Published on 12, July, 2020
I suffer from the dual evil of nightmares and insomnia and need help.
For example, today I woke at 4am from a nightmare and I cannot fall asleep (insomnia). I am also afraid to go back to sleep because in the past I have had nightmares following nightmares when I fall asleep after a short break.
With inadequate sleep I get up tired. With nightmarish sleep I get up tired.
I don't have sleeping tablets at home as a precaution. Because in my recent past I've attempted suicide by overdosing with tablets.
So I sit in bed. Either reading , worrying or on the internet.
Any Help or advice is much appreciated!
I Robert
What do you call nightmares? What goes on in your dreams that you don't like?
I suffer from having hyper-real dreams that don't delete themselves when I wake so I'm living 2 or 3 seprerate lives through the night (I'm up a lot too).
I have the tv on very dimly and very quietly with some dull, gentle programmes on to bore me back to sleep.
I learned to embrace the dreams - to explore them and follow them as they pan out. Sometimes they end at a place where I wanted to go further, someimes they end at a point where I'm annoyed at something in the dream.
I can't call any of them 'nightmares', they're just interesting things my brain is creating when it's not doing anything useful.
Are you able to just let your nightmares run to completion?
My nightmares do not run to completion. I wake. Then after falling back to sleep. A new nightmare starts or a different version of the previous one.
Last night I slept in three parts. Each had nightmares. Each nightmare had some connection with reality.
Nightmare one was about keeping chickens safe in the garden !!! I had dozens in a large garden. Problem was keeping them safe from predetory cats, foxes and horses.
In reality I currently live in a flat and have no garden. Although several homes in the area do keep chickens and ducks in their gardens.
Nightmare two was about me and two colleges trying to get back to work/college (this was confused and kept changing). After a half day training course. We were walking through the snow which was so dry it seemed like dry sand on a beach. One of my colleagues injured her leg and it was both broken and bleeding. We were trying to get her medical attention. But went to wrong rooms then we were told it's by appointment only. I was saying it's an emergency!!!??
In reality I read on the internet yesterday that it's predicted that this winter will be coldest for decades.
Last winter I slipped twice and fell. Badly injuring my back.
Nightmare three is too private for a public forum.