Falling asleep and dreams

[ridiculouschatname1]

Hi folks, just wondering if anyone experiences these kinds of things with their sleep or anything else similar. Some nights when im in bed trying to get sleep, i see really strange images. Only when i have my eyes closed though, when i open them its ok. But they can get really weird and disconcerting. It used to freak me out alot, but i've managed to not let it scare me so much. When it happens i just stare at the roof with my hands on my chest for awhile and try to stay calm, then i usually fall into a natural sleep. I also have these really vivid dreams. Sometimes they are quite scary and violent, sometimes theyre just really eleboarte and seem to go on for hours. I had them for like a month in a row once and I really thought i was gonna go mad from it. I'm not on any medication so it cant be that. I think its cos i'm agoraphobic and my mind is trying to make up for experiences im not having. I have a pretty vivid imagination too so maybe that hypes it up, I don't know. Some mornings i'll wake up and just wanna start crying cos I've been having crazy dreams all night and I can't control them. Does anyone else have dreams like this? Or anything like it?
Would be good to hear from you.
Paul.

[PokerFace]

I ALWAYS have vivid dreams, ever since I can remember! They used to be terrible nightmares when I was little. I don't get them every night obviously but recently it's been most nights so I guess there is a connection to anxiety. They're so vivid I can actually feel stuff like pain and I remember one dream I had ages ago that really stuck in my head cuz everything was so real. I was running away from something in my bare feet and I could actually FEEL the grass under my feet. So weird. My most recent one was last night I dreamed someone hit me in the face and broke my nose, it hurt so much and jolted me awake so suddenly I was convinced my nose was actually broke for those few split seconds when you wake up until I realised my nose didn't hurt at all!

As for the images with your eyes closed, I get them just as I'm about to fall asleep. I usually see faces which scare me. A few times in my life I've literally SEEN things with my eyes open just as I'm about to fall asleep I'll see something like a bug crawling next to me or a snake but it just vanishes as I go to full awakeness. 1 time I'd watched a scary movie and when I was just about to sleep I saw the monster standing in my open doorway with the hall light on, when actually my door was closed and all the lights were off! It just dissapeared in a bout 2 seconds as I stared at it like OMG! Aparently this happens to most people though, I think they're called sleep hallucinations? They can be brought on by periods of stress and worry. I remember someone posting about them here once! xx

[PokerFace]

Just had a search and found the thread I was thinking about. You might find it interesting! xx

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=75548

[skin]

Those are not hallucinations, it's a hypnagogic state :D. I opened this thread a couple of days ago: http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=82480
Check it out and don't stress about it, it's pretty common and harmless.

[ridiculouschatname1]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies. Pokerface, ugh I get those nightmares too, where you can feel stuff. It can be really disturbing. Once when i was a kid i had a dream i was eating a twix, and when i woke up i started crying cos I didnt have it anymore, lol. But i've had ones where i've been shot, bitten, scratched...it can get to you after awhile. Hmm also i've been finding it quite difficult to watch horror or scary movies as they seem to freak me out a bit, especially if it's really gorey or high in intensity. Which is weird cos i've always loved scary stuff, never had a problem with it before. Anybody feel anxiety when watching things like that? Thanks again for the replies guys.
Paul.

[Davyboy]

Nevermind....

[unspoken]

I never watch things that are tense and scary because of the nightmares I get from it. It seems my brain only needs the suggestion of something a bit creepy and I'm a nervous wreck. And if I do sleep, I get nightmares.

I have really vivid nightmares too. They started about the time I started taking sertraline for depression, but that coincided with me sleeping more to catch up with a lot of sleep deprivation from when I was working. So I don't know exactly whether the nightmares started with the medication, or that's just when I first noticed them because I was sleeping long enough. Like, before then, it was a case of climbing into bed, falling asleep, jumping awake when my alarm went and feeling like I hadn't been to sleep at all.

Maybe think through the themes and recurring images in your dreams. I have had quite a lot of violent nightmares like you describe. Like, I'm in a car that's being driven off the top of a multi-storey car park. They are so vivid as well. I can feel, smell, hear, taste things. I have trouble during the day working out whether something actually happened or whether I just dreamt about it. I found that my dreams also have a way of making me feel anxious by making situations seem unsafe because bad things happen in my dreams but they're so vivid I can't work out if they actually happened or not.

They eventually got to me less. I was getting recurring dreams where I was driving cars and sometimes buses and lorries earlier this year. In my dreams, I'm always aware of the reality of my own abilities and schedule. So knowing that I couldn't drive, driving a lorry in my dream was terrifying and I felt totally out of control and like I was going to kill myself and other people. When I decided to start taking driving lessons, the nightmares about driving actually eased off. It's weird, but maybe try to figure out some of the themes and see if you can deal with them.

[ridiculouschatname1]

:ohmy:

I had that once about a Mars bar! Didn't cry about it though, just went and bought one :biggrin:

What can i say Davyboy? I'm dramatic, lol.

[ridiculouschatname1]

Hi Unspoken, thanks for the input. The problem with my dreams is that there doesn't seem to be any recurring themes or patterns, so it's almost impossible to try and make sense out of them. They're just seemingly random craziness. That's why I get so exasperated from it. The only thing I can imagine is because of my agoraphobia, I barely go outside, so maybe my mind is trying to make up for experiences I'm not having through my dreams? I really don't know. I'm thinking if I get more active they might lessen. Or become less mental at least, lol. Cheers though, I enjoyed reading that.
Paul.

[PokerFace]

Hmm, dreams are weird stuff. I noticed since I got really bad health anxiety over my heart A LOT of my dreams involve heart attacks and horrible stuff happening to my heart or chest but thats probably because I'm ALWAYS thinking about it in one way or another. Do you fear getting seriously hurt when you're out or that someone might want to harm you when you're out? Even if it might not be clear to you that you do, you subconsiously could which is making you have all these horrible dreams. Although these thoughts (not necessarily violent, just a fear of being hurt) might not be at the front of you're head all the time they would still be ticking away in your subconcious leading to your brain getting them out and twisting them all around when its time for a dream! Sorry if you don't get what I'm trying to say lol, I'm even confusing myself reading it back! Never been good at trying to explain things.

As for the horror movies, that was before I had anxiety lol. I don't really watch scary movies anymore cuz when it all first kicked off for me, my sister bought me some movies to "take my mind off it". Those movies happend to be Saw 5 and Paranormal Activity, safe to say I thought I was having major heart failiure....again! :D xx

[ridiculouschatname1]

HAHA pokerface, does your sister have a twisted sense of humour or what? lol. I remember i watched something with that Joe guy who used to be in eastenders, about paranormal stuff. In one episode he stayed overnight in this haunted house. It was so scary that i felt like i was having a heart attack. I really thought i was about to die. Needless to say i've cut back on the scary stuff now, lol. Oh and when my anxiety first started, my brother had to stay here cos his gf had kicked him out, and he asked if i wanted to watch a movie with him that night. I said allright, cos i didnt want to leave him alone, nobody knew my anxiety at this point. Well turns out the movie was bloody Hostel! I had to sit there and not only pretend i was enjoying the movie, but that i wasnt having a constant panic attack for the whole time too, lol.