Treatment/solution for PTSD night terrors?

[Luca]

I will actually attempt to keep this one brief and straight to the point. Lol
I’ve been getting terrible sleep quality lately and reluctant to go to sleep, because I have horrible night terrors. This isn’t new, I have PTSD and was diagnosed as a young adult and this is one of the reasons I was diagnosed. But it’s getting worse!
I don’t feel comfortable talking about this a lot but I really need help.
I have absolutely TERRIFYING night terrors about something traumatic that happened to me as a child, and they’re always the same- I’m yelling and screaming (in the dream) and I’m trapped and can’t escape and no one is helping me.
My dogs can sense when I’m having these dreams and will try to wake me up, but I can’t fully get out of it and I feel like I’m paralyzed (but different from sleep paralysis, which I also have sometimes.) Humans cannot fully wake me up either. I wake up on my own, panicking, when the dream is over.

I take Prazosin and it doesn’t really work. The dreams are too intense. I’ve tried melatonin and other natural sleep aids and they don’t help at all. I’m pretty hesitant to try Ambien or Nyquil. I will not smoke marijuana or use psychedelics.
I think Prazosin is the only available prescription treatment for nightmares. Doesn’t work for me. I also take Ziprasidone (Geodon) for some PTSD symptoms but it doesn’t do anything for nightmares whatsoever.

Is there anything, at all, that I can do about this?? My doctor keeps suggesting increasing the dose of Prazosin but it makes my blood pressure too low and makes me lightheaded when I wake up. And again, absolutely useless for night terrors.
EMDR therapy has been suggested to me but my current therapist thinks my trauma is too complex for it to be effective.
Are there any medications or natural remedies I haven’t tried that might be worth checking out? Specific types of guided meditations? Anything that can help with trauma or PTSD other than talk therapy? I feel like I’ve tried everything

 

[ForestGumpett]

I studied polysomnography for two years - so all I have to offer is that many medications will and can do that.

Finding something natural would be good.

 

[Suzette]

I don't espress empathy well on these subjects. Everything I can think of to say is inadequate. But I have experienced ptsd induced night terrors and I know how nasty they can be.
For myself I found an accidental solution. I quit resisting them. I quit trying to stop having them. I just consoled myself after and used as much minimizing language as I could. "It is JUST a night terror. O.k. I know what it is. I am o.k.".
They began to happen less and less. I haven't had one in years now.
I say "solution" but it wasn't anything I consciously tried to do. It was just a reaction of despiration. But maybe that idea holds they key?

 

[Streetwise]

I will actually attempt to keep this one brief and straight to the point. Lol
I’ve been getting terrible sleep quality lately and reluctant to go to sleep, because I have horrible night terrors. This isn’t new, I have PTSD and was diagnosed as a young adult and this is one of the reasons I was diagnosed. But it’s getting worse!
I don’t feel comfortable talking about this a lot but I really need help.
I have absolutely TERRIFYING night terrors about something traumatic that happened to me as a child, and they’re always the same- I’m yelling and screaming (in the dream) and I’m trapped and can’t escape and no one is helping me.
My dogs can sense when I’m having these dreams and will try to wake me up, but I can’t fully get out of it and I feel like I’m paralyzed (but different from sleep paralysis, which I also have sometimes.) Humans cannot fully wake me up either. I wake up on my own, panicking, when the dream is over.

I take Prazosin and it doesn’t really work. The dreams are too intense. I’ve tried melatonin and other natural sleep aids and they don’t help at all. I’m pretty hesitant to try Ambien or Nyquil. I will not smoke marijuana or use psychedelics.
I think Prazosin is the only available prescription treatment for nightmares. Doesn’t work for me. I also take Ziprasidone (Geodon) for some PTSD symptoms but it doesn’t do anything for nightmares whatsoever.

Is there anything, at all, that I can do about this?? My doctor keeps suggesting increasing the dose of Prazosin but it makes my blood pressure too low and makes me lightheaded when I wake up. And again, absolutely useless for night terrors.
EMDR therapy has been suggested to me but my current therapist thinks my trauma is too complex for it to be effective.
Are there any medications or natural remedies I haven’t tried that might be worth checking out? Specific types of guided meditations? Anything that can help with trauma or PTSD other than talk therapy? I feel like I’ve tried everything

You need to go back to the therapist, you need to talk about it, while you're with a therapist, and you need to find an online group! so you can talk to people who you know understand and it hasn't happened to me, so I don't understand, I've got panic disorder for another reason, you probably haven't got panic disorder for that reason ,so you wouldn't understand, try mindfulness as well, if you can retrain your mind, you can reduce gradually the panic attacks, don't unless you are with a therapist permanently, try what a lot of people do ,which is called flooding, going to the place\experience, that causes panic attacks, you need gradual desensitisation, I've had unending panic attacks, don't !!!!!experience 15 hours of horrific panic .

