Nightmares

[Misery]

I dont have nightmares, per say, but I do have a trend in dreams that I find a bit disconcerting. It's not a matter of anything being scary or whatever, it's more along the lines of them sorta "evolving".

Originally, I didnt dream all that often. That was the case through most of childhood and into adulthood.

At some point a couple of years ago, that abruptly changed. Now, it happens every single time I sleep, without exception.

From there, the dreams started to intensify, in terms of how vivid they were.

And then the REALLY odd one: the first time I could actually *feel* something while in a dream. Could feel it in my hand as much as if I'd picked the horrid thing up IRL. This effect does not happen every single time, it is sporadic. That is also one of the dreams I have a complete memory of.

Next, others. Previously I'd never had any other people appear in dreams, and then suddenly that started happening. That is now frequent. They are not anyone I know.

Finally, talking to those others. That started recently and is also frequent.

Also, the dreams started to become more "stable". Less of that sort of... popping around, less abrupt warping.

Now, that all being said, I do occasionally have dreams that to some, might be considered nightmares, due to something dangerous being present, though I usually dont find myself scared during them... moreso, cautious.

If you'd like to hear about one, I wrote it down in this topic here: A dream story

One of those rare ones that didnt crumble upon waking. I still remember it like it was yesterday. And yes, all of my dreams are that strange.

 

[Luca]

I’m so sorry you’re struggling so much with nightmares

I think you’ve already been given a lot of good advice. I wish I had something of substance to add here, but I still struggle with nightmares and night terrors every night myself.

I hope you are able to find a solution that works for you, so you can have safe, comfortable sleep.

 

[Rodafina]

I’ve done lucid dreaming since I was about 6 years old and obviously had no idea what it was. I remember being very proud of myself for turning that nightmare around. It was based on my fear of tornados.

As an adult, if the nightmare is repeating, I can take charge of the situation and stop the action. This entails taking my power back in some manner.

Rodafina, use your blades. I have terminated the chase scenes by turning around and chasing them with a knife. (I like knives too.)

Maybe I will put my sweet little Opinel right under my pillow!

 

[BuckyRodgers]

My days are pretty good. There is plenty of sensory overload, shut down, and anxiety, but more than ever, I feel that I have outlets for these things now and they are far more manageable and short-lived than they have been in the past. I talk about these days with a friend, I actively do things to feel empowered over my life, things are looking up.

But there are nightmares.

I haven’t slept well for decades, but I am beginning to sleep more and in sobriety, I am dreaming again. Lots of dreaming. At first, it was fun and fascinating, but now, the nightmares are troubling. I wake up and the feelings persist for a while into the day and when I started to fall asleep at night, I get flashbacks of the feelings from the night before.

I don’t know what my question is. I just wanted to share and see what people say. I’m scared to sleep, because sleep is scary.

Hi

I get really bad nightmares and for awhile I was scared of sleeping too, I found that sleeping with a little bag of chamomile and lavender helped me a lot.

Hope this helps and you feel better soon

 

[TheName]

Every night I have a dream I have to recover for hours. No idea why is this Happening to me but yeah I need hours to catch glimps on reality afterwards. They hunting me and can't do anything about it. Real or not they have a meaning. Hard to switch and only thing that works is to wake up with alarm clock and follow routine, even if it means to be zombie like state for few hours from waking up. . I figured the only way to beat it was waking up 5am and spend 2 hours smoking fags or joints and drinking coffee to be able to start my day at 7am... Does that even makes sense to anyone?

 

[grommet]

My days are pretty good. There is plenty of sensory overload, shut down, and anxiety, but more than ever, I feel that I have outlets for these things now and they are far more manageable and short-lived than they have been in the past. I talk about these days with a friend, I actively do things to feel empowered over my life, things are looking up.

But there are nightmares.

I haven’t slept well for decades, but I am beginning to sleep more and in sobriety, I am dreaming again. Lots of dreaming. At first, it was fun and fascinating, but now, the nightmares are troubling. I wake up and the feelings persist for a while into the day and when I started to fall asleep at night, I get flashbacks of the feelings from the night before.

I don’t know what my question is. I just wanted to share and see what people say. I’m scared to sleep, because sleep is scary.

I have nightmares all night every night of my life. They used to be so frightening I was afraid when it started getting dark out.

I still have nightmares all night but not as bad as they were and something very odd happened two nights ago, something that has almost never happened. I did not have nightmares.

I always look for correlations so I thought about how I had been playing an intense virtual reality game for hours that day. All night the game kept playing in my head obsessively which is a bad feeling but I did not have nightmares. I thought anything would be better than my nightmares so yesterday I played the VR game again for hours and last night I only had a few minor nightmares.

I forced myself to play the game again today though I did not want to but if there is a chance it can help stop those dreams I would do it.

