Do You Have To Start All Over?

[JadedGhost13]

If you are having one of your dreams where you are reliving a situation or you are having a nightmare based on fears and you get woke up by someone or your alarm do you have to go back to sleep and start all over?

For instance, I will be sleeping, I am in the middle of one of my dreams it does not matter if it is reliving and experience or a dream based on fears which are usually morbid, and my husband wakes me up for work, or to do something I can not get up, I have to go back to sleep and start all over until I complete it. This sometimes take hours. There are days because of these things happening I am in bed for 14-20 hours at a time.

Does anyone else do this?

This REALLY affects my life and my work and normally when I do get to the point where I can wake up I am in a foul mood for all or most of the day following waking up.

 

[Abstract]

Hi JadedGhost,

I don't I am grateful to say.

May I ask if you mean you start at the beginning of the dream again when you go back to sleep? What is it in you that feels you need to "complete" the dream? If you did not go back to sleep then what happens for you? Do you think you may have certain conscious thoughts or opinions about needing to complete the dreams?

14 to 20 hrs sounds very disruptive! I do that sometimes linked to depression.

 

[Hashi]

Hi JadedGhost,

Like Abstract, I'm wondering about your reasons for needing to start over? Is it a sort of compulsion (like obsessive compulsive disorder - OCD)? I have OCD with regard to other things, so if it's like that then I sympathise.

I do a lot of dreamwork, on my own and with my therapist, and I know that if I "miss" the message or purpose of a dream it's OK because that will come to me again another night if its important. I also know that time when dreaming isn't like waking time. I'm aware sometimes that if I'm woken from a dream by something external, a lot will suddenly be crammed into the last seconds, as if the dream is making sure it gets through what it needs to before I leave it.

So I'm not sure that there's a dream/healing reason behind how you're feeling. I really do think those aspects take care of themselves without us having to go back to sleep again. However, maybe you feel differently?

 

[JadedGhost13]

May I ask if you mean you start at the beginning of the dream again when you go back to sleep?

Yes I have to start at the beginning of the dream again and start all over and finish it. There are times if I just get disrupted for a moment in my sleep that I will go right back where I was interrupted. But if I get WOKE up then I have to start all over. I am just now getting back into therapy after 2 years or so of no therapy. This is something I am going to address in my next session.

If I do not go back to sleep I am tormented in my mind all my waking hours and it is exhausting.

I sleep a lot when the PTSD is bad. When I am worn out from way too much waking and sleeping nightmares/dreams. When I am doing ok and I am doing well at avoiding triggers I sleep like normal people do 6-8 hours. That is getting to be far and few between lately though, but I am in a bad PTSD rut right now.

I am currently not sleeping well at all so I just stay awake until I can not go anymore. Then I sleep it off. Which is very disrupting to working conditions.

 

[JadedGhost13]

I do a lot of dreamwork, on my own and with my therapist, and I know that if I "miss" the message or purpose of a dream it's OK because that will come to me again another night if its important.

These are not dreams that are messages, I do good with those. I understand what your talking about. The dreams that are causing me problems are the ones where I relive my trauma, or when my fears are manifesting themselves because of the trauma, sometimes guilt.

 

[JadedGhost13]

Hi all! I talked to my GP today about the having to start all over and that was a mystery to him. But he asked me who my new T was, he knew who my P was, come to find out he did an internship with my P, and he has worked on many cases with my T.

So going to a new GP was a good thing, almost like I was lead to this one. The reason I had to change doctors was I had been seeing a GP and he passed away and when he did I just kept seeing the NP that was in his office. But she can not write the class of drugs to treat anything like this. That along with a few more issues I have had recently with that office I made the choice to move all my files to this GP, and I am glad I did.

He was very caring, and honest with me. He also works with a family member of mine in another setting other than his office, as well as some friends of mine. So we had a connection of mutual friends which I think helped us both be comfortable to openly speak to each other. He had also attended 2 of my family members funerals, so I had met him before on personal level, not just in a doctor patient setting.

I am starting on 75MG of Effexor, actually the generic brand because my insurance company will only pay for the generic brand on this medication. He knows that I travel with my work and I will be returning to work after a 2 month break this next week so he just wants me to call him in two weeks and let him know how this dosage is working for me or if this med works for me at all.

The sleep thing I will work with at the T, and the T will work with my GP to help me get me on the right tract. I have been down this road before, not with the sleep thing, but starting to get help, so I understand we may do some trial and error until we find something that works good for me.

I will update you all again when I find out why or what cold be causing the sleeping thing. I have an appointment from a surgery on the 25th in the afternoon, so I made an appointment to see the T on that morning so I can return to work that afternoon and not disrupt too much of my work week. If any of you travel for a living you know the importance of getting all your appointments in and done in a day so you can get back to work!

 

[Hashi]

That sounds good, that you'll be able to work on this with a therapist.

I wish you a speedy recovery from the surgery. I understand about trying to fit appointments around work... sometimes it feels more like fitting work round appointments!

 

[JadedGhost13]

Thank You. I have had a hard time recovering so far, but I am on the up side now. I was supposed to be down for 2 weeks, that turned into 8! I had complications, which is rare for what I had done, but I am on the upside and feeling better and stronger every day. I can drive myself now and thats a good thing, depending on others for rides there for a while sucked big time! I am not driving much now, but I am driving some and it feels good to have that independence back.