Can we talk about night terrors?

DirtyDirtyVagrant · September 2013

I'm pretty much looking for advice on what I can do or who I can talk to about the awful, horrible nightmares I've been having for the last ten months or so. I don't have them very often (1 every month or two) but when I do I wake up terrified, shaking, in tears, and for the rest of the day I'm scared of my own shadow. Fortunately I don't scream or thrash around in my sleep, so I'm not really concerned about safety or causing physical harm to myself or others at all. It's just that these dreams are so fucked up that I'm honestly having a little bit of trouble coping.

They feel like lucid dreams. Like, dreams where I'm aware of myself somehow. And they aren't fantastical. The first one I ever had, I was dreaming of sitting on the toilet. Just peeing in the middle of the night. Like...there was a connection between where I was (bed) and where I am now (bathroom). This dream took place in my apartment at the time. I don't really want to go into too many details because it's kind of triggering, but essentially I got up from the toilet, looked in the mirror, and I had been horribly disfigured. And because it was so real my reaction was...strong.

They seem to have progressed from that, though. Over time, they stayed real, but now in the dream I was the victim of torture or invasive surgery. I feel everything. In my dreams I've had my eyelids cut off. I've had screws driven into my body. I've been butchered alive. And worse.

A couple days ago I had a bit of a scare with Department of Homeland Security agents waking me up and searching my computer. Now, I didn't have anything to worry about (somebody had been looking at icky things over our unsecured wireless connection and that somebody wasn't me), but all the same, being thrown in jail is my absolute worst nightmare. I'm trans (male to female) so if I were to go to prison it'd be to a men's facility. Last night I had a jailhouse dream. I was assaulted, raped repeatedly, and ultimately stabbed to 'death.'

Is my prozac doing this? If not, then what the fuck is happening? Can I stop this? Can therapy help? Are there support groups?

zerzhul · September 2013

I personally have no experience with this, but since you mention medication, I would definitely start by talking to your doctor(s) about potential side effects of any medication you are on. Before that conversation you should try to think if there have been any other changes in your habits lately, eating, exercise, etc. I would assume they would ask you questions like that, so it's always good to be prepared.

The rest of it, well I'm not sure, but we have a good crop of folks here with a wide variety of experiences, so I'm sure some better information will come.

schuss · September 2013

The big thing that helped me was this: Remember that this is your dream, and you own whatever world you're in.

I needed anime to post. · September 2013

I've suffered from night terrors due primarily to diet, and once changing that up I was feeling much better. I have no knowledge of Prozac's interaction, positive or negative, with them. There can definitely be a physical component to them, however, so don't stress about needing some complex therapy or anything just yet. Speak with your doctor about them, it's definitely something potentially solveable right out the gate. While anxiety or stress certainly wouldn't necessarily help, there's no guarantee of it being the culprit.

As for dealing with them after the fact, I was able to laugh about mine and joke about them with friends but that primarily was due to their subject matter - impossible monsters and boogiemen. Talking things through certainly helped though.

Best of luck with them. It's not fun to have to get a glass of water in the middle of the night, and even less so when it's because you've screamed yourself raw knowing abject horror.

ceres · September 2013

Some medications can give you terrible nightmares, so if you've started anything in the past month it's worth a look. Other than that, the answer to "who can I talk to about [mental issue]?" is 9 times out of 10 going to be "a therapist." If you have one that's a good place to start, and if you don't and this is becoming a problem it might be time to get one.

Creagan · September 2013

Stress can be a contributor to night terrors, especially if you're already suffering from anxiety. My dad got particularly verbally abusive last year, right when I was under a lot of stress from school and my general anxiety was at its peak. So when I went on vacation with my family that year, I had a series of very 'realistic' nightmares. They weren't nearly as bad as yours, but did involve my dad being a serial killer and my having to help him not get caught. (My mom kinda had insisted we not tell people how nuts he is.) And I had a lot of dreams about schools murdering their students or where schools turned our to basically be prisons, where I'd wake up hyperventilating & sweating with my heart pounding because it seemed real. It sounds like your jail house dream was in a similar vein to that, albeit a gazillion times worse.

Stress reduction and therapy to get my dad to behave helped a lot. Do you suffer from sleep apnea/allergies? I recently found out I had serious untreated allergies, and drastically improving my breathing by treating that has pretty much ended the nightmares.

useless4 · September 2013

Have you had them before the Prozac? I have always had them my whole life since 2 (I can even remember the first one).
Triggers: Stress (more specifically anxiety) brings them up. Being really exhausted and pushing past the point of collapse , then falling asleep, brings them up as well.

But I have had a particular medicine make them 1000x worse.

Update this if you find out anything.

iRevert · September 2013

Apparently I was summoned to this thread.

First check what meds you are taking, sleep aids and muscle/skeletal relaxants have always made things far worse for me. Second figure out what your triggers are, for me the chances are amplified if I'm sleeping on my back and if anything places pressure near my neck and if it is night time when I'm sleeping, your triggers will vary so you need to start logging things on when you have one how you were sleeping/events of the previous day(s) and so on.

