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

[Kintsugi]

Me too, @Chava. I also seem to have problems with my limbs "falling asleep" while I'm asleep that I think are abnormally frequent. I'll be aware that I'm sleeping, still dreaming, and both of my arms are out of commission--totally numb. When I was younger I had issues with biting down on my pillow while having nightmares.

 

[PTSD NON VETERAN mom]

I still wake up and walk around. Last week my husband said suddenly i jumped out of bed and "escaped". Before he could catch me i unlocked the door and at a sprint ran into the garage door bounced off of it and ran thru an area in the garage that is so full of stuff without tripping and had gotten the service door unlocked when he grabbed/caught me and this was all at 2 am and in the pitch dark. When my husband woke me up i screamed like a crazy woman until I realized who had me and why. For the first time I can't remember the nightmare! My husband has been sleeping on the couch for months because all my antics in my sleep has made him so exhausted to the point of him being a danger at work operating equipment. He hears me up rummaging around but if he hears the bedroom door open he is up in a heartbeat.. I too have woken up with bad bloody knuckles, black eye, pulled muscles and lots of bruises and now recovering from whiplash and minor injuries from the other night. At least im not beating on my poor husband anymore. I'm so lucky to have him he is a saint, so many men would of filed for divorce long ago. I feel even the things I do in my sleep and cant remember are all trauma related

 

[Deleted member 28812]

@KimV My husband does not have CPTSD but "normal PTSD".

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.

Could you give an example?

Urm why is sufferer in quotes?

Because he is not "my sufferer". He is my husband and he sees himself of "the protector" and not "the sufferer".

Maybe he is yelling to warn you to protect you and is afraid you won't know the danger and will get hurt.

Yes, that's what his dreams are about.

I often wake up soaked in sweat.

Same thing for my husband (and even more laundry to do because like I said he wants me to wash the sheets all the time... is this an ugly thing to think? Thinking of all the laundry?)

 

[Kintsugi]

Ever since I got my little hound, Annie, four years ago, I project worries about my security onto her in dreams. So I'll have a nightmare that I am in my old neighborhood, where I grew up (and was abused), and I will be frantically searching for her to protect her. I think what I'm really doing is trying to find the vulnerable side of myself and protect that.

I also have lots of dreams where I am being chased by a cadre of faceless men I don't know in a place that I don't recognize, but the feeling is that this directly relates to running when I was a child from a gang of much older boys trying to catch me.

Now that you ask this question, I realize I am much more likely to scream if Annie gets hurt or captured than if I am in direct danger. The anguish is too much for pithy real-world words. My fear for myself is not as present (I am detached) vs my fear for her safety (I am her support and caregiver).

I agree that your husband's fear for your family may be connected not only to his worries of mortality while he was deployed for your sake but for the sake of comrades, some of which he may not have been able to protect from harm or death.

 

[Friday]

Same thing for my husband (and even more laundry to do because like I said he wants me to wash the sheets all the time... is this an ugly thing to think? Thinking of all the laundry?)

Lol... Nah. When potty training my son I learned the trick of making the bed 3 or 4 times (waterproof, sheet, waterproof, sheet, waterproof, sheet) that I totally started using on myself! ... So when there's an accident (or I wake up soaked) I just strip one layer, toss it in the machine, and climb back in bed in an already made up bed. I also have a few down comforters with duvets, and duvets are as easy to wash as sheets. I don't use top sheets or blankets. Just wash the duvet once a week with sheets like I normally do, if I'm not stripping the sheets at night.

Laundry in my house (any house with kids!) quite quickly turns into a "situation". There's a rhythm to it, that if it gets messed up? Mountains of work to do. Ugh. No thank you. Housework turns my brain into oatmeal. B.O.R.I.N.G. And having to do more and more and more of it. Gah. Pass.

((ADHD + PTSD + working nights + kids all day (I napped) + all the housework = My life for 9 years. My systems had systems! My Ex or his friends would make a mess / hours of work for me on top of everything else? I'd want to take a cast iron fry-pan to his head.))

 

[Gadgie]

When I have my nightmares I wake up screaming and shaking, and totally confused. It takes my brain a few seconds to figure out where I actually am.
As my nightmares are so realistic, ......with colour, sound, heat and cold, that it's like actually being there all over again. The sweat pours off me, yet I'm shivering at the same time, I have to go the bathroom and get a cold flannel to wipe myself down.

