bad nighmares, dread going to sleep some nights..

Perhaps talking about them might make them go away? Horrible for you though.

That sounds awful Biker
Have you noticed whether any particular foods trigger the nightmares - cheese for example ?

Really sorry to hear that biker. Nightmares can be very disturbing, as well as the continuous lack of sleep. Plain miserable. Quite some years ago I experienced many. They eventually decreased as I felt happier, but still get them occasionally.
I haven't got any answers I'm afraid and hope you find a way to stop them soon.

janeainsworth yes think cheese deff triggers them,! so stopped that a long time ago and don't like cheese very much so not a problem.
ffinnochio I think when I am! happy then I don't dream, but have had so many dramas usualy with DD (who has my only GS) that it is difficult to be stressfree when I go to bed, but I have started to have a picture in my mind and try to concentrate on that and hope that it may keep my nightmares away. the thing with the nightmares is that they could happen..they are every day horrible things that could! happen................so I shall go off in one of my imaginative scenes now and hope I get through the night in peace..goodnight all

biker Are your bedclothes too hot or too heavy, or is your bedroom stuffy?? When mine are, I wake feeling claustrophobic. That could cause you to have nightmares of being trapped. and your sleeping mind could put people you feel responsible for into the situations you describe.

Some medications might cause them?
Do you feel as if you are drowning/need rescuing ?

Are you afraid of water yourself? Can/do you swim? If not, perhaps learning might help. Maybe you have underlying fears and "making friends" with water, and enjoying it could help.

Or you could have what they used to call floating anxiety and it manifests itself in irrational fears about your grandchildren. If so, maybe your doctor could help.

I was told that I occasionally have what appear to be a nightmare, thrashing about and shouting in my sleep but normally I never remember a thing. I recently did notice that I had scratched the paintwork behind my bed during the night and had Tuscan Green paint under my fingernails when I woke up. Why or how I have no idea, perhaps another nightmare.
As a young man I do remember a recurring nightmare and that was being in a flying lifeboat (old RNLI type) flying or rather falling through the air in an ever decreasing spiral. If I remember that would have been repeated very frequently between the age of around 9 to 14, never had it since, at least not that I remember. Funny old thing is the mind.

Biker - you put your finger on the root cause of the nightmares in your 2nd post reference to drama's. I empathise, as my dreams can be disturbing as a result of similar experiences. Have you ever had a go at yoga or tai chi, or meditation. There is something so beneficial about building in some proper relaxation into our waking lives, and that reflects in our dreaming. Even if disturbing dreams occur, you will begin to be able to use the deep breathing techniques if you're sleep is disturbed.

nightmares can be alarming and i do think a lot of them are caused by stress of everyday life...things that happen during the day watching tv programs etc everything just gets jubbled up when we are sleeping....not pleasant i know when you wake up suddenly in fear..

morning all and thanks for the replies.
Elegran yes I think when GS is hot he has nightmares, my room although only small is light and airy although I don't have the window open at night, I have alight duvet and the room is pale yellow and uncluttered(in fact in the picture of the estate agents it looks like no one lives in the room lol)but thanks for the idea.
(JessM)* I have stopped taking my statins for a while, have tried it a few times but doesn't make any difference.
jingle no not afraid of water although I don't really like big expanses of water lakes/big ponds etc but love! being near the sea! yes I cam swim and I do go swimming when I can and I find it relaxing also I take GS swimming, although would never swim in the sea or ponds or lakes.
Iam64 yes lots of stress going on all over the years (like others so I am not alone) DD got with wrong person so for 7 yrs its been !!!! also DH been ill for 20 yrs now and deteriating, I worry when GS is with other gran that they don't keep eye on him and let him go park etc with his cousin a girl of 10 but going on 20!)and crossing a small but fast road with him to visit great gran.lots of other things.I have tried deep breathing techs, and I do drift off but then of course at some time during the night/morning the nightmares arrive (not every night but almost one a week)
Dollie yes very distressing and I wake up exhausted, I had one early this morning
I had let GS go with some one for tea at their house, later on I went to this sort of festival where travellers were congregating, I saw! GS with some other children sort of playing,then they got them all on this big landrover thing, about 10 children and I could see GS there on the vehicle I was shouting at him and he could see me but I couldn't get to him as it was across a field, I was running round trying to find a proper policeman but they were all those other ones you know the sort of community policemen!! and they didn't take any notice of me..and the gypsies took him !!!..then I woke up!
GS is coming today for his presents so I will look forward to that.
soz long post!

I have a recurring dream. Always about long journeys on my bike and not being able to find my way home. Weird. Must be some underlying anxiety I guess.

bikergran as a matter of interest did you watch big fat gypsie christmas??

jings my recurring dream/nightmare is that I can't find my home and it's always dark and wet!

Definitely anxiety and insecurity.

Yes! That's just like mine Lona. Such a long dark road. Horrible.

dollie I did!!!! yes!! I did! oh ! just the last 15 mins of it, never give it a thought but yes I did! and when I went over to my mum n dads 3 days ago..he ws watching his horrible horrible film it was gross a horror film with Leonado De Caprio they were children in it dead children that had drowned! that night was the night I dreamed that DD drowned in a big river, some one swam on top of her and I knew she was gone! I only saw the film very briefly not even 5 mins as it was horrible...!!

now that just goes to prove that nightmares are caused by your mind playing tricks on you...when i dream or have a nightmare i always try to analyze them...

An American woman once told me to be careful what you put in your memory bank. I now think she was right. My nightmares are all relics of horror films I saw in my teens or mainly books I've read.

Quite right too. I avoid horror and violence films - I am careful what I put in my head!

Actually I watched a Harry Potter last week with my grandson (12 but mature) and found it disturbing......he said so too.

My nightmares are way scarier than any film I have ever seen. Do check drug literature because some warn of sleep disturbance and vivid dreams.

hate horror films, never watched them or crimewatch!

Yes, you have said it all! Horror films, or disturbing films [even those seen years ago] ditto books, but mainly films, being visual have more impact. Indigestion, sleeping 'too lightly' being hot , some drugs we take [not the recreational kind!] alchohol, secret fears and worries, real fears and worries, stress etc etc. My DH sleeps like a log and never has these, but I am light sleeper and the nighmares/bad dreams/weird dreams occur almost nightly.Even when I watch nice films, feel fairly happy, the dreams still come.
However, always much worse in WINTER!

I suppose you don't take anything herbal for sleep do you? I find the ones with a mix of herbs gives me bad dreams.

I sometimes wake with a snap from a nightmare in the middle of the night, and it will not go away. I find having the radio on very quietly so that I am only half listening to it helps to sooth my mind and send me back to sleep safely. I also use the same technique on the rare occasions when I cannot get to sleep.

My nightmare always seem to involve being somewhere with other people I know but being completely unrecognised. This week I dreamed I was at some kind of university reunion with people I knew, all of whom knew each other but not me, and I was left wandering around friendless and invisible. Alternatively, in the same situation I am trying to tell people that the building is on fire or there is another emergency but nobody takes any notice and just continues their conversations without being aware I am there.

I am well aware these are insecurity dreams and can trace causes in my childhood but why this should reoccur in dreams over 50 years later, when I have a DH, DC and DGC and close friends surprises me.