nightmares....

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I am unsure if I want/need to provide details, but my nightmares now have become too much. By this I mean, I do take long to recuperate from a nightmare. Whilst I am asleep, I cannot know the difference between awake and asleep, therefore nightmares are hellish. Of course, AFTER I'm awake, then I can know I was sleeping and just dreaming. I do have prescription medication.....I just do not know what to do and I am suffering.

Separately (well, kind-of related): I do not think lucid dreaming techniques are such a good idea. Here's why: If your subconscious NEEDS to dream/express, then it does. To engage in lucid, or 'guided' dreaming, then one is supressing this need. Yes, I know nightmares can be bad, but if they did not occur (ie: lucid dreaming), then this pain is just diverted. Not really a solution.

Anyway, about the first paragraph - any suggestions? I am quite certain my nightmares do last longer than a NTs dream cycle, with evidence (autistic's REM sleep is distinct)! I just do not know what to do....sigh.

Have you spoken to a Doctor about this?

Medication may help, although there tend to be varying results.

Is there a sleep clinic that you can be referred to? You go to a clinic or research facility and they monitor your heart and brain waves while you sleep to see if there could be any triggers for nightmares, or anything that could be done to help you.

Just a suggestion.

Good luck.

I had ALOT of bad nightmares a few years ago, and they repeated themself everytime I went to sleep, up to 8-9 times. At that time I was seven or around that period. I usually slept in my parents room afterI had a nightmare then, I felt secure then.

Has anything happend to you in the last few weeks? Before the nightmares came? Like a friend or relative died or lost a pet or something like that?
Because i think, and belive that nightmares/dreams are a way of dealing with emotions and fears, anxiety, for an example.
I know I may get flamed by this, as I don't have any scientific backup for this, it just makes sence to me.

Or maybe it is that you have bad nightmares because it's something in daily life you want to avoid or fear for some reason? Something you do not want to do?

All of this can be subconciouse and may trigger dreams/nightmares. As said, I DO NOT have any scientific backup for this, as I don't think it has been proved yet. But this is all that i can think of, as it sometimes happends to me. I absaloutly HATE school, and when am anxiouse of school one day, I sometimes have dreams/nightmares of school and thing that may happend, good or bad.

Thank you...Airbrush, you are 'on track' for sure. But, another mitigating factor: My sleep schedule has been off lately, which makes everything worse. I must try to get back on a routine. Stress does not help either. girl7000, I will try - unsure what he can really do.....we'll see. I doubt this is a physiological problem, more likely stress, etc. But - who knows.....sigh.

Sorry to hear about your stress and nightmares.

Are you getting enough physical exercise? This might help.

My husband has been stressed and having nightmares. He woke me up yelling the other night.

Helen

I do get exercise, despite the fact the temperature outside is minus 40 and there's less than 4 hours of daylight. Specifically, I run up and down the stairs at my apartment. Plus, I have a lot of 'nervous energy' and I rarely sit. I think I just get stressed since my schedule is now different - I'm in between semesters. I acclimate slowly too. Hopefully this will dissipate. I suspect those with HFA/'Aspies' do have a different sleep schedule. I have been staying up W A Y too late - very bad.

One day I hope to be exercising in the cold Alaskan weather with you!




I can relate - my sons went beserk the first couple of weeks of the school holiday - new schedule!




*in best naggy mother voice* Go to bed!

Helen

i have trouble often telling whether i am dreaming or suffering from isnomnia........ it's often only when i have nightmares and the world comes alive with monsters, that i realize i am dreaming. draining and unsettling.

I had frequent nightmares when I was a kid, and by "frequent", I mean at least three days a week. The nightmares were so vivid and realistic, that I always believed that they were happening in real life. So as a result, I spend most of my waking hours living in fear of the objects in my nightmares, because I thought I'd find them in real life, and that doesn't even include the bullies that really did exist. Those nightmares faded away around when I was 13, and now they don't happen more often that once or twice a month. And even then, they're much more subdued.

Those childhood nightmares taught me a valuable lesson. I now know what key signs to look for in dreams, the ones that tell me that whatever is happening is just a product of my imagination. For instance, if I'm in a big empty room, and I see some freaky metal thing jumping out of the ceiling, I know that it's a dream, because metal objects don't jump out of ceilings in real life. Sure, I still wake up feeling scared and unsettled, but I know that the object that scared me does not exist.

I have the same problem with sleep, do you also get more energetic when night falls in? And do you also feel more tired when you wake up than when you went to bed?
As that is a scientific problem to Aspergers.
And stress is a b**** too, I have the same problem.

This can be helped by a pill (don't know the name) wich get's your sleep schedule on track if you take it half an hour or something like that before you go to sleep. But tthen you gotta go to sleep at the same time everyday.
You should search for it, it might help.