Published on 12, July, 2020
I've shared my sleeping problems here before.
Today or should I say tonight, I woke up at 3am, totally exhausted from trying to fall asleep. In fact I was sleeping, but I was having a nightmare that I was awake and trying to sleep
Now it's 4am and I'm afraid to sleep.
i relate to this so much!!
I hugely sympathise with this. At the moment I keep waking up suddenly in the night feeling really anxious. I am not aware that I am having any dreams/nightmares but I assume I must be to wake up feeling like this. I also wake up feeling extremely hot, which is unusual for someone who permanently feels cold. The rest of the night is then awful and it doesn't set me up well for the next day.
No wonder you dislike being photographed that childhood experience must have been very distressing. I hated posing for photographs as a child - it seemed so fake. On one occasion I was wearing a brand new pale yellow jumper. My mother made me pose for a photo up against a wooden fence. The jumper got lichen all over it and was ruined which really upset me. I look back at photos of myself now and realise how few (if any) show the real me. Perhaps just one, taken as a teenager, of me doing some art work, sitting on the floor wearing an old shirt.
Sometimes it's like that! Sometimes it's like a false memory.
I experience that when I fall asleep in the daytime. Because I don't get enough sleep at night, I often doze off in the afternoon or evening.
After a short nap. I don't know what day it is, where am I? I'm in a state of panic.
A very vivid experience was a couple of months ago when I woke up in bed wearing my daytime clothes. I had no idea where I was , what day, what time???. The clock in the bedroom said 6:30 , it was dark. I thought it was morning and I'd slept all night In my day clothes.
I was in a state of confusion staggering around the flat. Eventually I turned on the TV and discovered it was 7pm. So it was evening. Gradually I pieced together the evidence and realised and remembered that I took a lie down around 6pm. If it was now 7pm. And I woke at 6:30. Then I must have only slept for half an hour.
Although I am a photographer and I share many photos here. I also dislike and avoid being photographed.
It all goes back to one incident in my childhood.
My parents were Polish Roman Catholics and at holy communion I was in a group photograph with other children.
When my mother saw the photograph she went crazy and accused me of spoiling the whole picture. And how ashamed she was of my appearance and didn't want the other mothers to know that that boy was her son.
The only problem that I saw was that I wasn't looking straight at the camera but slightly outwards, upwards and my Adam's apple was clearly visible.
i have dreams that it’s the next day, when i wake up i’m very confused and don’t know where i am or what day it is. is that what you mean?
Looks quite extraordinary now doesn't it! I cringe when I remember some of the things I used to wear in my youth - fortunately I was never daft enough to wear hot pants or platform shoes, and there is limited photographic evidence as I avoided being photographed whenever possible!
I cringed looking at that dance video. Those are the nostalgic memories from my youth.
That is a very unusual nightmare indeed! Thank you for reminding me about "No, honestly" it prompted me to play this youtube video - just look at the dancers- oh what strange times we have lived through! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1HHWwEv681I Hope you have a much better night's sleep tonight.
Another thing. Does anyone sometimes recall their dreams as if they were reality accidentally? It makes it all even more spooky!
Even if I manage to get to sleep quick, I'll always have nightmares that disturb me. Often they are very graphic and involve me being publicly humiliated, maimed, or killed. I'd love any advice on how to stop dreams entirely. It seems so unfair that I put a lot of work into getting to sleep and it's just as, if not more, horrifying than being awake.
i’ve struggled with awful nightmares that make me afraid to sleep. try meditation for sleep and keep something by your bed that may comfort you if you wake up panicked. write down your dreams or tell them to someone, it makes them less likely to appear again if you’re having recurring nightmares. if you feel afraid to sleep, walking around for a while or doing something relaxing like reading a book might calm you down. i hope it gets better!
No snow here, yet.
Last night's nightmare was strange. I had the theme song from the 70s romantic comedy series, ''No, honestly " going through my head and I was trying to find the DVD. I was certain that I had the whole series dvd. Only after I woke up and maybe twenty minutes later I realised that I've never owned that dvd.
That is awful. I have very vivid nightmares. When I wake up it takes a while for me to realise that what happened was just a dream. Sometimes the impact of what I dreamt lingers on - like the time I dreamt that I tried to strangle my bullying boss. It was difficult seeing her at work the next day because I felt like I had grabbed her by the neck!
Do hope you have a restful day today and sleep much better tonight.
We have had snow here in NE England this morning - any sign of it where you are?