My bad dreams all are from anxiety. I am always in a pressure situation and failing. The very bad ones I used to have, and sometimes still do, are about bad things from when I was a child.

If you want to know why dreams are the most frightening just before you wake up it is because your brain is becoming more active from a deeper sleep. It is not a bad dream that wakes you. The bad dream gets more intense as you wake.

 

[Rodafina]

I found that sleeping with a little bag of chamomile and lavender helped me a lot.

Thank you. I will try this.

Does that even makes sense to anyone?

Definitely makes sense.

 

[Rodafina]

If you want to know why dreams are the most frightening just before you wake up it is because your brain is becoming more active from a deeper sleep. It is not a bad dream that wakes you. The bad dream gets more intense as you wake.

Very interesting.

Thank you for sharing your experience. It sounds exhausting and I understand the fear of sleep.

It’s an interesting and useful observation to notice that what we are totally immersed in during the day can dictate the course of our dreams at night. Some sort of hyper focus on something positive, especially right before bed might be a useful way to calm the terrors of the night.

 

[Darkkin]

The brain doesn't have linear or logical context when it is shifting from different stages of sleep. Grinding the gears in transition allows just enough awareness to seep in and trigger the limbic system and the fight or flight response.

It is akin to standing on the gas while being stuck in neutral. With things like acquiring healthy habits, accrued chemical residues being to filter out of the body and the overall health and function of the nervous system improve, meaning the neurotransmitters move more efficiently.

A system already heightened by anxiety doesn't take much to trigger a nightmare. And is often a side effect of lifestyle changes. Like any type of energy or emotion it is possible to direct that build up in a specific direction.

I put big emotions into fictional constructs. I also know I sleep better when I have done something actively creative, whether it was a writing project or a discussion that makes me think critically.

Personally, I've never had nightmares, but I have had waking dreams when I get sick. Dreams I can't control and that lack of control is the scariest part for me. I truly hate that sensation, but I'm also smart enough to know that sensation is fear. It is probably why I never sleep when I have even a mildly elevated temperature.

I've had the capacity to control my dreams since I was little. I usually don't remember what I dream, but the tone is usually mellow enough. The worst it gets is those weirdly annoying dreams about being at work...It's like come on brain, I'm not even on the clock.

I have weird sleep habits that exploit the wiring of my brain and shut it down quickly. I have the TV set to a series I've seen a thousand times, a playlist I've heard just as many. My brain with physically tune out the background busyness.

I sleep on top of my blankets and duvet because twisted sheets are a huge sensory trigger for me and that makes me freak out.

Take a look at things you do in your bedtime routine. Sometimes a small change can make a difference. Sleeping on top of my duvet, (I have a fleece throw to keep it clean), was a game changer for me.

Keeping a sleep journal may also help. Dreams and nightmares are as much about the emotions as they are about the images. Identify the emotion and it can help lead to a source to focus on. Adding a little stim time may also help regulate the nervous system before sleep. It is one of the reasons ASDer sleep better after exercise.

 

[Rodafina]

I’ve learned a lot about nightmares, thanks to you all. I have been keeping track more closely and I’ve had a good week in terms of reduce nightmares.

I wanted to share something that @Moogwizard helped me to understand. I think he is right and I have gathered some evidence to support the theory. Of course, I need more data, but it definitely seems to be related to sensory overload and meltdown.

As most of you know I have not understood my life through the lens of autism for very long. It is only in the last couple years that I have been researching it, and only in this past year that I accepted that I do experience the world as an autistic person.

So sensory meltdowns are something that I’ve always had, but I have a strong inclination to suppress such things. For many many years drugs helped me to suppress what was going on in my brain, but, they destroyed everything about me that matters.

Anyway, my point is I experience sensory overload all the time and I do have meltdowns, but I have a difficult time actually expressing them.

It turns out, my nightmares seem directly related to sensory meltdowns. The feelings I have in my dreams seem to mirror what a meltdown looks like and feels like when I am able to express it and from what I understand from others.

The days that I was able to manage sensory overload pretty well, I have had distinctly fewer nightmares. Toward the end of the week, when I am feeling fried and my senses have been overloaded, the nightmares return and the themes are consistently assaults on my sensory challenges.

Like I said, I’m still gathering evidence and trying to understand the complexity of dreaming and how to make sense of it, but this has been really helpful for me and my quest for understanding and I wanted to share it here.

 

[grommet]

I’ve learned a lot about nightmares, thanks to you all. I have been keeping track more closely and I’ve had a good week in terms of reduce nightmares.

I wanted to share something that another forum member helped me to understand. I think he is right and I have gathered some evidence to support the theory. Of course, I need more data, but it definitely seems to be related to sensory overload and meltdown.