 

[Luca]

Thank you everyone
I will try everything you all suggested. I think it’s worth having more conversations with my doctor and therapist too.
I’m not usually an unhappy person at all but I’ve been feeling pretty worn out lately. So sorry if I seem “off” or not my usual self.
I’m going on a day trip with my parents tomorrow so maybe a change of scenery will help

 

[Ken]

I have had PTSD terrors both in sleep and waking for as long as I can remember. I have had routine nightmares all my life, but in the last few years that has reduced to simply "busy" dreams. I'll take those over nightmares any time.

Eventually I realized that the PTSD terrors followed the frequency of PTSD triggers and work related anxieties. About three years ago, I retired early to curb those anxieties. I have become as much of a hermit in my private little design lab as life (and my wife) will allow. The nightmares (night terrors) started to decline. Haven't had one in almost a year now. Previously they were every night - multiple times every night - every time I fell asleep. It was also inducing other physical health issues.

I finally learned the source of my PTSD which helps to know, but I can't discuss it. Entirely overwhelmingly painful.

I never took any drugs. As an engineer, I always want to find the source of an issue or at least understand what the source is and work to eliminate, correct or manage it. I feel that drugs leave the original issue intact and just make you numb to it.

In any event, I focused on finding my triggers and eliminating or drastically reducing them. I kept logs because there are delays to many trigger that are beyond my attention span making me miss the connections. So far, that is working.

I wish you success. I can attest, this is no way to live!

 

[Luca]

I have had PTSD terrors both in sleep and waking for as long as I can remember. I have had routine nightmares all my life, but in the last few years that has reduced to simply "busy" dreams. I'll take those over nightmares any time.

Eventually I realized that the PTSD terrors followed the frequency of PTSD triggers and work related anxieties. About three years ago, I retired early to curb those anxieties. I have become as much of a hermit in my private little design lab as life (and my wife) will allow. The nightmares (night terrors) started to decline. Haven't had one in almost a year now. Previously they were every night - multiple times every night - every time I fell asleep. It was also inducing other physical health issues.

I finally learned the source of my PTSD which helps to know, but I can't discuss it. Entirely overwhelmingly painful.

I never took any drugs. As an engineer, I always want to find the source of an issue or at least understand what the source is and work to eliminate, correct or manage it. I feel that drugs leave the original issue intact and just make you numb to it.

In any event, I focused on finding my triggers and eliminating or drastically reducing them. I kept logs because there are delays to many trigger that are beyond my attention span making me miss the connections. So far, that is working.

I wish you success. I can attest, this is no way to live!

Thank you Ken, so sorry it happens to you too Sounds like you’ve had a really rough time.
Everyone else who posted about the same experience, I totally feel for all of you too. I’m glad some of you have overcome it and I’m sorry some of you still struggle. We’ll all get through this together <3
It really helps me to know that people on here care about me. I care about you guys too. Even though we don’t know each other irl I am grateful to have found comfort and companionship here

 

[Pieceofmind]

Usually when I have some full spectrum CBD I don't remember my dreams (which are always really bad even if not night terrors constantly), if I combine it with melatonin that really knocks me out which I don't like to do often cause that combo makes me a bit groggy in the morning. Any sedatives in general work but I'm also in a real bad situation where I can't get enough kratom I need for more than a couple 2 days a week at high dosage with 3 at most to remain functional. But I'd take being on a constant mini withdrawal marry go round over what I'm like with nothing at all. Usually allows me to sleep easier even if I don't dose anywhere near bed time.

 

[watersprite]

I have them too. Even when I don’t remember the details, there is evidence of having had a nightmare. In my sleep I bite - hard - my tongue or cheeks, to the point of making them bleed. Takes a few days to heal. The psychiatrist said it’s due to stuff that happened to me when young. This is a symptom of trauma and ptsd, and I was supposed to get therapy and all. Therapy is extremely expensive, out of the range of my budget.
I just figure I’ve got to deal with it as it comes around.
@crewlucaa_ I think it is wrong to take sleeping meds. Friends who hsve become seriously messed up by their use tell me they make things worse. Try running and weight workouts - that’s what controls the stress for me.

 

[Pieceofmind]

I have them too. Even when I don’t remember the details, there is evidence of having had a nightmare. In my sleep I bite - hard - my tongue or cheeks, to the point of making them bleed. Takes a few days to heal. The psychiatrist said it’s due to stuff that happened to me when young. This is a symptom of trauma and ptsd, and I was supposed to get therapy and all. Therapy is extremely expensive, out of the range of my budget.
I just figure I’ve got to deal with it as it comes around.
@crewlucaa_ I think it is wrong to take sleeping meds. Friends who hsve become seriously messed up by their use tell me they make things worse. Try running and weight workouts - that’s what controls the stress for me.

