More new symptom worries *TW* bad symptoms

[Rainagain]

Its me rain again, again.....
My girlfriend has decided to continue to let me know about things I do which I was unaware of.
This time it is poor sleep patterns and nightmares.

I have nightmares I remember about fighting for my life or trying to save others but apparently I also suffer from disturbed sleep every night.


Anyone know anything about any of the following?

Shouting out, especially on going to sleep, during nightmares and on waking

Fighting, thrashing and shouting also mumbling grunting during sleep

Not breathing for a while, apnea?

Grinding teeth

Grimacing and holding one arm across face defensively.

No wonder I feel terrible most mornings.

I've read that you can't move during dreams so my thrashing about is something else, I have no memory of it at all.

Seems like I do a lot of stuff I have no memory of.

I'm becoming almost bored by being so obviously traumatised, like my unconscious mind is an annoying acquaintance phoning all the time with more bad news.

lord knows what people who know me think of me, my girlfriend must be a saint to put up with all this nonsense.

[Dee]

I have also read that you don't move during dreams, but I thrash as well.  I have never understood that either.  It's not nonsense.  It happens, and it sucks.  It makes going to bed, dread.  I wonder about people who feel good about going to bed.  Who are tired and can't wait to go to sleep.  I wonder what that is like.  I don't want to go to bed and I can't wait until it's morning.  Medications helps me though.  It isn't 100%, but it is better.

[Rainagain]

Exactly dee, I can't wait for dawn too.

I stay up late to make sure I will get to sleep and to put off the nightmares.

Then I wake early feeling worse than before I went to bed.

[Eyessoblue]

I do the grinding teeth always wake up with bad teeth pain, but lately my nightmares have got really bad when I wake up I stay in my nightmare for quite some time and have regular flashbacks of them throughout the day where I feel as if I'm back in it and see it really clearly, I've not had this before but have been put on an additional antidepressant and wonder if this could be why, I too dread going to bed now.

[Sceal]

I'm curious as to who said one doesn't move during dreaming?

My sleep pattern has been * for years and years. I wake up at nearly every sound. I trash and I turn. I apparently snore. I mumble. And I also hit myself while I'm sleeping. And I dream, I dream quite vividly. I remember most of my dreams. I can have several dreams during one night, depending on how many times I wake up. I very rarely have night terrors, but they do happen. I do have nightmares frequently, but not every night or week. Mostly it's weird and somewhat disturbing ones.

[Rainagain]

I've been reading around and if I remember rightly we go through several phases of rem sleep each night and we are paralysed during that time when nightmares can come. There is also stage 4 sleep when night terrors can come.

It is relevant to know if nightmares are within the first couple of hours or toward the end of the sleep cycle.

I have few nightmares I remember but thrash about most of the night, every night.

My psych thought I had some sort of rem sleep problem because I zone out during the day, if stuff doesn't get processed properly during rem sleep it can cause you to shut off at odd moments, I think that is what he meant.

[LearnToLoveTheRide]

Hi

Two powerful brain chemical systems work together to paralyze skeletal muscles during rapid eye movement (REM).

In a series of experiments, University of Toronto neuroscientists Patricia L. Brooks and John H. Peever, PhD, found that the neurotransmitters gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glycine caused REM sleep paralysis in rats by "switching off" the specialized cells in the brain that allow muscles to be active.

When this REM paralysis is incomplete or absent in a person it is termed REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD). People thrash around in their sleep. Not to worry you but it can develop into more serious, neurological, degenerative conditions.

Keep a sleep journal. You and your SO can both fill it in: time to sleep; duration of sleep; number of wakings; time of rising; apneic episodes; apparent nightmares; periods of thrashing; feeling on waking; etc. Be as detailed as possible.

I developed chronic insomnia a few years ago. I kept a sleep journal, put a sleep monitoring app on my phone and after a few weeks of 2-3 hours interrupted sleep, I gave it to my GP. He took one look at it and prescribed sleeping tablets. He said the lack of sleep would kill me faster than any side effects of prescription sleeping tablets.

It's still my single vice and I still only get 4 hours before I start waking again but it's the only way I'm still - debatably - sane.

LTLTR

[Rainagain]

Now that's interesting ltltr

I'm on a waiting list for some sort of assessment of my sleep as I have daytime lost time episodes which my psych thinks are a rem issue of some sort.

I was prescribed sleeping pills years ago but never took them as I was scared of addiction, they are bad for that apparently.

One thing I have noticed is that I sometimes believe in things which are not true because I dreamed them but don't realise the information wasn't from the news or whatever.

Experiences are processed during rem, but my dreams seem to be getting stored as real memory instead of actual events.

Not all the time, and not outlandish stuff, just basic facts which turn out to be completely wrong.

Its like I am overwriting my actual memory with snippets from dreams and I don't know which bits are real and which invented by my subconscious.

Could be Alzheimer's, could be rem sleep deprivation.

[sanmagic7]

i've had lots of sleep stuff that's gone on over the years.

teeth grinding, especially  when i was young and still living with my folks.

a period of time where i would dream about telling someone something that seemed very important for them to hear, so i would speak it aloud.  i often woke both myself and my hub up with that, but the words were very clear to me and understandable.

i've also done the mumbling - talking to someone in a dream but not being able to get the words out of my mouth coherently.

i have also moved violently during dreams, so all this info about it not being possible doesn't make sense to me.  i've dreamed about my sister (nc) the bully, but have fought back against her bullying in my dreams.  often i would wake up my hub cuz i was kicking or hitting him, which is what i was doing to my sis in the dream.  sometimes i'd wake myself up cuz i was hitting the bed so hard.

i, too, take clonazepam to go to sleep with.  i did a sleep test and was determined to have restless legs syndrome (rls).  i've been taking it for over 20 yrs.  before that,  i spent about 20 yrs. not being able to sleep deeply and restfully, which was absolutely horrible.

i know all about the addiction thing, and i'm sure that i'm addicted physically, but i do not seek out the medication as an addict would seek out a drug (and i am a recovering drug addict, so i know the behavior).  i've had to go off this med for several periods of time, and it was horrible and i felt miserable once again. 

my doc has simply told me that as i'm getting older, the med may slow down my reflexes, which is a concern regarding falling, so i'm just super extra careful on stairs, etc.  but, being addicted physically doesn't bother me one little bit.  i'd rather have that going on than not sleeping at all.  i am also at the same, or less. of the prescribed dosage for the whole time i've been on it, so it hasn't been the case of needing more as time has gone on.

i still sleep in chunks most of the time, which is something i've been doing for about 50 yrs.  for one reason or another.
naps make up the deficit of sleep that i don't get at night.   it's not optimal, but it works pretty well for me the great majority of the time.  so, i'll get about 5 or 6 hrs. at night, then 2 hr. nap during the day, and i can function pretty well this way.

nightmares are very rare now, but used to be problematic.  the worst ones i was able to figure out the problem and resolve it - they involved my narc d.    the whole sleep thing is pretty amazing to me, how so many of us suffer because of it.