As most of you know I have not understood my life through the lens of autism for very long. It is only in the last couple years that I have been researching it, and only in this past year that I accepted that I do experience the world as an autistic person.

So sensory meltdowns are something that I’ve always had, but I have a strong inclination to suppress such things. For many many years drugs helped me to suppress what was going on in my brain, but, they destroyed everything about me that matters.

Anyway, my point is I experience sensory overload all the time and I do have meltdowns, but I have a difficult time actually expressing them.

It turns out, my nightmares seem directly related to sensory meltdowns. The feelings I have in my dreams seem to mirror what a meltdown looks like and feels like when I am able to express it and from what I understand from others.

The days that I was able to manage sensory overload pretty well, I have had distinctly fewer nightmares. Toward the end of the week, when I am feeling fried and my senses have been overloaded, the nightmares return and the themes are consistently assaults on my sensory challenges.

Like I said, I’m still gathering evidence and trying to understand the complexity of dreaming and how to make sense of it, but this has been really helpful for me and my quest for understanding and I wanted to share it here.

This could be very important for me. I did not know about this idea. I have what I call "stress" nightmares every night and I will tonight. If they are from sensory overload and I could find more ways to reduce that, maybe my lifetime of nightmares could finally get better.

Thank you very much for talking about this idea.

 

[Rodafina]

hank you very much for talking about this idea.

Thank you for saying that grommet. That’s why I wanted to bring it up… It felt like sort of a revelation.

@Moogwizard is the one who connected the dots and he is the one we have to thank.

I really hope it helps you even a little bit.

 

[Outdated]

If you want to know why dreams are the most frightening just before you wake up it is because your brain is becoming more active from a deeper sleep. It is not a bad dream that wakes you. The bad dream gets more intense as you wake.

I just wanted to say that this rings true with how I understand myself, although I don't have nightmares.

As I previously mentioned, I'm a very deep sleeper and if I'm remembering dreams that says to me that I didn't sleep properly. I like undisturbed sleep.

A lot of people seem to have a different idea about sleep than I do though. To me there is no knowledge of time passing when I sleep, I lie down with all sorts of thoughts running through my head and then all of a sudden 8 or 9 hours has vanished.

When I was in hospital once a nurse asked me about my sleeping, she said I scared a few people because the way I sleep is very much like someone in a coma. After talking to her about it a bit she said that what I do is more like an animal going in to hibernation than what most people know as sleep.

 

[grommet]

Thank you for saying that grommet. That’s why I wanted to bring it up… It felt like sort of a revelation.

@Moogwizard is the one who connected the dots and he is the one we have to thank.

I really hope it helps you even a little bit.

It is great when we can help each other.

 

[Rodafina]

It is great when we can help each other.

I am so grateful for that. You are right, it is great. Grateful for the greatness of the forum!

 

[Rodafina]

A lot of people seem to have a different idea about sleep than I do though. To me there is no knowledge of time passing when I sleep, I lie down with all sorts of thoughts running through my head and then all of a sudden 8 or 9 hours has vanished

How?? HOW??? Teach me, sensei. Even drugged out and drunk as piss I still had trouble sleeping. Teach me how to hibernate! Do I need black bear genes or something? HOW???

 

[NB79]

i don't have nightmares usually, but the other day, i had one, that i was with strangers, and they didn't understand anything i said, but they were close to me and trying to 'help me' somehow, but it felt uncomfortable, i don't remember all the dream, it was long, but at the end i was very uncomfortable and i remember they threw some drugs for me to take in a table, and looked at me in a controlling way, to take it, i was so distressed that i forcibly woke up like in the movies when they gasp for air and get up like that.

 

[Outdated]

How?? HOW??? Teach me, sensei. Even drugged out and drunk as piss I still had trouble sleeping. Teach me how to hibernate! Do I need black bear genes or something? HOW???

I have no idea how, that's just how I always slept. When blind drunk and passed out at a party people could pick my comatose body up and shift it and I would have no idea that was happening, I snore terribly when drunk.

Even sober I sleep that heavy. Years ago I went and stayed on a remote property with my brother and his daughter, it had a house but the house had no door or windows. During the night his dog cornered a possum under my bed and both Cliff and his daughter were in there trying to get the dog to calm down and to save the possum. I had no idea, slept right through it, never heard a thing.

 

[Rodafina]

I have no idea how, that's just how I always slept. When blind drunk and passed out at a party people could pick my comatose body up and shift it and I would have no idea that was happening, I snore terribly when drunk.

Even sober I sleep that heavy. Years ago I went and stayed on a remote property with my brother and his daughter, it had a house but the house had no door or windows. During the night his dog cornered a possum under my bed and both Cliff and his daughter were in there trying to get the dog to calm down and to save the possum. I had no idea, slept right through it, never heard a thing.

I’ll admit to feelings of envy.