[Patty1065]

Well I thought I was done with these weird nightmares, but got another one last night. I have a bad dream and then wake up scared to death, chest is tight, feel frozen, can't breath just like what I would actually feel like in the nightmare. Then I can't lose that feeling for many hours. I take Xanax, but my normal .25 in the morning wasn't enough, just took another .25mg after two hours.

Anyone else have this problem? Is it a panic attack or just anxiety? I NEVER had anything like this before my accident.

[andromeda]

Every night I have the most horrific nightmares. Last night I dreamed something horrible about cats being tortured and woke up a state. The 'feeling' stays with me for a few hours or sometimes even a whole day of uneasiness.

Also, I often wake to 'sounds' which never happened before. It's like my dream becomes real for a few seconds - the sounds come alive - and then I wake up. Sometimes I wake to music. It's bizarre. If anybody else has experienced this please let me know.

What you describe does sound very much like a panic attack. What was the nature of your accident? You could be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

In my experience (I used to suffer from daily panic attacks and agoraphobia) the best treatment for anxiety is to get to the root cause of it, if you can. I heard that so many times but didn't believe it, but it really was true in my case. Have you considered seeing a therapist?

[rmschaver]

I have had some horrific ones. The ones that bothered me the most were where I perpetuated the violence. Sometimes to death of another. I have not had one like that in awhile. I believe it has something to do with how angry I was feeling.
My wife was the one that suggested it was anger related.

[Patty1065]

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.

[postconcussion]

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

[Mark in Idaho]

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.

[Patty1065]

Originally Posted by postconcussion

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

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.

[shazni]

hi.I have never done anything like this before but i am trying to find out why I keep having panic attacks at night and feeling so afraid that I am about to die.I gasp for air and sometimes cry for help and I am afraid to go back to sleep incase it happens again,and sometimes I fall asleep and then have nightmares that someone or something is coming for me and I cant breathe and I wake up screaming.This is becoming a regular occurance and sometimes I dont know if I am awake or having a nightmare. It causes my heart to race and sometimes my arms/hands are numb too.

[ginnie]

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

[Patty1065]

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!