bad nighmares, dread going to sleep some nights..

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lost of very positive ideas and thoughts ove the last few days I have not had nightmares and strangely enough the last few days/week has been pleasant and less stressful (family together etc) although other probs are cropping up again....it has been lovely going to bed and waking up during the night normally and not waking up via a nightmare!

I don't have nightmares but then I don't have dreams either!
About 9 months ago I had a nightmare, exceptionally rare , but the next day I was diagnosed with Labrynthitis (viral infection of the ear).
Many years ago I used nicotine patches to give up smoking and had the most wonderful , vivid dreams . It was like watching a fantastic film every night I loved it ! So I would say illness or medication could be the cause but not , you say, in your case.

I think it is deep rooted general anxiety. I suffer from depression and some anxiety. I have tried lots of things over the years , some pretty wacky.
Something I have been using for the last few months which has helped more than almost anything else and I have mentioned in another post is guided meditation and hypnosis tapes. I have used all the Paul McKenna ones which I have borrowed from the library and they have helped only a little. Didn't work at all for the slimming!
What I use now are on You Tube (so free) search David Fairweather -Self Relaxation. Headphones really are a must but listen anyway even if you don't have them. It is a personal thing but I love his voice , it works better the more you listen ,takes about 20 minutes . Don't wait till you feel especially anxious. I have sometimes listened 3 times in a row it has made me feel so good. I usually do it during the day but you might prefer it at night. He has other s available and if you don't like his style ther is lots of choice.Anything that relaxes you, even a regular massage would probably help. Anyway lots of loving feelings coming your way. It must be hell.

Most of my dreams are a mishmash of recent events, but the problems that my repetitive isolation dreams represent are not repressed anxieties from childhood but problems I was aware of at the time and have accepted and lived with without problem ever since.

Deceased relatives appear in normal dreams doing ordinary things. Sometimes I am aware they are dead, other times not, but their life is a dream life and I am not shaken when I wake and they are not there. I find it rather comforting.

i sympathise with you peaches i too still have vivid nightmares of seeing my husband die (4yrs ago) i relive it over and over...

I had vivid dreams after my husband died, I still dream about him now 6 years later. Now he is present in the dream but he never speaks. I recently had to take amytriptilene for shingles and had awful nightmares. They stopped when I stopped taking the pills.

Flickety, I believe our subconscious tries to resolve those deeply pushed down anxieties, during our dream life. This time of year is more highly charged emotionally than any other, and it isn't surprising that for many of us, our dream life is, well a bit tiring frankly. I had a complex dream involving two former colleagues, and issues that arose about 20 years ago last night. Quite ridiculous, and even more ridiculous, redemption and resolution came as the dream progressed. Still, whatever gets us through the night ...

I have bad dreams that I'm still working as a nurse and all that it involved.STRESS!

Flickety I still dream that I haven't revised for A levels......

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.

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.

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!

hate horror films, never watched them or crimewatch!

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.

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.

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.

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...

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...!!

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

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

Definitely anxiety and insecurity.

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

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.

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!

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..

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.