Are Your Nightmares Related To Your Trauma? Do You Yell Or Twitch?

[Deleted member 28812]

My "sufferer" has some recurring nightmares that have nothing to do with his trauma - often having to protect us (his family) from zombies or the like and a recurring element in this nightmares is that he cannot scream to warn us or move but he does twitch and wake up yelling.
Typically people who dream that they are yelling or talking don't yell in their sleep. I dream about this but I don't yell or talk. Why does it happen to him? Is is because he thinks "I must yell. I must warn them" in his sleep?

 

[Tanishq]

Yes, I have nightmares and they are mostly related to abusers, all bad traumatic events and I feel huge discomfort after waking up.

 

[Chava]

I wouldn't know if I yell, but also my common place in nightmares is that I'm watching the horror, as if through an observation window. I can't be seen or hurt. They haven't depicted my traumas (I'm sure I have not been beheaded), but all of my nightmares share common themes: extremely bloody, a little girl and her family (and little girl is killed or stabbed right before I wake up), and I am "safe" and not extremely horrified because it's like a gruesome horror movie...I am not "in" the dream. So, not sure if your sufferer has dreams that are more concretely about his trauma, but I think any nightmare is up for potential symbolism in PTSD. Could be symbolic of current stress, or past...the repeating features suggest something unresolved.

The feeling like he can't move sounds sort of like where I'm at in lucid dreams (so almost awake), which could also explain why he can wake up screaming, if that happens to be the case for him.

 

[Deleted member 28812]

What are lucid dreams?

 

[Nam]

I have dreams like this. I do yell sometimes and wake myself up from the sound of it.

Most of my dreams are about somehow failing all the good in my life. I caused an accident or I couldn't warn them of danger. It plays on my vulnerabilities of not being good enough or once again I screwed something up. The reason why it hurts so much is because I have deep love for my family and my greatest fear is not having them because of me or something I did.

I think that having dreams about these kind of fears are further in healing than the ones about our abuse. We are not just concerned for our own safety but the safety of others.

 

[KimV]

I have the same issue. I think that having CPTSD vs. PTSD really comes out in our nightmares. PTSD over more recent trauma seems to cause nightmares that are directly related to the actual event(s) and CPTSD seems to give us vague but related distressing memories that echo the emotions that we felt during the abuse. I often have nightmares about being in distress and having nobody to help me. "not mattering" and "having no value" seem to be the emotional flashbacks I have the most. Pete Walker explains what emotional flashbacks are on his website. Helplessness and powerlessness are the common themes. I have yelled and woke myself up before. The last time I did it was a couple weeks ago. The kids were messing around and not listening to me, and I yelled one of their names. My dog happens to have the same name, so she thought I was calling her and she jumped up on the bed. LOL

 

[Kintsugi]

I yell, cry, and twitch in my dreams. I know I am doing it because either I am woken up by someone who hears me or I wake myself up making so much noise.

Lucid dreaming is when you are aware that you are dreaming, typically associated with having some control over the dream.

I wouldn't say these dreams are unrelated to his trauma at all. I have some very outlandish dreams that are easily traceable to my trauma.

 

[yehaft_au]

My sufferer has the same sort of thing, he yells out profanities and has kicked and twitched/jerks/whimpers in his dreams (never in my direction or ever touching me)
Hes described some dreams to me, they always include some of his family in danger and more recently since being around my family a lot they now feature my baby niece and 5 year old niece.
These leave him sometimes even more tired than when he went to sleep, it can be so distressing hear or watch it.

 

[moonbeam]

My "sufferer" has some recurring nightmares that have nothing to do with his trauma - often having to protect us (his family) from zombies or the like and a recurring element in this nightmares is that he cannot scream to warn us or move but he does twitch and wake up yelling.

Urm why is sufferer in quotes?

If I had to guess I would say that zombies are an issue because they quickly become widespread so could potentially overcome him, aren't as easy to kill, and would be a threat to his family. Maybe he is yelling to warn you to protect you and is afraid you won't know the danger and will get hurt. Or maybe it ties indirectly to his trauma (which I don't know anything about). But I would guess in combat warning your fellow soldiers of danger would be important and potentially life saving. Maybe zombies are an easy thing because they are everywhere in media. Or maybe its his subconscious fear that if he failed to protect you he would either have to kill you (if you became a zombie) or he worse he would become a zombie and unintentionally harm you.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into all of this. Theres something about eating cheese before bed causing weird dreams, does he do that? I don't know, I am just grabbing at straws now.

To answer the title question. I sometimes have nightmares of my trauma. Sometimes of similar things. And sometimes zombies (unrelated to anything else they just scare the hell out of me). Sometimes I twitch. And sometimes I don't.

 

[Friday]

I have normal nightmares, I have nightmares that are crazy blends of reality and fiction, I have nightmares that are real life happening differently (I have died I don't even know how many times, how many ways... Or right people, wrong place... Or right place, wrong people. I drag family into places they don't belong all the time), I have pieces of reality nightmares (like a single sense: tasting blood or feeling pain, or smelling god knows), and I have flashback style nightmares that are reliving the durn thing. I like those. I prefer flashbacks while sleeping. Much less of a pain in the ass than while driving.

How I respond to them varies.

I don't think I've acted out my nightmares in a long time. I rarely thrash or scream or hit/kick blindly these days, either. Used to do both a lot. I often wake up soaked in sweat. Change the sheets, take a shower, and wake up soaked again. Change the sheets, take a shower. I often wake up not really "here". While at my parents I've been woken up with pills being out in my mouth, because I'm whimpering and crying and writhing and shaking in my sleep. Oh. I cry in my sleep. Hate that. Better than while awake, I hate crying and avoid it as much as possible... but man oh man do my eyes hurt. I've woken up with cracked teeth, split knuckles, cuts in my palms.

I also sleep like a brick. Dead to the world, and not even a twitch. Regardless of how violent my nightmares. Sometimes a mosquito farting a block away wakes me up. Sometimes you can shake me and shake me and not wake me (my mom has a habit of taking my pulse, cause when I'm not even twitching, I'm also barely breathing / apparently look dead).

Sleep is weird.

 

[Friday]

Oh... Why people don't usually talk or move (much) in their sleep is caused by "sleep paralysis". It's a normal neurological function.

It makes sense that when neurology is affected by something (TBI, PTSD, meds) that other normal neurological functions may also be affected.

 

[Chava]

I see @Simply Simon got you the lucid dream description. Sometimes I have lucid dreams where I'm aware that I'm dreaming. I think what I meant is more like a nearly-awake dream where you don't know you are dreaming but your body is waking or highly involved. Not sure if this makes sense....I've had dreams that I could not open my mouth and was afraid I'd bust my teeth. I semi-woke up, lucid state, realizing I was clenching my jaw and had to tell myself I was dreaming and could relax. Not surprisingly my teeth are crap. I've also had dreams where I could not move, get up, or wake up...whole body felt extremely heavy...those happen when I'm purely dreaming but close to waking up. But they feel extra real in my body.