Some of this may be PTSD. My therapist (very good TBI-aware psychologist) says that PTSD is common among people who have had head injuries, car accidents, etc. and that recovery often takes at least a couple of years. I had horrible nightmares and insomnia early in my recovery, along with a few choice panic attacks. I'm doing a lot better overall, although I still deal with these symptoms to some extent (the panic attacks appear to have stopped altogether). I'm almost a year and a half post-injury.

My therapist also recommends doing a particular relaxation exercise daily (she gave me a handy cassette for this, about 35-40 mins) and being disciplined about maintaining good sleep habits. The goal is to train yourself to relax more readily and generally keep stress levels down.

Just a hello, and a wish that you don't have more nightmares. Do you think this is related to your TBI/PCS/ or something like a panic attack in your sleep.? The REM stage of sleep where you dream, is kind of when the sub-consious works on problems. Maybe it is stress, I know for sure, without PCS, that if I have a bad time of things, and I am over worried, I do have more nightmares. Waking, sweating, breathing hard, like I over reacted to something. I drink sleepy time tea, which tends to calm but not drug a person. Since the stress went down, so did the dreams. I hope a resolution can be found, please do mention this to your doctor. It is not fun to wake in the night like that, as it is very hard then to go back to sleep and get in a normal cycle. Hope you get alot of responses to help. Rest easier tonight. ginnie

When I go to sleep I usually feel pretty tired and relaxed. I do take mirtazapine to help me sleep. I have been told that I may have PTSD by a few people now, but have not asked the doctor about it.

I went to the neurologist for the first time yesterday since my accident. We went over many things which I will probably start a new thread about. But, the crazy thing is that I forgot to mention these panic attacks to the dr. I don't know if that is because it had been almost a week since the last one. He even asked if the xanax that was on the list of my drugs were for anxiety and it didn't remind me to go over the sleep anxiety problem. Of coarse I woke up today again with the anxiety. I am going back next week, so I am starting a list of items to go over with him.

Eddy, my dreams are also very strange at times. They also seem to be extremely vivid!