Nightmares you don’t remember & waking up feeling off, stiff, sore.

[Punky143]

Why hello,
Lately I've been waking up with a strange feeling of something happening during the night. I feel like it's nightmares but the kind you don't remember or only have clips of it but again it doesn't make sense. We wake up feeling "off" or our body will ache, or we're really stiff probably from not moving all night. Does anyone else experience this? Why can't I remember them in detail like every thing else? I only feel it through my body and that's all.
Bye and would love to hear what you're experience are!

 

[Sideways]

Why can't I remember them in detail like every thing else?

For the most part, whether or not we remember our dreams/nightmares is about how quickly we rouse from REM stage sleep, which naturally varies from one person to the next.

If you want to remember, learning and practicing lucid dreaming may help, or having a notepad next to the bed to write down what you remember as soon as you wake.

Post-nightmare shoulder and neck pain (and the odd nasty bruise) is my normal. It's shit, but it was always one of the less intrusive of my ptsd symptoms, so I manage it with physical therapies. But if it's a new thing for you to be waking with physical pain, there is a range of things worth ruling out (like illness, nutrition problems, pillows that have worn out or don't suit your sleep style, etc).

 

[Punky143]

For the most part, whether or not we remember our dreams/nightmares is about how quickly we rouse from REM stage sleep, which naturally varies from one person to the next.

If you want to remember, learning and practicing lucid dreaming may help, or having a notepad next to the bed to write down what you remember as soon as you wake.

Post-nightmare shoulder and neck pain (and the odd nasty bruise) is my normal. It's shit, but it was always one of the less intrusive of my ptsd symptoms, so I manage it with physical therapies. But if it's a new thing for you to be waking with physical pain, there is a range of things worth ruling out (like illness, nutrition problems, pillows that have worn out or don't suit your sleep style, etc).

Thank you for your response. I believe I often wake up stiff as a result of sleeping in a fetal position as well as my body unable to fully relax even after taking pm meds. I am easily startled and instantly panic by gasping for air, confused, terrified and cry. My husband has tried to avoid waking me, tried reassuring us that it's just him but it doesn't matter, same response. This has happened in the past off and on and apparently it's back.
(DID) so we have been in trauma t for a few years now and we go at a very slow pace but this part of the process is tough.maybe that's why this stuff is happening.

 

[Sues]

I do this all of the time. I'll wake and know I had a nightmare and feel it in my body. I'll often wake up feeling bad mentally and start crying. I also remember nightmares. I like it better when I don't remember.

 

[Friday]

Bye and would love to hear what you're experience are!

The nightmares I remember fall into 3 rough categories;
- Total Fiction
- Too much nightmare fuel (blend of fiction & reality)
- Flashbacks where they belong; safe, in bed, asleep!

The nightmares I don’t remember I’m either told about by the people around me, or the evidence of them is readily apparent

^^^ ANY of these can leave me jolting awake in
- Full on fight/flight, totally clear headed & emotion free
- In a panic attack
- In an anxiety attack
- Drenched in sweat/swear
- Feeling like I got hit by a truck; often with blood and bruises and a surly attitude to go along with

^^^ OR (instead of jolting) struggling to wake feeling
- Confused, thick, disoriented
- Sick as hell, miserable, nauseous.
- I cannot brain, I has the dumb.


I have nightmare cycles a few times a year, so my own patterns are something I am long familiar with.

 

[Carolnaygeorge]

I've woken up in the middle of the night in the fetal position so tight that my joints hurt, my shoulders, my knees, elbows just the major ones. It takes all day to stretch them out

 

[arfie]

I feel like it's nightmares but the kind you don't remember or only have clips of it but again it doesn't make sense.

that makes perfect sense to me. for a decade or three i kept a dream journal in an effort to remedy my epic, sleep deprivation levels of nightmares. i developed exceptional dream recall from the exercise, but never evolved full recall. many of my dream journal entries were describing the emotions, aches and pain i woke with more than the dreams, themselves. then we get to the fact that we average 3 to 5 dreams per night and seldom remember any of those dreams except for the ones we wake from.

 

[Freddyt]

^^^ ANY of these can leave me jolting awake in
- Full on fight/flight, totally clear headed & emotion free
- In a panic attack
- In an anxiety attack
- Drenched in sweat/swear
- Feeling like I got hit by a truck; often with blood and bruises and a surly attitude to go along with

^^^ OR (instead of jolting) struggling to wake feeling
- Confused, thick, disoriented
- Sick as hell, miserable, nauseous.
- I cannot brain, I has the dumb.

Yup....what she said.

Lately it's waking from them without any clear pictures, just a theme....

 

[MsLillian]

oh yea nightmares and bad sleeps.

i have terrifying reoccurring nightmares (sometimes years apart). but when i don’t remember a nightmare that i know i’ve had, it can be even worse for me when i inevitably wake up soon.

i have certain sleep aids that help me not dream so much. but can’t use every night unfortunately.

 

[sunlight7]

I have woken up kind of like what y’all said having clips or themes but not really remembering what happened but my body felt panicked, was sweating, heart racing. I have had other sleep problems like I’ve had sleep paralysis a handful of times I’ve slept walked once or twice and I’ve woken up screaming bloody murder. its amazing how the mind works even when we are in an unconscious State.

 

[MsLillian]

I have woken up kind of like what y’all said having clips or themes but not really remembering what happened but my body felt panicked, was sweating, heart racing. I have had other sleep problems like I’ve had sleep paralysis a handful of times I’ve slept walked once or twice and I’ve woken up screaming bloody murder. its amazing how the mind works even when we are in an unconscious State.

i was a chronic sleepwalker as a child. i don’t do it much as an adult and less as i’ve gotten older, but it still occasionally happens and it can be scary as heck. i used to wake up blocks from home barefoot in my housecoat or pjs, sometimes in snow or rain. thankfully i haven’t slept walked out of the house in years.

 

[sunlight7]

i was a chronic sleepwalker as a child. i don’t do it much as an adult and less as i’ve gotten older, but it still occasionally happens and it can be scary as heck. i used to wake up blocks from home barefoot in my housecoat or pjs, sometimes in snow or rain. thankfully i haven’t slept walked out of the house in years.

Wow, that is scary. I know I’d be terrified. I had a friend that slept walk as a child too, and almost walked out a high up window. I believe his family was staying at a hotel, but I could be wrong. It’s been a while since we’ve talked about it.

I find the subject of sleep disorders Interesting like what’s going on in the brain when people start sleepwalking or have night terrors. My grandmother used to suffer from night terrors. I have ADHD and dyslexia and I have done some research a little bit on both about how your brain is wired differently. Or like with dyslexia, how different parts of the brain light up or aren’t as bright, then people who don’t have dyslexia when trying to read or sound out the word.