Night Terrors/Repeat Dreams - Sleep Disorders Message Board

niteterrors · 05-20-2002, 04:47 AM

I have been battling with night terrors for about 3 years now and have also been having several recurrent nightmares. The oddest thing is that these Night Terrors and nightmares all seem to involve dead people or good vs. evil "plots" (Christianity based). I will wake up screaming or calling out with the Night Terrors, as my husband says, "in a voice that does NOT sound like me". Family members have awaken with my screams with a fear that there's a stranger in the house since they have said "the voice" is not recognizable.

I have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and I wonder if anyone else has had these types of experiences. And if so, maybe you could tell me how you cope with them.

circe22 · 06-17-2002, 06:16 PM

I can relate! I've been screaming in my sleep since I was 17 (I'm now 22) and always thought that my nightmares were related to my Narcolepsy but the freaky thing is is that recently my boyfriend whom I live with said that I scream the same thing every time. Unfortunately I can't give you much advise other than to try to relax and have as little stress in your life as possible. I've noticed that on days when I've been ready to tear my hair out, my screaming is much worse.

Petteri · 07-06-2002, 05:00 PM

I don't have valid information about dreams, but in my life I have been a very solid sleaper, and sometimes I wake up in terror. However, my dreams are very dominating and periodically I wake up in the morning and see/talk to the people in my dreams etc. for about half an hour. So I can relate to your problems, but a good thing is that you have thematically categorized your dreams.

Now, in my experience, when I see thematical dreams I have managed to categorize them clearly into my life and situations in it.
For example - driving a car when I was growing from child to adult (always driving better and better and finally got my own car and license). A classical housedream: if I have a dream of "my new home" I have entered a new period in my life, if I find a new room, there is something new in my life...

Also there has been times when these dreams have been very bad - so I wake up in the middle of the night afraid to fall asleep again. It has usually ment real conflicts in my daily life. And the best part (if it does help you at all) after I realized the connection or just the reason for these dreams, they disappeared. And furthermore, (and this may sound bizarre) I have found a way to know when I'm having a dream, so the dreams can not hurt me. So past victim of horrorfilms has become a director and a scriptwriter.

As I warned you above, I don't know the reasons for bad dreams, but try to see them from different angles. Dreams are the old rusted mirror we sometimes look into. The "screaming with a very stange voice"-part can be natural, too. I once was hit by a lightning, and the sound that came from my (male) throath was very high C - one's you may hear in opera.