Poll Dreaming

[Enaila]

I overheard my mom's friend saying she never dreams or at least has never remembered having a dream. A friend of mine said she knows she dreams, but only in black and white, never with faces on the people, and can only remember one or two dreams she ever had.

This had me wondering about those with PTSD. I know there are some older polls about color or black and white dreaming, but I was wondering how detailed most of our dreams/nightmares are.

I have at least two dreams, usually nightmares a night, which I can remember with clarity the next morning. I told my therapist it wasn't right I had flashbacks off and on all day and then had to have flashbacks in my dreams too. My mind just needs to rest. I see faces, remember names, can wake up from a nightmare and if I don't find way to distract mind, will fall back to sleep at point I woke up from. This site has helped me several times to distract myself when I wake up from a nightmare.

Thank you online friends!

 

[hodge]

I take clonidine which helps me not to remember nightmares, but I wake up several times a night, when I sleep at all enough, that is, and I can only take two a night.

They are vivid and in color. Most are recurring nightmares of one of a few themes and are quite detailed. A few are more unique, but still variants of the same themes. When I wake up from the really bad ones, I get out of bed and stay up for a few hours so I don't re-enter the dream.

Mine don't re-enact any of my traumas precisely, but they all revolve around the same themes as my traumas. Actually, some are worse than my traumas. The other night I dreamed I got shot in the neck. I was in a street and there were police there -- "political police," no kidding, that's what they called themselves and what their cars said -- and one came up to me and just told me to put my fingers into the wound until the ambulance came. Which it never did.

 

[Enaila]

I used to get up and stay up, but one night I decided to start chatting on this site. I had been afraid to participate until then. I don't remember exactly which member it was....might have even been you....who helped me calm and change focus of my mind. Now when the nightmares are bad, I can log on, respond to someone's thread or chat for a few minutes, and it disrupts the nightmare.

 

[hodge]

I'm glad that's helped you. I usually tend to stay away from social contact after a nightmare because I'm afraid it will overwhelm me even more. I have come here a couple times on chat after waking up from particularly really bad nightmares, and it has helped.

 

[sun seeker]

I checked "several times a night" but that is true for anyone (as long as they're sleeping, that is). Lots of people don't remember their dreams, but that's not the same as not having them.

ETA: I rarely have nightmares, though. That's one PTSD symptom I'm lucky not to have.

 

[Naoru]

My dreams are also vivid and in color, often very detailed, and occur nightly. I do have nightmares that reenact the major traumas, but most revolve around the same themes like @hodge. I suffer from sleep paralysis, night sweats, and wake as if my trauma is happening; I can feel the physical sensations from the past. Then there are the occasions when I jolt awake with my heart racing and I feel like I'm dying, but I cannot remember what I dreamed.

I have gone through periods when I dream less/remember less overall and in turn, the nightmares lessen, but this is not one of those periods.

 

[Enaila]

I checked "several times a night" but that is true for anyone (as long as they're sleeping, that is)...

I wasn't quite sure how to word the question as I realize the human brain has stages of sleep where dreaming occurs, but the thought of someone not remembering their dreams or never having a nightmare is such an unbelievable concept for me. I didn't realize until recently that some people have never remembered a single dream.

My nightmares seem to re-traumatize me or even feel like a new trauma. Everything gets so confusing sometimes.

 

[hodge]

I get those same physical symptoms, too, Naoru. The jolting awake is why I often just jump out of bed, as if doing that will help me escape the memory as well. I do that even when the clonidine works and I don't remember the dream. I just want to get out of the environment that I was in when I got those feelings.

 

[theshadowoftheliving]

I have vivid dreams every time I fall asleep.

Sometimes they are trauma-nightmares. Sometimes they are just really, really vivid. Sometimes I can't remember what they are hours later.

I hesitate to call the vivid dreams nightmares, but, I wake up covered in sweat and shaking, which I've been told makes them qualify as such.

Sleeping is hard.

 

[hodge]

My nightmares often feel like new traumas, too, Enaila. Do you take Prazosin or clonidine? They can really help, especially if you don't wake up several times a night. Even if you do, they will spare you some memories at least.

 

[hodge]

Lol, this thread is really making me want to go to bed. Not! I'd almost rather turn on the tube and see the latest outrage, haha.

 

[Enaila]

I told my T this week I could probably recall hundreds of dreams. I wonder if journaling the dreams online in my diary would help. I don't believe in reincarnation, but in some of my dreams I am not me. These are interesting dreams; however, they can sometimes be quite terrorizing.