I Had One Of The Worst Nightmares In My Life Tonight

[hodge]

It didn't start out too awful bad. I was back in college and was in a freshman dorm where there was a huge party going on. I've never actually been to one, so this was all my imagination, I guess. But there were soooo many things going on and so many hallways and rooms and dead ends. I kept trying to find my out of it back to my graduate dorm room and just kept running into dead ends or weird things that prevented me from getting through to the hall I lived in. It got pretty bad and freaky. They had bowls of live fishes sitting around and at one point a fish jumped into my wine glass which I had brought with me. After that, needless to say, I left my wine glass behind. All of a sudden I was in a bedroom with my husband sleeping. Suddenly I heard the door open and this guy walked in. I woke up my husband to tell him this guy was in our room and he just got up and grinned at me horribly, then I won't talk about this anymore. It was too horrific. But this was the first nightmare I ever had involving my beloved hubby, and it really disturbed me. What also disturbed me is that I woke up from it at 11:10 p.m., less than an hour after I got to sleep. My psychiatrist has told me that when there are sleep disturbances like mine, you can get REM sleep and dreams/nightmares very soon after you go to sleep. Well, this is the earliest I remember getting up from a nightmare, and such a bad one. I didn't want to wake my hubby who had taken a sleeping pill. I was like, sh*t, if this happened so early in the night, what is the rest of my night going to be like?? I just left the house on impulse and walked to our local watering hole a couple blocks from here and had a couple drinks and some fries. I had a really nice conversation with the barmaid, which has helped me put this nightmare behind me, but I'm still afraid to go to sleep and now it's after 2. Jeez. I didn't sleep much the last couple of nights, either. Had an intense therapy session this afternoon, which could have had something to do with this, but I'm not able to connect any dots yet.

 

[hodge]

As night approaches here, I've been getting anxious about something like this happening again. But I realized today by checking my log that I hadn't taken my anti-nightmare med last night, so I guess that was it. I hope that's all it was. Still, that doesn't quite explain it, either, because I have a lot of experience waking up from nightmares, since I wake up so often during the night and I can only take two clonidines a night, and they only work till you wake up.

Has anyone else ever had a similar experience waking up from a nightmare? What did you do?

I guess at least because this happened I can try to be prepared for what to do if it happens again. I should have thought of the crisis hotline. But I was in such a blind panic, all I could think of was to get out of the house. Then I realized the one place that was open at that time of night was the bar and grill, and since this is a safe town, I would be okay going there. Still, I should have a better plan in mind in case it happens again. But God I hope it never happens again.

 

[RavensPOE]

It didn't start out too awful bad. I was back in college and was in a freshman dorm where there was a huge...

I am wondering on what you classify as a "nightmare?"
I have had nightmares about the Holocaust for 30 years.
They began at age 13. They have continued for 30 years.
In them, I am a teenager--sometimes male, other times female.
I am waiting in line at the gas chamber, dying in the crematoria,
being raped by the Third Reich, or watching them do this to other children.

However, I classify them as nightmares--as they all have the function of
bringing about my death within them.

Anything else?
--Is either a bad dream (where death is not an attribute)
--or a dream (nothing negative evolves).

 

[hodge]

Oh, RavensPOE, it got much worse, yes, life-threatening. I just still can't bear to write about it in full detail. It was too grotesque and obscene. To say that rape and eventual death were elements don't do it justice. I'm so sorry you have those nightmares about the Holocaust. That sounds really horrible.