head shaking to awake from nightmares
 

In the last weeks I noticed that I start to shake my head a few times and only for very small distances. I had this problem a few months ago but only occasionally. Now it happens almost any night due to my very bad sleep.

Has anyone else troubles with that? It is a very unpleasant feeling as it should absolutely not happen to an injured brain.

I suggest you ask the doctor for a sleep test. You may not be breathing properly when you sleep and this can cause the nightmares and shaking. I'm would not be concerned that the shaking is injuring your brain. I would be more concerned about the risk from not breathing. There is a take-home sleep test that is often done to minimize cost.

My insurance would even pay a professional sleep test.

Why do you think the breathing is wrong? I personally think that the nightmares are a result of my mental condition. The shaking makes it even worse.

I used to struggle with Central Sleep Apnea. It would cause nightmares and body shaking. My wife knew to wake me up if she saw that I was not breathing properly and tell me to go sleep in my recliner. My jerking and sometimes, stressful mumbling (talking in my sleep) would wake her and she would notice I was not breathing properly. One time she just watched and I stopped breathing 16 times in one hour.

My sleep apnea appeared to relate to my upper neck. If I did not sleep with straight neck posture, I would stop breathing after a 1/2 hour or so. It's much better now but still occasionally have apnea.

If you have someone who can observe your sleeping, they could watch or just check on you to see if you are breathing. You can also buy a pulse oximeters with alarm functions and recording functions that you wear on your finger as you sleep. Google pulse oximeter.

Do you wake frequently at night during sleep ?

Yes, very often.

My sleep looks always like this: I sleep very deeply for about three hours without waking up. At about 3am I start to struggle. I wake up every hour or even less. In summary I wake up at least 5 times each night. My sleep is also very shallow then and I wake up without having nightmares. During the day I feel completely exhausted, but I cant sleep. Any time I am about to fall asleep a part of my body jerks. I developed anxiety now that prevents me from sleeping during the day no matter how tired I am. In the evening I have to focus very hard to fall asleep and without amitryptiline it would take hours to nod off.

All this started 3 weeks after my concussion in november. It got the worst about 1-2 months ago due to severe psychological problems.

It sure sounds like you need a sleep study. A take home sleep study means you get to show what happens in your normal environment.

How can I do a study at home, just with this oximeter?

You said you had a breathing problem because of your neck. How can this be detected? I had a normal xray scan, but no MRI.

I know it was my neck because if I rested or slept with my head and neck bent over, especially to the right and forward, I would eventually stop breathing properly.

Doing a home study with the pulse oximeter will help you point to breathing/oxygenation as a problem. The take home sleep studies use an oximeter, a band around your chest to measure chest movement and a microphone to record the sounds of your breathing. Some even collect more data by other means.

Do I have to buy all this stuff? Or should it be provided by a doctor?

A sleep lab can provide a take home system for at home testing before you do a study in their lab. Ask your doctor for a referral.

The recording pulse oximeter is $100 to $150 if you want to do a very basic test at home. Some medical supply/rental companies rent them with a doctor's referral.

hope this helps.
 

I could suggestion many techniques in lucid dream to help with the nightmares, as well as IRT (Imagery Rehearsal Therapy) and melatonin has been found to help get the right amount of deep 'REM" sleep.

also there are techniques to to reduce pre-night sleep so one does not have latent anxiety when Hypnagogic*. This anxiety of daily or weekly stress being there before you go to sleep can -pop- up and wake one or torment one during sleep and dream.

Try going into light meditation and saying the affirmation. "while i sleep i turn it over to my higher self and Divine power to reveal the answer to what troubles me.'.
the mind will be solution oriented and not problem oriented. get and keep a dream journal and get used to interpreting your dreams based on your own inner psychic language and symbology.
these things may releave your troubled heart.

studying a deep, advanced meditation can also help undo your demons. 'if you do you demons long, they will do you.'.

this is a lesson, if you do not solve your problems, they will dissolve you.

Littlebear41

Littlebear41,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Have you suffered a head injury/concussion ?

The issues we are discussing are very common to Post Concussion Syndrome. Do you have experience dealing with these issues and PCS ?

The combination of nightmares and body twitches are common to a struggling brain.

@ Mark of Idaho
 

my first was at 4, my father slammed me against the wall and i lost consciousness. since i have had numerous ones totaling nine, maybe more if i have forgotten some. a few involved unconsciousness but not all of them.

Littlebear41

I couln't reply earlier as I had some really tough days.

Well tonight it happened again and the headache in the morning worries me a lot. Head shaking is known to kill brain cells, and now imagine what it does to an already injured brain.
:( It could be that I aggravate my injury each time it happens.

I had this shaking also before my PCS. I searched in some other forums and it looks like a quite common technique to get out of the nightmares.

Littlebear, thanks for your advises.

IRT, would be very difficult for me. I wake up so often during the night, that I cant write down all the dreams. If I do so, I would not be able to sleep in again or it would take hours.

I will try meditation as a first step. Is it worth to see a doc, or is there any med that would could help me here?

Chris,

You said "Head shaking is known to kill brain cells, and now imagine what it does to an already injured brain."

This is not true. It takes a violent motion that continues to cause damage.

As little bear said, melatonin can help sleep but I'm not sure it will help you since you appear to fall asleep OK. Magnesium can also help. I need to feed my sleep. That means I eat a complex carb before going to sleep. Otherwise, my blood sugar drops and my sleep become erratic.

How long before going to sleep do you have something to eat ?

The headshaking I do is quite violent but only short. It does of course not reach the intensity of headbanging, but it is nonetheless very worrying.

I take 150 mg trazodone and get very tired. A lot more tired than melatonin would probably make me. Although it takes time until I nod off. During the night I wake up at least 5 times with plenty of nightmares and the days are complete horror.

I eat very late and also high carb. My problems are all psychological and my recovery is almost completely on hold.