Then I am too scared to go back and sleep again, as I'm so frightened in case I have another one, which has happened in the past. Sorry for butting in, it's just some of the posts I was reading brought that right into my mind.

 

[Deleted member 29899]

As adults we try to monitor and control what our young (and even older) kids watch on t.v., on the computer, read and the movies they see for their protection and to prevent their nightmares and fears.
You loved ones dreams involve 'zombies' and being chased or the family is attacked, etc. I don't even know anything about 'zombies' (seems to be an 'in' thing on television and the Internet, tshirts, etc) I don't know anything about them nor do I want to... I've had so much trauma with death and dead bodies that I cannot even go near such nonsense because it triggers me. If I watched any of that stuff I'd be having night terrors and screaming too. I bet he knows about zombies, has seen shows, etc.
*As adults with trauma we need to monitor ourselves with what we expose ourselves to, just like we monitored our kids. I didn't used to and it made me sicker. I went to a couple different movies and ran into trouble. I went to a war movie (always liked war movies) and it shook me up so bad that when the movie was over I stood to leave and I started crumbling to the ground, I felt like my mind was crumbling and I literally thought someone was going to call an ambulance, so I'm not free to watch what I want anymore or it'll make me sick.
Just like kids watch something scary and it comes back to them at bed or during dreams, it can be like this for adults.
If I watched a zombie show I'd probably be night terroring for a while. We think we're all tough and can handle a lot of things but after trauma the mind will do things on its own...

 

[Spekx]

I have PTSD with acute agoraphobia. To answer your question Yes, my nightmares all center on the fact that I am being ganged up on in public and nobody will help me. Does the agoraphobia cause the nightmares, or does the nightmares cause the agoraphobia......I sincerely wish I knew the answer to this question. Sometimes I wake up with night sweats, and no memory of my dream. Sometimes I wake up from a nightmare, with no night sweats. Sometimes I wake myself up calling for help (yelling). Sometimes I can remember the nightmare, and I am covered in sweat and I've woken myself up calling for help.

Does this mean that everybody with PTSD dreams just like I do. I sincerely doubt it.

 

[Deleted member 29899]

Do I yell or twitch?

No but sometimes I wake up outside in the middle of the street. I'm my nightgown. I'm a single woman. I live alone. How's that for a nightmare? God only knows what could happen to me out there.
Fortunately that doesn't happen all the time. But when it does it's utterly terrifying.

 

[Gadgie]

Does this mean that everybody with PTSD dreams just like I do

Funny you should ask that, as I've just asked a similar question on another thread. I would like to know as well. Is it something that we all share, or is it just a few?

Your symptoms are very similar to mine, the first few seconds after I wake up can be worse than the night mare itself, the only difference is, that you are conscious at the time which I think makes it worse.

What do you think?

 

[Spekx]

Your symptoms are very similar to mine, the first few seconds after I wake up can be worse than the night mare itself, the only difference is, that you are conscious at the time which I think makes it worse.

I agree, the dreams are so realistic it takes time for my mind to accept that it was just a dream. A couple of times, I wasn't even sure that I had woken up yet. I think the confusion is part of what makes the whole thing such a terrifying experience.

 

[NarcSis]

If he was a combat vet his job was to protect by all means whatever bottom line they were assigned, dreams of being unable to protect, death and undead can indicate a mind struggling to cope with ideas of inadequacy, direct traumatic memory and guilt.

I was never a soldier but my dreams run along these themes, they have since the directly trauma-themed nightmares had stopped. In my early days night terrors were quite common, I'd wake up kicking and screaming. After a while my mind started to disguise the trauma in the types of themes that I outlined, protection dreams where I'm inadequate and can't save people or myself. I did a lot of running away in my dreams but could never escape. When caught, I'd go numb, try to scream but it would only come out in hoarse whispers.

I still get these nightmare themes in cycles. Most times I wake myself up because I'll hear myself struggling to yell or I'll feel strange and realize I'm breath-holding. They start to ease off as time goes by, but I'm 7 years post trauma and still have bouts with them. It's all about the work we did and the the trauma work we do.

Perfectly normal for PTSD. That being said, please keep yourself safe during these times.