Without going into much detail on what is the cause of why I have night terrors I will say this after being put on a variety of meds to try and stop/minimize the harm that I was doing when a night terror occurred it made things far worse both in terms of how often they occurred (up from once every week to three or four every week) and how severe the aftermath (both mentally and physically). I attributed it to the feeling of lack of control of my body and frankly they didn't help me any as I still was dislocated joints/thumbs and clenching to the point of bleeding.

I'm not a prime example on how to fix it, I run on only a couple of hours of sleep a day usually grabbing a few hours of sleep during the day when I won't have any night terrors and usually burn myself out till I crash for a 12-14 hour sleep marathon one night but our circumstances greatly differ.

Research your meds, keep tract of triggers, and remember it's just a dream. All else fails seek professional help as it might be some underlying issue or anxiety that is causing it.

Bendery It Like Beckham · September 2013

iRevert pretty much covered everything I was going to mention and more. I get night terrors a handful of times a year, when I was on Depakote I got them every night and it was absolutely awful. Triggers are going to be what you need to keep track of, I had a trigger that had to do with stuff on my neck, ended up having to sleep without a shirt and making sure my blanket didn't go anywhere near my neck for a while. I never hurt myself because it was coupled with sleep paralysis but if there is one thing i never want to happen again its to be put back on those meds.

DirtyDirtyVagrant · September 2013

I don't know if I have sleep apnea. Although it might help to explain a few things. And I am pretty overweight, so I guess it's not out of the question.

I've been on prozac for about six months, and other than that, the only medication I take is my hormones.

ceres · September 2013

Well, here's the thing. If you suspect you may have sleep apnea for pretty much any reason, you should get a sleep study done yesterday. Sleep apnea is pretty much the worst in that it can silently fuck with you in so many ways.

Creagan · September 2013

Definitely look into a sleep study if you think you have sleep apnea. (Or if you snore. Snoring is bad.) I don't actually have sleep apnea- it turns out I've spent my entire life with my nasal cavities swelled shut without realizing it. (Long story.)

Sleep apnea is 1000% worse than that. My dad has it, hasn't treated it and it's screwed with him in every way imaginable. If you can't get a sleep study now, look into stress-reduction and avoid alcohol. My dad's way worse when he's been drinking.

The Ender · September 2013

I have terrible, surreal night terrors / sleep paralysis (nothing graphic like yours; I see a featureless, pitch black figure looking at me through a window, doorframe, or some other nook or cranny. It's impossible to describe it without it just seeming ridiculous, but it chills my bones every time). Nothing that I know of is the trigger; it's just an unfortunate missing tooth in the clockwork.

My anti-depressant medication has not helped with this specific thing, and while I can certainly talk about it with a therapist, talking about it hasn't made them go away or feel less threatening.

I've learned to accept that this is a thing that happens to me, and when it happens to mitigate it by doing two things:

- A breathing exercise

- Talking with someone right away. Doesn't matter how; phone, Skype, PM, whatever. As soon as I can move, I tell someone what is happening. Just doing this and speaking to another person immediately makes me feel safer and creates a disconnect between the real world and the nightmare.

cecily · September 2013

Prozac has a terrible effect on some people but just normalizes others. That's definitely the first thing I would check out. Perhaps you are one of the ones it does not work well for.

I had a friend who had night terrors years ago and had never been on any medication. She had acupuncture a few times and never had them again. That could also be something for you to try.

useless4 · October 2013

It could be the hormone treatments? It wouldn't hurt to ask the doctor or pharmacist next time you see one.

Noizlanif · October 2013

I Know exactly what you are talking about OP, I had experienced these night terrors / dreams for a while also. I was actually diagnosed with a sleep apnea and it's amazing the effects it will actually cause on your body / brain. Because technically you are asleep, but it lets certain parts of your brain be active which can lead to that sense of awareness that is so dreaded. It can cause you to stop breathing or change the way you breathe is also which, well, isn't good. I finally was able to actually get rid / reduce the amount of occurrences of it by losing a good amount of weight. I'm not saying this could be a cure for you, but it helped me. It actually sounds like it might be multiplied by the many factors you mentioned originally. But it might be a start for you.

kaliyama · October 2013

In terms of managing your underlying anxieties:

(1) look into getting your sex changed legally
(2) be mindful that cbp currently asserts the right to seize your electronics indefinitely at any int'l border crossing.

DirtyDirtyVagrant · October 2013

I did not have these before the prozac. But I've been on hormones for two years almost. It could be weight-related sleep apnea, and I'll get tested, but honestly I'm not exhibiting any symptoms that I had before (when I was heavier and legitimately DID have it) - headaches, excessive sleepiness, loud snoring, etc.

Also for some reason I can't do the things I should be able to do when I'm lucid. I always hear people talking about their lucid dreams like they may as well be god as far as their dream world is concerned. But I don't ever 'get' there. It's sort of like the jumping scene in the matrix. I try to do awesome things and I just 'cant'. I end up helpless.

Invisible · October 2013

Prozac can cause nightmares and vivid dreams. It's one if the side effects. Tell the prescribing doctor and ask to try something different.

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