Nightmares

I get nightmares a lot now and it involves me waking up with my heart racing and scared.

For a long time I had constant nightmares. Mostly about the world ending, me being in danger or pain and loved ones dying. When I look back. I was under a lot of stress and pressure then. Once I began college out of state they calmed down. As soon as I came home from break, they would start up again. I realised being home gave me a lot of anxiety for different reasons. Now my nightmares are less frequent. After the unexpected passing of my grandmother, many of my nightmares have been about her resurrecting then re-dying. Freaks me out. But I notice that stress, anxiety and not keeping a good sleeping regime triggers my nightmares. Even if you're life/ day is stressful, doing healthy things to wind down before bed can very helpful.

Thanks all. I am currently practicing mindfulness and meditation, but I'm afraid that can be just as painful. I Sometimes Wake Up Sweating. This particular night was sort of a perfect storm, however. I watched serial killer documentaries, was under stress, and ate before bed.

@blithesun94 - it sounds like you know what some of your triggers are for nightmares, which is a super helpful start to getting rid of them. The next step is figuring out how to minimize those things where possible (not watching scary movies near bedtime, practicing some form of mindfulness/yoga/meditation to decrease stress before bed, etc.) and seeing it it helps.

Some people find tracking these things helpful. Before you go to bed, you can write down all the things that happened that day that might trigger poor sleep, and strategies you used to help, and then in the morning track how well you slept. After a couple weeks, you might be able to see patterns in things that impact you more severely or help significantly and adjust your strategies accordingly.

Good luck!

Yeah, I have nightmares all the time, always about me losing stuff or people that I love, or not knowing what to do and being alone with no one to help me.

@blitheSun94, try and identify what stresses you out. As much as I want to watch murder mysteries before bed, I try and do stuff that will relax me, not stress me out more than I already am.

"Everything you want is on the other side of fear" - Jack Canfield

Work to get through this and you will get better

I have nightmares, often at abot 4-30 to 5-30 on a morning, Its worse in the hot weather I get unsettled and restless.

Thank you all so much for your enriching feedback. <3 I do experience and live with a great deal of anxiety on a daily basis. As a psychology major and enthusiast, I have done a great bit of research on sleep myself. Unfortunately, there is not much known about this fascinating occurrence. All we know is that we need it, and how to monitor activity. I think stress and anxiety certainly play a role in my mind's ability to digest the way I feel about past and current life happenings. Our unconscious often does the work of sorting through things, and sometimes this comes across in a dream state. Given that I experience anxiety and do not generally carry stress well, it makes sense that I would have nightmares regularly. Most nights I do not remember my dreams, but every once in a while they can really dig their claws into me. Another interesting aspect of sleep is that nightmares are more common among young children who are just beginning to distinguish the difference between imagination and reality. This founding fact reassures me even in the grips of fear. It is not real.

Best wishes.

So here's my story. I keep having this recurring nightmare where there's this big, black, shadowy figure haunting me. It'll be standing over my bed or following me etc. Like, I'm in bed having a dream I'm in bed and peeking through my eyelids a little and I see it. I keep wanting to call it a him, but it has no form or sex really.. It'll happen every night for a week or so straight , then stop for awhile and come back. It's been happening for quite a while now. No idea what to do. It's getting so bad I cry at the thought of trying to go to sleep. I've read that pitch black, helps you sleep at night. But I can't. I can even tolerate to look ata black screen anymore. The moment I do, i just feel like running away and i cant stop getting these random adrenaline rushes like i need to scream and run away type thing... I dont know whats going on...

I have all my nightmares in the mornings too.

I've been having nightmares about work. I need help and my boss doesn't get that.