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Originally Posted by Brokenfriend
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Steve, 
What you describe could be PTSD.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012...caused-by-ptsd
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Scientists wanted to find out the reason why people with PTSD can't sleep and dream normally. One theory comes from Matthew Walker, a psychology researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. His particular interest lies in rapid eye movement, or REM. It's the time during sleep when a lot of dreaming occurs.
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Walker's theory suggests that in people with PTSD, REM sleep is broken. The adrenaline doesn't go away like it's supposed to. The brain can't process tough memories, so it just cycles through them, again and again.
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There is a medication that helps some people but it has side effects:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prazosin
It is a blood pressure medication:
Prazosin
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This medication has shown to be effective in treating severe nightmares in children and people with PTSD symptoms.[4] Veterans have also been treated successfully at Seattle's VA Puget Sound Health Care System (VAPSHCS) for sleep disturbance related to PTSD. Doses are lower for this purpose than for control of blood pressure.[4]
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-dou..._b_422368.html
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Recent research shows that the decision about what memories to keep and which to discard is made offline as we sleep. As we sleep our brain unconsciously sorts through our daily experiences, associates them with other memories, and decides which ones to discard and which to keep. So using high-blood pressure medicine to relieve nightmares and dampen the horror of traumatic memories, which seems so odd it first, makes good sense in light of how the brain uses the past to predict the future -- the mechanism of memory.
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It is the fundamental mechanism of memory that captures people with PTSD in perpetual fear. The memory of the traumatic event is unforgettable because the stress and adrenaline of the experience engraved it permanently in memory, and the nightly repetition of the event in nightmares reinforces the memory like a stuck record, preventing them from getting past the event. Blocking the effect of adrenalin with the high blood pressure medicine prazosin breaks the cycle.
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