waking nightmares

[Aim]

I am looking for any tips to combat waking nightmares. I have had success with yoga and meditation practices in the past as distractions. but I am finding my agoraphobic anxiety has increased due to the return of my chronic sleeping nightmares. which have been getting worse lately, I find myself repeatedly attempting to commit suicide in my dreams, leaving me to wake in panic most days. any advice would be greatly appreciated. this is the first time I have ever reached out to anyone else. Best, Ais.

 

[RubyBlue]

Something that helped me tremendously was to write those nightmares down as soon as you wake up. That already takes a little heat out and starts to redirect your brain. Then right before bed, write that same nightmare down again but with alternative endings/topics. My typical nightmares have to do with my CSA, so I would add alternate endings of literally defeating my attacker. It took a few weeks of consistently doing this, but now nightmares are more rare and when they do happen they aren’t as strong and have even played out alternate endings themselves (I’m in a different role than usual and therefore advocating for myself which changes the tone of the whole thing).

 

[osiris]

Thinking of you. Well done for reaching out for help, that’s a massive step.
I woke mid nightmare this morning and went straight to the pool following some epic advice someone else here. Definitely helped.

 

[Friday]

When you say waking nightmares...

Do you mean waking up from nightmares, or nightmares whilst awake?(IE flashbacks or intrusive thoughts/memories)

 

[Ronin]

For nightmares (night) the advice would depend on knowing your best sleep practices & sleep patterns that keep you healthiest & underlying conditions (advice for 'pure' PTSD won't tackle if it's PTSD exacerbated by a heart condition, asthma & other respiratory, current infections & injuries, and so forth)

Also your other neuro&psych conditions & how you best *forget* dream & nightmares...

And if you have any parasomnias or other issues with sleep process itself ((like, if you are literally able to travel to another city... while asleep... and not recognize a thing, we would have a different convo. Using that as a me life example of stuff my brain does when doing super badly.))

But waking nightmares (nightmares while awake) usually have a helpable fix... get more sleep. As that is like microsleep just different sleep cycle issue, same process, and means sleep deprivation so bad brain just forces catch up on it no matter what.