What Do You Do When Meds Don't Work For Nightmares?

[Kunoichi]

I've been on over 4 different pre-script meds for sleep. They don't work to keep the nightmares down. Last one I was on was supposed to be the strongest med and strongest dose. I'm back to 2-3 hours of sleep a night, if that. Any suggestions please?

I've tried herbal remedies of all kinds, all different types of "bedtime routines", and still no results.

 

[Xenu]

Sounds like a tough situation. Have you tried exercising yourself to complete exhaustion before bed?

 

[becvan]

Have you tried any nightmare protocols? It's a set...description that you tell yourself every night before bed and whenever you have a nightmare.

What about dream catchers?

Have you noticed a pattern to them? Something usually (but not always) sets them off.

bec

 

[Blues in NYC]

I still get nightmares, almost every night.

I used to twitch, shake and even cry in my sleep. Sometimes, when I'm woken up with nightmares and can't go back to sleep, I use my EMDR audio and headphones, lie in bed and do the eye movements (and inner sensations of bilateral swishing movements) and focus on the content of the dream. This sometimes leads me to source material in my waking life for the dream. Triggers. Repressed memories. Another piece or two of the puzzle.

Usually, sometime between the 4th through 7th track of audio (about 20-40 minutes) I fall asleep again. 5 hours of sleep is better than 2 or 3 right? On a good night, I'm now getting close to 7 hours. Makes a hell of a difference. I so much of PTSD are positive feedback loops (self-sustaining loops, nothing "positive" in the colloquial about it, right!? :rolleyes:). i.e. Lack of sleep makes a PTSD sufferer more symptomatic, more symptomatic means more frequent and intense nightmares, more nightmares further inhibits sleep, etc.

Bit of disclosure: I'm doing this without meds, for better or worse. I also have cut both alcohol and caffeine out entirely on my doctor's advice. I may never have either again. Not advising that anyone here cut themself off cold turkey from any meds they are on, just being clear about how I'm doing it and what tools I am and am not using as I work towards health.

 

[pandora]

There must be something still triggering you if the nightmares are still bad. Are you in therapy right now? Perhaps it is making it worse before it gets better but if you are still nightmaring a lot than there are still unresolved issues I think you might have to work on. Just my opinion though...my nightmares are very few and far between now but that was with 20 cbt sessions and EMDR. I know the medication that worked for me when my nightmares were really bad was imovane/zopiclone. They have an amnesic effect so I would wake up and not remember the nightmare. I knew I was having them but if I had taken that med I did not remember it and it was great to not relive it all over again.

 

[sigh]

I get bouts of insomnia. and I feel for you, Kunoichi. Once, I was on three meds (didn't make four). I listened to a lot of Healing the Mind and Delta sleep CDs. They're just noise and it at least calmed me down.

How long has this been going on?

S.

 

[Kunoichi]

Wow thank you for the response!

I know i still have many unresolved issues as I have only been out of my abuse for a year, and I have done some therapy but have just moved so trying to do more therapy thru the state. So I know that will help.

My issue isn't so much falling asleep as much as getting rest because I wake up from the nightmares feeling bruised and battered. I still cry in my sleep, fight etc

I do want to do EMDR when I'm ready, as I have heard that is immensly helpful.

This has been going on since I was very young, since my abuse started. I know it won't go away easily. I'm just very tired of being tired. Cliche but true.

Thank you all for your responses!

 

[Seeking_Nirvana]

I used to have nightmares at least 3 or 4 times a week and on top of that some real strange, creepy, out in left field type dreams.

I learned dream interpretation, which makes one understand the dream, which points to the problem in your life you need to face, which you will face, by interpreting the dream.

It's difficult to learn at first, but it worked for me and I only have nightmares when I'm under a huge amount of stress or something I haven't dealt with surfaces. On an estimate I maybe have one nightmare about every other month.

It took about a year for them to slow down and about two years to get rid of them. It's a big monkey off of my back and I never took any medication to rid myself of them.

Tammy

 

[Xenu]

Are there monsters in your nightmares? Have you ever tried talking to them? You might be surprised by the results.

 

[NarcSis]

My therapist told me to write down the nightmare on a piece of paper, fold it and put it in a drawer, locked preferably. It sounds like pop-psych but the mind works in strange ways. After I do this I get up, stretch a bit then go through my bedtime routine again from the start. I'm sleeping more each night, that's a bonus.

 

[Kunoichi]

Xenu - usually my nightmares are regarding my trauma, either seeing my abusers, etc. So no monsters per se

Medic - I have tried writing down nightmares and burning them, that doesn't seem to make them any less for me.

I am on lunesta now and hoping it helps. I don't like having to rely on medication but at the moment, I am So tired I just don't care.

 

[Kunoichi]

Update: Lunesta doesn't work, my nightmares are as horrific as ever...I just want them to stop