I have quit smoking pot so I can deal with my issues and move forward. I have not smoked in over a week and it really feels great. Without pot I am a horrible insomniac and suffer from nightmares. When I first quit I did not sleep for three days then was getting just a couple hours a night. One of my abusers was a camp councilor who would molest me in the night when he was drunk. Last night the nightmares came back full strength. The odd thing is that I have the nightmares of a child, it is almost always zombies and vampires. I got the most sleep i've had in over two weeks but work up several several times TERRIFIED. When I woke up this morning I felt like I had run ten miles and have been fried all day. I don't know what type of feedback i am looking for, maybe that others have had similar experiences and it got better. peace

I don't remember mine. I also have continuous pain so it is sometimes the pain that wakes me.
Good for you on quitting pot. Try doing some exercise. Work doesn't count no matter how hard it is. Exercise is continuous for 30 minutes or more in the heart rate zone 120-140.

That's awful camp was made scary for you. If the problmes continue get checked for sleep apnea, the symptom is that you wake up dog tired and wake up a lot in the night feeling very scared with heart racing. Night mares might be getting triggered by you stopping breathing as the oxygen runs out.
If you have it it will destroy your heart unless you get a CPAP. Its easier to get used to than it seems at the start.

Good Luck

Ditto on the exercise. It does a number of things physiologically. Part of it is you deal with stress by preparing to fight or run, ie physical activity.

Lungfish,

Not sure if this relates, but I spent quite a few years where it seemed like every night I went into dreamland. There was this whole environment I was in. Parts of it were scary, even though there wasn't anything rationally scary about the parts that were scary. Well, except maybe that I was off somewhere *very* alone in some far reaching corner and the vibe was sometimes just frightening, like something was just around the corner. In fact, I was almost always alone in the dreamland. This is good stuff for me to think about actually.

Anyway, it has been quite some time since I have been back in that place (or shall I say places). I believe my mind needed to work through some personal demons, and as that happened I wasn't spending time in dreamland. It was all pretty fascinating in a way, and the "places" I'd been to in that place were pretty far out and interesting. But it is better I am no longer living the reality that brought that place about. I miss it in a way, but things are much better now.

On a related substance note, when I would drink heavy for a couple/few days then stop I'd end up in a pretty scary place. Give you body and mind some time to adjust to the new reality and give your mind some time to work through this stuff. And I third the idea of exercise. For me, I enjoy riding my bike but really any sort of physical activity is good. It will make you tired as well so you sleep better.

Eric

Not to be insistant but it occurs that some may think sleep apnea is a problem for the elderly or fat, it isn't. It can strike anyone.
I personally know a guy diagnosed with it who was in his twenties, slim and fit.

Yeah, I didn't want to discount any possible medical situation. That should always be taken into account as a possibility and checked out.

I'm not trying to harp but they found I was losing 65% of my normal oxygen when asleep.
The difference tghe machine has made was like being reborn or taken back to a younger age I had so much energy after just the first night with it.
Thats not to say youy won;t have nightmares from normal or csa issues.

It could also just be nightmares. I tend to have one a week or so, often involving s/xual situations, sometimes memories but more often than not just imagery I dislike, but which is probably vaguely normal for a man.

it's 7 in the morning now and I woke up from a fairly extreme one last night, though there was no rational order to that one, or even any images that made sense, just a confused mess of concepts and sensations, ---- one of which was pretty horrifying, though irrational, ---- and it's fairly certain I don't have sleep Apnea, sinse my dad does (and uses an oxygen machine), and my mum is a physio therapist who'd recognize it pretty quickly.

I haven't been able to exercise because of the stupidity of my downstairs neighbors and their complaints about noise and me running on a small trampoline (they also complain about me viciously walking around my flat), but I've just bought a rowing machine.

The only trouble is, I'm not certain how much to do, so always end up over doing it.

I have to set myself some sort of targit with exercise, ---- eg, 30 lifts of the weights, or run for a count of 120 then 15 cooldown, then another 120, but I haven't determined what sort of targit is reasonable for rowing at the moment, especially sinse it's a while sinse I've exercised.

For some reason, i prefer being in control myself an saying "I will do X amount" then doing it, than just setting a stop watch. for a certain time.

Hopefully when I've determined a rowing targit that doesn't destroy my legs too much in the process I'll be better off in terms of sleep and nightmares.

hey guys, thanks. I am going to hop on my bike today and get a good sweat going. I have always been an athletic but have really been slacking (pot is not known as a great motivator). I tore up my knees (acl, mcl and micro-fracture surgery) two years ago playing basketball and still can not run. I am also going to ask my doc about sleep apnea, cover all bases.
Eric I could totally relate about going into a different world in dreams. I seem to go to the same place again and again with only slight differences. When I say zombies and vampires they are all monsters. Zombies I can recognize as monsters where as vampires look normal. It is always a fight or flight scenario. Sometimes I have weapons and am a killing machine. The other end of the spectrum is when I am blindly running for my life. I prefer to be alone in these dreams. The worst ones are holy shit I just put this together, I have a young boy I must protect. I can believe I never thought this, the young boy is me. I always assumed it was my nephew or just a non di>

Hey, Lungfish.

Sounds like you've made a breakthrough realization. Good for you, buddy!

You are not the only one who has nightmares about monsters, just so you know. I've been plagued by nightmares on and off almost my whole life. I've even "died" (been murdered) in my dreams, though I think experts say that one can't die in his/her dreams; the experts say one will wake up just before that happens. Doesn't work with me, though.

Exercise and C-PAP machine. Good advice, you guys. I think I'll take that advice myself.

Bobcat