My accident was a horseback riding fall. None of these nightmares have been about horses though. They have been more violent type nightmares like someone is chasing me. I do have a therapist (psychologist), but we haven't figured out why this is happening other than it is another symptom of the concussion.

I haven't really thought about anger as a reason for the nightmares, but it could be. I'll have to think about that more.

Hi patty,

Sorry about your accident. I had vivid terrifying dreams with violence as well. A lot of times I would wake up my head throbbing, are you having headaches? Sometimes it was like my body was telling me how much pain I was in.

There has been old posts with plenty of people having similar nightmares. I did ask my doc if it was possible to have panic attack at night, and the answer was yes.

I hope this gets better soon, I know how scary it is

patty,

I have a problem with nightmares or stressful dreams when I am not breathing correctly. I have a problem with Central Sleep Apnea when my neck is in a poor position and the C-1 cervical vertebra gets inflamed. Sometimes, it happens during the day when I am awake watching TV. I will suddenly start gasping for air. It usually means I have not been breathing.

If someone can observe you sleeping, have them check your breathing. You can buy or rent Pulse Ox meters for sleep that record your levels and even sound an alarm to wake you to start breathing again. A neck injury from your fall could be part of the cause.

My best to you.

I don't get nightmares although I do get surreal and abstract dreams - so much so that they wake me up.

They don't frighten me and I realise that were weird and go back to sleep. I hardly ever remember the dream

Thank you Postconcussion! I am not having headaches with the dreams, but they are extremely strong emotions that wake me up whether good or bad. I don't mind the good dreams, just the scary ones.

Mark - I have noticed that when awaken from these dreams my breathing is off. Almost like I hold my breath for a few extra seconds, which then causes the vertigo to kick in. I am seeing a neurologist on Wed. I'll have to ask him about this.

Shazni - I am having the same problem with being afraid to go back to sleep. I don't wake up screaming, but I can imagine how scary that would be.

All of my "typical" dreams usually involve me getting hit hard in the head and panicing, it's pretty rough.

I've become more aware of my concious surroundings while dreaming as well, like I can sense when something or someone is going to interrupt my sleeping, it's weird and almost a "out of body" feeling. It has allowed me to avoid getting hurt or hurting myself while sleeping.

When I set my alarm clock, I'll always make up a few minutes before it goes off. There's also a train that goes by my house that'll likely vibrate my room, and I'll sometimes wake up a minute before it goes by.

Usually when I have a typically dreamless sleep and something wakes me up, I'll have a split second dream or thought right beforehand. Usually these "snapshots" are odd color or number excersizes. Such as one where I my brain was identifying different fruit colors in a tree or my brain was counting numbers.

Weird stuff, dreams are.

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.