I do the tongue biting thing too but mostly my lips. Right now I'm trying voluntarily do it but I can't, it only happens by subconscious reflex and I don't specifically know what the triggers are besides that it has something to do with fighting and violence in connection to it. I will feel a sense of danger from the in waking life other person (it usually involves a person doing something socially that triggers this). Good thing you mentioned this because in this state I am now I literally can't recall what triggers it and what things surface, that is so weird. Would never have known if I didn't read that.

 

[Matthias]

Anything that can help with trauma or PTSD other than talk therapy? I feel like I’ve tried everything

The most effective treatments for PTSD are changing the way you think about what happened to you so that it doesn't affect you as much and desensitization therapy which involves gradually exposing yourself to the traumatic situation until it doesn't affect you as much.

You may want to search online for "lucid dreaming". Since you're re-experiencing what happened to you in your dreams, you can practice desensitizing yourself while you are dreaming. Websites about lucid dreaming will teach you how to recognize when you're dreaming and how to control your dreams so you can face your fears and overcome them instead of being terrified by them.

 

[Callistemon]

OK, Luca, I'm late to the party here but maybe you'll find something helpful in the story of how I dealt with the night terrors I got when the repressed PTSD stuff started coming out with a vengeance in my early 40s. It's in Post #11 underneath the pretty pictures. All the previous posts are about trying to explain complex PTSD to people who are unfamiliar with it. Music For Emotional Health

I don't have these nightmares anymore; they disappeared after about six months or so if I recall correctly. They were super scary at first, until I understood what they were and why they were so incredibly terrifying, and until I processed some of the pushed-away emotions from early childhood that I'd never been able to process at the time.

It's not the same for everyone, but hopefully something there may be helpful in some way.

 

[OkRad]

Melatonin REALLY helps me as well as Valarian. B12 also helps but taken early. There are many herbs that are good for night terrors. Also, that Transcranial magnetic Stimulation?

 

[Aspychata]

Nightmares can really shake us up. I suffered ptsd related nightmares. I also suffer severe anxiety when l go to sleep and grind my teeth. Now my dreams are okay. Maybe l live in a better place.

PTSD seems to come and go. Sometimes l just feel in a trauma induced state with no trauma when l am awake or when l am going to sleep. It's like a nonspecific daymare.

 

[Luca]

Thank you everyone for the tips!!
I’m still struggling with this but I will try these suggestions!

 

[Callistemon]

I thought I'd come back to this again to make one particular point: For me, the flashback nightmares didn't go away until I had adequately processed the emotions from my childhood.

Although I probably had more "standard" nightmares and anxiety dreams than the average child, I didn't get flashback nightmares until my early 40s, when I had a sudden intense burst of them night after night for two weeks, after which I was a wreck from not sleeping properly and having all this turmoil sprung on me. At that point I saw my GP who then put me on low-dose SSRIs to calm the stress response and get the serotonin levels back to a point where I could sleep. For the first week after that I was sleeping 10 hours straight and my body was recovering from the drama.

At that stage I was then getting regular daytime flashbacks, although I still had nightmares on and off for six months. But the ability to sleep and recover physically gave me the energy to process the emotions that had come out from behind this Great Wall of China in my brain after being hidden from me for over 30 years. (It was the emotions that were hidden, not the "facts" - I always had the footage of things that had happened, but it was silent and I felt numb when I recollected them - until the emotions came back with the footage in those flashback nightmares.)

For six months I was only working half-days and spent the rest of each day dealing seriously with the things that I'd never had the space or security to process before. I did it by a combination of self-education on emotional trauma, talking to people I trusted about what happened, reading other people's stories online, telling my own story, etc. I found it particularly effective to visualise the little child I had been and to talk to that child, and especially to listen to that child and what it had to say. In the process I basically re-parented this child by being a calm warm safe adult it could go to with these terrible feelings - the thing that was missing in childhood. It's a little bit like sitting with a ghost, but the child we were is still inside of us, underneath all the layers adulthood has put on us.

It was the emotional processing which made the nightmares and most of the daytime flashbacks disappear. I've not had a flashback nightmare in years, but still get the occasional daytime flashback, and still have some PTSD triggers, and some of the hypervigilance, although a more calm and strategic "look for the exit" type hypervigilance.

There's still times I get a sort of background anxiety around life stressors or triggering incidents which makes sleep a bit difficult - and when that happens I go back on low-dose SSRIs for anything from a couple of days to a couple of months. My body seems to be particularly responsive to that stuff and elevates serotonin really quickly, and when I'm back in my normal sleep pattern I can stop with the SSRIs again without rebound nightmares or rebound anxiety. These things work differently for different people, but low-dose SSRIs don't make me hungover, and other sleep aids do, including the drowsy antihistamines which are often recommended for sedation so that's been the best pharmaceutical approach for me, and it's just one tool in the box, and most of the tools are lifestyle management tools and also emotional processing - but I did find it a useful additional tool for managing this condition.