Has Anyone Actually Found Anything To Control Their Night Terrors?

[barefoot]

I've suffered from night terrors since I was in my late teens. I don't generally remember that they've happened/remember anything they were about, though sometimes I have a hazy recollection if my partner has woken me up in the middle of them. I generally shout, swear, flail around a lot and sprint out the bed. Have fallen over plenty of times - have hurt myself, woken with a start completely disorientated, confused and bleeding on the floor etc.

There are times when I can go a few months without having one. Other times I can have a flurry of having one or two every night for a week.

The last couple of months or so, I've been having one or two every week. I know some people have them every night, maybe several times a night. But, for me, this period of having one or two a week is feeling like quite a lot and that pattern is quite unusual for me. It seems to have coincided with a meltdown I had in therapy a couple of months ago – I somehow tapped into some trauma stuff, got incredibly triggered and ended up severely dissociating. The impact from it was really full-on and I don't feel that I've fully recalibrated from it yet.

I guess this makes sense...the heightened anxiety/triggered trauma in the session and the fact that I haven't yet managed to get back to my 'normal' state has prompted more night terrors.

But I'm tired. And I feel bad for my partner whose sleep I am now disrupting more regularly. And the fallout from my meltdown in session a couple of months ago has made me realise that, after a night terror, I experience those same feelings but on a smaller scale. Even though I don't generally remember having a night terror, I often know I've had one because I feel 'funny'. It's like my body 'remembers' it and I feel....retraumatised, I suppose. Even though I have no conscious memory of it. So I'm trying to recalibrate from the episode in therapy a couple of months ago, but it feels like I keep topping it up again with more trauma feelings that get triggered by the night terrors I'm having, which I feel completely out of control of.

Any tips/words of wisdom? I don't think it feels bad enough to be looking to go on to meds. But has anyone found any ways of managing/reducing the number of night terrors they have? I thought for a while that doing diaphragmatic breathing exercises before bed helped...but that doesn't seem to be having an impact now. I try to keep a cool temperature in bed. I use black out blinds to keep the room really dark. The room is really plain and tidy - so no weirdly shaped shadows to spook me and nothing to trip over when I leap out of bed. I'm careful about what I watch on TV before bed - nothing too intense/overly stimulating/scary. At the moment, nothing seems to be making a difference :-(

 

[Purplemunchkin]

My hubby used to have bad night terrors a couple of times a week.

He is on medication for his PTSD, but that didn't stop the night terrors. So his GP also prescribed some strong, drowsy-making anti-histamines (I'm afraid I can't remember the name).

He doesn't need to take them all the time, but we tend to have an idea of when taking them would be a good idea and I can't remember the last time he had a night terror.

Good luck to you and your partner!

 

[barefoot]

Thanks for your reply @Purplemunchkin - sorry to hear you've had to suffer your partner's night time episodes. But great news that he seems to have found something that works for him :-)

I haven't ever looked into meds because it never felt consistently 'bad enough' to take anything regularly. Also, I think my therapist thinks the night terrors are a way of the trauma shifting/processing/releasing...so I guess I think that taking meds may just repress these feelings further and stop a process that's somehow trying to do some good (even though it doesn't feel like it)?

Perhaps I need to look more into possible meds...

 

[Purplemunchkin]

That's the thing with these ones, they are not psychiatric grade meds, they were just prescribed by his GP.

He can take them one night, then not again for weeks. It's only when he feels he needs to, unlike his PTSD meds which he needs to take everyday and cannot stop without medical help.

 

[barefoot]

Hmm...maybe that sounds like something that would be useful then...I'm just not sure how I'd know that I needed to take them! Sometimes they happen more when I'm stressed/highly anxious. But sometimes they happen when I think I'm feeling ok and then I don't understand why I've had them.

It's a minefield! ;-)

 

[Joie]

I used to have really scary night events, the mood from which could persist the next day. The more I do mindfulness meditation and let myself just sit and feel the full force of the anxiety as strong sensations in my body from all I've felt during the day (and even in the past coming up via a trigger or at night), the less these night things happen. But I still struggle with wanting it to go away OR judging myself for having them....less each time as I become aware of deep self judgement and it lets itself go from the seeing. Small steps. I do think with support we can gradually come to learn our powerful reactions and enculturations have to be worked through and come out of the body where they've been locked...so the body and mind are all in the same place at the same time and we can find peace...

 

[barefoot]

Thanks @Joie – that's interesting... I don't feel very connected to my body and I think it's an area that my therapist would like us to work on...we've been talking quite a bit lately about all parts of me (mind/body/feelings) needing to come together and about me trying to tune into the information/experiences/memories stored in my body. I'm sort of starting to get it. But it feels very alien to me.

And that whole thing of sitting with and fully experiencing the feelings/what's going on in my body....something I never do! I'm more into avoiding, denial, distraction... ;-)

So your experience is something for me to ponder.

 

[Powder]

Yes, essential oils from a trained aromatherapist. One mixture mine made me years back guaranteed a good dream only, every time I put it on my pillow at night. It works so well that it's shocking. Costs less, and works better for me than any of the meds.

I moved, so I have to find a new aromatherapist.

I hope you find something to help.

My mix had Ylang, Ylang, bergamot, lavendar, and another key ingredient that I cannot remember. I will contact my old therapist for the combination and see if she has it on my file.

Here is a link to a kind of wild site that claims different oils help with different dreams. I cannot verify that, but I do know that they have worked to not only prevent bad dreams, but also replaced them with happy ones. And that is a much better way to start the day.

Link Removed


I hope this is helpful,

Muse

 

[Kayle]

I'm actually surprised I don't see more posts about Prazosin. It was created in the 70's initially as a BP med. It's worked wonders for me.

Look into it, lots of research out there.