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Dreaming About Disasters And Catastrophic Events

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Deleted member 34060

Hi all,

my original post was moved to a different forum as I mixed up several things in one post, my bad. So, this time I try to be more specific:


As many of you I have severe sleeping problems. Please see here my introduction for some background information about myself:

https://www.myptsd.com/threads/maybe-ptsd-not-sure.62396/

So, it has been a couple of years now that if I don’t drink any alcohol I just don’t sleep. I can stay up all night if I want and read or do whatever. Weird thing is that during the following day I’m not tired at all. In earlier times when I didn’t get at least 6 hours of sleep then the follwowing I day I would be extremely tired, yawning all day.

Well, it has been a few years that the very moment I was about to doze away I would jolt up with a feeling I was going to suffocate. Which feels really terrible. And I would wake up 2-3 times a night jolting up with just this suffocation feeling. This is particularly true for sleeping in total darkness and quietness. For a while I helped myself by sleeping on the sofa in the living room to the switched on TV, turning the volume down to a barely audible level.

But now since a few weeks it has gone to the next level. What happens now is that now as soon as I doze away I’m getting horrible dreams. Not sure if you can call it nightmares, but I immediately see catastrophic events. I see small children crashing with their bicyles into walls (which would leave them at least badly injured, if not dead), I see car crashes, trains derailing, airplanes crashing, houses beeing flooded and washed away by tsunamis and all sorts of bad things that, well … aren’t real and couldn’t be really described but are just plain horrible. I see all that from an above perspective. I never dream about anything that really happened to me, I never have any flashbacks.

So … 5-6 beers help with that, they let me just drop like a stone, but the next day is very bad of course, in particular as it makes my vertigo a lot, lot worse. And of course it is not healthy, it gains weight and … oh well, I don’t have to explain why it is not good.

Can anybody relate to dreams about disasters whithout being involved personally ? What could it possibly mean ?

Best regards
Frank
 
@FrankM I have always had the end of the world dreams of everything being destroyed and all in flames and there was only desolation. But as I kept up dealing in therapy my dreams at some point began to change as I became more empowered in my daily life. I do not get the end of the world nightmares anymore. So take hope in that you will get better as you deal with your issues.

Drinking alcohol is self medicating and probably messes with you at night when you are sleeping. But you already know that. I hope that it gets better for you. I do understand where you are coming from, but there comes a day when it will stop working. I have experienced this personally in my own life.

When you are ready to try things different you will.
 
I dream about armagedon (spellcheck). In all sorts of weird and whacked out ways. Sometimes it includes people I know, but usually not. Just the end of the world and lots of people dying and suffering.

What does it mean? My head isn't in a very good space.

What do I do with it? I wake up, realise nothing's changed, and thank the powers that be that at least I got some sleep last night!
 
Upon reflection, that could easily be taken the wrong way.

Sleep is a major issue for me as well. Big time major issue. Has been for years. I have nightmares. That's the status quo rather than the unfortunate exception. A lot of people read a lot of stuff into their dreams. I choose not to. I can't really afford to. I'll take sleep any way it comes, bad dreams and all.
 
Thanks a lot for your replies. It's a great feeling not to be alone with that, it's really helpful !

@gizmo: do you think it has to do with a feeling of being empowered ? Or rather, the lack of, in this case ?
@Ragdoll Circus: generally I also think that dreams might be overinterpreted. However, I can't really ignore it as it keeps me awake ...

I'm mid 40s now, so I had all sorts of dreams in my life. Classics such as being back in school/college having to take an exam, but not being prepared, etc. But I also had wonderful dreams to say the least.

But, I can't really think of any dream where I wasn't personally involved in one way or another, but being only a spectator. Like in a movie theatre. And I never had it happen that I would watch things like from a tribune in a stadium.
 
Frank i think the nightmares are really about the lack of empowerment but as I became more healthy and grew my dreams showed me my progress. It took a long time for this to happen. I really empathize with you where you are now. It is not fun at all. It is a ugly experience to be haunted by cattastrophy dreams.
 
houses beeing flooded and washed away by tsunamis and all sorts of bad things

I don't want to derail this, but I had this exact dream yesterday. I was in a pavilion by the sea enjoying myself, when all of the sudden the water level dropped by about 20 feet. We all ran to higher ground but the wall of water built up and was right by my heels when I woke up. I'm curious what this means too, I've had a lot of catastrophic dreams about the apocalypse or disasters for my whole life.
 
So far as what you shared in your opening post Frank, there are several possibilities that could be at play. I can tell ya this though, alcohol consumption can induce sleep apnea which could be the culprit of your startling awake. There are several factors to consider here: https://www.verywell.com/how-alcohol-affects-sleep-apnea-3014680

I have sleep apnea and it was diagnosed after alcohol sobriety but before a diagnosis of PTSD. Mine was structural and not tied into obesity...but after receiving proper treatment (c-pap machine) it took a couple years of my brain getting the right amount of oxygen for nightmares to start to slow down some.

Alcohol, as a means to induce sleep is really a risk though... as it is a depressant, it suppresses REM sleep (as also does apnea):
" A new review of 27 studies shows that alcohol does not improve sleep quality. According to the findings, alcohol does allow healthy people to fall asleep quicker and sleep more deeply for a while, but it reduces rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

And the more you drink before bed, the more pronounced these effects. REM sleep happens about 90 minutes after we fall asleep. It's the stage of sleep when people dream, and it's thought to be restorative. Disruptions in REM sleep may cause daytime drowsiness" [snip] “Alcohol should not be used as a sleep aid, and regular use of alcohol as a sleep aid may result in alcohol dependence”.
Link: http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/news/20130118/alcohol-sleep

Personally if you've had weight gain, startle awake feeling suffocated, and are relying on booze to "sleep", I'd consider a sleep study for apnea.

So far as nightmares, there could be a causal effect like I shared above... but it could equally be a subconscious re-experiencing of helplessness, horror, etc.
 
@gizmo: I don't want to be nosey, but could you maybe explain that a bit more in detail ? As in where you came from and how you progressed ? Of course only if you like.
@Air: Yes, please feel free to "join" this thread !
 
@The Albatross: thanks a lot for your contribution, but just to clear things up: if I have a certain amount of alcohol, then I do *NOT* wake up during the night, nor do I experience bad dreams or anything. It's only when I go to bed all sober that I make those experiences.

Just to be sure that I understand correctly: does booze "help" against apnea ?
 
Nope, it is a respiratory depressant, it suppresses REM sleep and it increases the risk of alcohol dependence. It is also a contributing factor to depression on the whole. There are other sleep disorders, and there are any number of interventions for them - none that would encourage the use of alcohol as a longer term measure.
 
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P.S. I was surprised that I stop breathing for periods of up to 2 minutes 21 times an hour for example. This was not my recollection of my experience, nor my husband's so it came as quite a surprise.

For those reason's a medical consult may be warranted.
 
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