support for nightmares due to c-ptsd

If your religious I recamend a prayer before bed. If not I use a gratitude jernal and melatonin.

Hey there! I struggled with very vivid nightmares as well. For some people where it’s stress triggered doing something calming right before bed is a great way to start getting ready. Currently, I am on a medication for it but I know medication is not the route for everyone. I would start by trying to do calming things before bed like yoga or reading. Then when you are falling asleep I use night time sounds and meditations. You can even find sleep stories which are soothing as well. I hope this helps! ~Brooke

Hey there! My tips are for dealing with nightmares after they've already happened, not trying to prevent them from happening (wasn't sure which one you were looking for)

After having a nightmare, I listen to some music (soft, classical piano is my favourite, but soothing songs, white noises like rain or ocean waves can also help) and do some grounding exercises (added a link to a recent post with a list of grounding exercises). If your nightmares are the type that feel realistic and leave you feeling confused and thinking that the nightmare actually happened in real life, then you can focus on having a simple phrase or sentence to repeat to yourself right after you wake up - mine are 'it's not real', and 'I'm safe'

I try not to let myself mull over the nightmare, since that usually makes me feel worse. If you tend to think about your nightmares a lot, you could try writing them down somewhere to set them aside, or using a visualisation technique (I love using pixelthoughts for this) Hope this helps! Take care ❤️

I have struggled with the night terrors and very very vivid nightmares for many years. I play a T.V. show tht I find calming and makes me happy. I play it every night almost like background noise. It has helped tremendously because it's a familiar to me. The nights I haven't played it I have bad nightmares. It is a go to show for me that I will use as background noise through out the a day if needed. So basically I don't pay that much attention to it because I have watched it thousands of times but it has a calming familiar effect on me. It has definitely worked for me and my dog is so use to it that I play it for him when I leave he immediately gets in his bed and is comfortable. Find something like that where it is something that can be familiar but does not require 100% of your attention. For me it let's my brain have something to focus on instead of the hidden junk in its trunk.