Anyone With Nightmares Also Afraid Of Family Waking You Up?

[Powder]

This morning, when my 12 year old daughter woke me at 6 AM, she stood in the doorway, waiting for me to wake up and acknowledge her, (so she would know I would get up and cook her breakfast ;)). The problem is that I didn't take my Ativan last night, as I took it earlier and didn't want to take two, so I just the Clonidine. While I fell asleep just fine, I had nightmares without the A. C. is for nightmares. But I seem to be dependent on the combo to avoid bad dreams.

Night terrors and bad dreams are a classic PTSD symptom. All pleasant and neutral dreams seem to derail and go scary after a while. This happened early this AM, and when my child woke me and stood in the doorway, I stared at her for several moments in a panic. It was dark and in the dim light, I was sure I was looking at an intruder.

What I saw was a short, male of about 25-30, with curly brown hair, a beard!, and an unbuttoned plaid shirt hanging down. I was groggy, still panicked from the nightmare, and my child looked like a different gender, age, and I was afraid of her.

The realization that it was my child in her polka dot robe took several frightening seconds during which I wondered if the man had already hurt my husband and if he planned on killing me or just robbing us. Why was he just staring at me? He wouldn't, and that's whey I realized it must be my child. When I realized it was my child, I felt guilt for the PTSD reaction to her, although she had no idea that my heart was racing and I was terrified for my life.

While this was the worst for duration and false perception, I am continually frightened out of my wits when my family wakes me up. It seems the groggy moments transitioning from troubled PTSD sleep to waking is not a good time for me to see a person standing over me or even in the doorway looking at me. I feel terrror in the extreme.

I have even started screaming and swinging my arms when surprised by my husband when I am awake, alone, in the middle of the day, and just don't hear him coming into the room. This has all gotten much worse since flashbacks. I've always had exaggerated startle response, but this takes it to a worrisome level. I'm afraid I'll accidently hurt my family. :( What seems to help? I'm doing all I know how to.

Muse

 

[lifeguard17]

I know exactly how you feel about being woken up. God knows I love my mother, but she doesn't really get the hang of knocking on the door before entering my room! My dad and sister are fine with the usual 'knock, wait for acknowledgement, possibly enter' practice, but mum thinks that if she knocks on the door, despite the fact that she has already walked in, asked me a question and told me to tidy my room, it counts. Yeah, it doesn't!

It's taken about a year for my family to learn not to wake me up by talking/trying to interact with me directly. I don't mind waking up to hearing them talking about other things outside my room, but the fear, the adrenaline and pounding heartbeat if they try to wake me means my whole day is ruined, I'm constantly on edge from then on. My family are very lucky I don't keep my books under my pillow, I have thrown hardbacked books at them in the past, they are so lucky my aim is appalling!

As AlmostNotQuite says, try setting an alarm for before you need to move. Mine goes off at 6.30am to the Chris Moyles Show, they talk for half an hour before playing a song at 7am, when my phone alarm goes off and I get up. This period of slow awakening really makes a difference, as does keeping my phone on the other side of the room so I have to get out of bed to turn it off!

Maybe the kids could learn how to set an alarm near the door and away from your bed.

That sounds like a really good idea to me, if you can sort it I'm sure it would help you. Best of luck with it all!

 

[Gamereign555]

Ohh yeah I don't like being shaken roughly to wake me up or by yelling but nobody probably does. I told my girlfriend that she should wake me in a more gentle manner, I wasn't mad or anything but being woken up in a panic like way really makes for a terrible morning sometimes.

 

[wife of]

Waking the hubs is strictly a hands off affair if possible.
The dog is the only living being who can wake him without startling him so if all else fails I throw her onto the bed to lick him awake.

 

[maddog]

I too really struggle with being awakened by anything unexpected, and with the whole concept of transitioning from unconscious to conscious in the first place. It's frighteningly easy to misperceive stimuli as something more frightening. My poor dog has been mistaken for all sorts of evil intruders and potential danger sources, and she in no way resembles any of them.

Thankfully in this case, I live alone, and so if another human being is waking me up, then I have every reason to be alarmed.

I think that to the extent that you can, explaining the situation to your family is a very wise idea, for everyone's peace of mind. I also like the alarm clock suggestion and the creation of predictable stimuli, eg, a morning radio programme, to accompany your wakening.

It can be so frightening and disorientating, and I agree that a distressing introduction to the new day can impact on your functioning for the whole rest of that day, so to the extent that we can set ourselves up for a smooth and calm wakening, I think it's really important.

Maddog