I Don’t Feel Rested After Nightmares. Advice?

[Loveann]

Hello. I have bad dreams and nightmares almost every night. I have CPTSD. I am frustrated because, l don't feel rested when l wake up. Do any of you who have nightmares, do or have done things that help them go away or lessen the nightmares?

 

[enough]

It is hard to get the drugs that work for me prescribed these days. Addiction is such a widely used word that it's meaning has been contorted and the reaction to it has become an almost automatic no when prescribing or seeking any drug that anyone has ever become an addict to.
Thats good and bad. I am an adddict to my drug in that if I don't have my nightly dose I start to get headaches and less sleep and eventually I am tired and suffering nightmares again and that is seen as suffering withdrawals and no one wants to set themselves up for having withdrawals, right?
Or is it really withdrawals? Could it be described as returning to the old normal?
I had to go through deciding to stop using the drug and being clear of it for several months before my decision to go back on was given a resounding okey dokey by my prescriber and every other doc that sees it on my prescription list since.
Benzo's work for me. I would rather not have my energy lessened by them, I might not have that half second lag I feel like they give me, and now I get wind of theories that say they might be contributing or even causing my tinitis (I doubt that), but they stop my nightmares from robbing me of hours and hours of sleep and I don't wake up on my feet in a cold sweat wondering what or who I am in a fight with or waking up in my parents basement in 1973 again and again. Benzos work for me. Klonopin, Xanax.

 

[Sideways]

Benzos work for me.

If you’re going to head down the medication route for nightmares, there’s definitely other options you’d try first, like prazosin, which don’t have the issues associated with repetitive use that benzos come with:)

 

[Friday]

I can distinctly remember 5 or 6 times in my adult life I felt rested after waking. Quite glorious, actually. The rest of the time? I decided long ago that I don’t mind. Sleep knocks the sharp edges off, clears the mind, resets the day.

Just one option, of many.

 

[Nixx]

While not for everyone, im a big proponent of medical weed to help not only with sleep but also with nightmares, if that's an option for you in your area. If you find the right strain with a good ratio of THC to CBD and other stuff (stuff with just straight THC can cause more anxiety than its worth). The stuff can dull or even stop the REM faze of sleep so your dreams are far less vivid and scary.

 

[Freddyt]

Hello. I have bad dreams and nightmares almost every night. I have CPTSD. I am frustrated because, l don't feel rested when l wake up. Do any of you who have nightmares, do or have done things that help them go away or lessen the nightmares?

The only way is to get to the root of where the nightmares are coming from. At that point all the nightmares from that trauma ended.

Between here and there, love what sleep you got, change the naritive to positive, not "I only got" to "I slept" learn to function with what you get because until you solve where they are coming from, they will continue.

 

[Loveann]

The only way is to get to the root of where the nightmares are coming from. At that point all the nightmares from that trauma ended.

Between here and there, love what sleep you got, change the naritive to positive, not "I only got" to "I slept" learn to function with what you get because until you solve where they are coming from, they will continue.

@Freddyt thank you.