a vivid nightmare. It feels very real & I keep picturing it. I think our anx makes us think & stress about it more than it would for someone without anx.

[hoppipolla]

:( Im sorry to hear about your bad dream too, I actually get bad dreams quite often when I take propranolol too close to going to sleep, I have no idea why ._.

And yes it probably will stay in your head for a few days or so but eventually and probably quite fast it will fade :) plus, you'll have other dreams that might be nicer thatll help you forget it!

Take it easy and try not to worry about it if you can :)

[jasonwalker]

One thing I do is to count from 100 to 1 (backwards).. and by the time I reach 50 I am asleep (LOL)

[Anxious_gal]

lucky you that never works for me! i often fall asleep listening to the radio, it's distraction from my anxiety and soothing :-)

[mom1982]

i fall asleep by using the laptop in bed & then dosing off. its very hard to sleep while anxious.

[VickieX]

Depending on how bad i feel, sometimes after a nightmare, i'll get up, walk around and do some sit ups

x

[mom1982]

sit ups? wow that's a healthy habit! wish i would do that.

[VickieX]

well when you do them you count how many you do =P
so your focusing on the counting,
then when you get to a certain ammount (my first goal is 50) i then lie down on the floor for a minute, and reflect on how i feel, if i still feel bad, i'll do another 50, and so on and so on untill i feel okay, or totally exhausted i feel i can close my eyes and sleep again. I like them because you can close your eyes if you wanted to without losing balance =P
so if it is a habit you can get it to, i promise its worth it
because not only does it send you to sleep and relaxes you, you end up with awesome washboard abs by then end of it =P.

theres other similar things you can do if you really dont like sit ups, like squats, or dolphin curls (ly on your front and with your hands to your head lift up your top half, keeping legs on the floor, again this is good for streching out your stomach line and abs)

xx

[Anxious_gal]

I had a nightmare after only 2 hours of sleep! Still can't shake off the anxiety!

[VickieX]

oh gosh =( its horrible isnt it =(
like i said, try the sit ups, reading a book. if you want you can PM me and we'll have a chat
x