What Do You Need / Need To See Or Hear After Nightmare?

[HëllaBubz]

Hi All!

I know nightmares are awful, horrible beasties that ruin our nights and put our days into shambles, but I am wondering what coping mechanisms you use, or things you should remind yourself of after you bolt awake from another bout with the boogie monster.

I'd very much like to hear what things you all use to cope, and perhaps this can be a resource for you to hop on at that ungodly hour of the night when you can't or are afraid of returning to sleep.

I'll start.....

I imagine rolling all the pieces of the nightmare into a ball, and throwing it out a window of a high speed train.

or

I watch something funny, such as Pink Panther / Tom and Jerry / Oggy and the Cockroaches and imagine that it's me doing something devious to the latest boogie monster *bashes monster back under the bed with big stick*.

If you REALLY want to know what to do with monsters, take a look at what Bugs Bunny does to them!

or

I tell myself - my partner is here, I feel his warmth, there is no 'what ifs' because it was all a big lie, and I love being awake and alive right now.

My pussy cats are all here, the rain is falling on the roof and the birdies are cuddling on their branches.

The darkness is a warm blanket and the moon is my night light, smiling on me whilst I sleep.

or

I read the sleep/nightmare script from the following website.
http://www.innerhealthstudio.com/sleep-relaxation-scripts.html

I really recommend it, every time I read one it helps relax me.

Hope this helps some of you.

Bubzie

 

[Delta62]

When I wake up from a nightmare, I usually have night-sweats or a headache from it. A shower helps me out quite a bit because it helps the blood-flow and muscle tension. If I cannot go back to sleep I was taught to read the phone-book. On mornings when I have to report to work, if I have benefit time available I will use it, so I can get some rest. Sometimes I will clean or go outside and walk around because it helps me breathe better.

 

[maddog]

Yes, a hot/cold shower (depending on the season) is good, or even just changing my clothes and immediate environment, eg, if sleeping in my bed, going out to lie on the lounge instead etc.

Fresh air is priceless. Often I will go and sit out on the patio for a while and just breathe in the night stillness. Nature is deeply soothing to me. I will often even sit or lie on the grass for a time.

Safe place imagery is invaluable. Imagining a safe place, a safe person, repeating safe calming or soothing conversations or statements from that safe person in my mind...

I also write/journal, sometimes recounting the nightmare, or my current feelings, or whatever I feel like. Sitting at the computer typing is mentally and physically grounding and helps to slow my body and mind and to avoid the frantic need for reckless activity that I often experience after nightmares.

Contact with my dog can help, as long as she is not a trigger from my nightmare. The closeness of another living creature who is happy, predictable and unaware of the turmoil in my head can be very grounding.

I always have music playing in the background on the radio at night. It is one of the first and now familiar sensory awarenesses I have upon waking and it is always incompatible with the sounds and images from my nightmares. Any form of background noise that involves talking, such as the tv or nighttime talkback radio, is bad and potentially triggering.

Sometimes I just need to be warm and to seek a physical protection/hiding place of sorts. Curling up under a blanket, lying under/against something safe and protective, keeping familiar objects and my dog close to me.. etc.

Good thread.

Maddog

 

[Jlso111187]

My husband is the only one who soothes me. If he's not around I jump in a hot shower for a while and then go on the net. Because there is no getting me back to sleep if he's not around.

 

[JustBe]

Kira snuggled by my side helps ground me when I have nightmares. Sometimes she even wakes me with kisses and I'm able to snuggle with her and fall back to sleep.

If I can't, I take a hot shower with Lavender soap and then try again. I always have music or an audio book on.

 

[just me here]

I use a kind of mental/physical inventory technique I learned in a bio feedback class. I start at a random body part and take inventory of the feelings I am experiencing from that part. Maybe it's the inside of the arch of my left foot, and I feel the warmth of the blankets and the stiffness of my callused feet and some pain from a long day on my feet- just a list of the sensations without any kind of negative or positive connotations attached.

After doing that for awhile I either calm down and get back to sleep or I move on to my thoughts and approach them with the same neutral objective inventory idea.

This exercise and grounding myself in my room with my wife with my alarm clock and my radio and the dog on the floor usually lets me get on with my sleep fairly quickly. After years of doing it, it gets to be automatic and pretty predictable, like a familiar drive with landmarks along the way that let you know how things are progressing.

Hope this helps but I know we all have to find our own ways. Like I said earlier, this is a modified approach that I have adjusted from a technique I learned for another problem I was dealing with.

 

[John25]

Hot shower, music that gets my feelings and memories like the Godfather(it strongly takes me to the past when my dad was a mafioso and that makes me cry and I have that male cliche family omerta moment which I just love), a little weight lifting and smokes.

 

[p-no]

The only thing that helps me is literally nothing, i.e. as few influences as possible: no music, no tv, no talking to me to calm me, no touching, no nothing. Sometimes, rarely, fresh air, but only if it is different air, i.e. opening the window in winter and keeping it open until I get cold.

Before I can do anything else, I need to get out of the nightmare, i.e. out of sleep, in body, mind and soul. I need to fully wake up, as if I were ready for the day. Once I am fully awake and basically in a state of ready to go and feeling good, I need to spend some time i.e. reading or just looking. When I then get sleepy, I can go back to sleep. If I don't wait until I am absolutely 100% out of the nightmare and sleep, it will usually continue where it left off (or start anew).