Mental Health Night Terror Support Thread

[RobotRipping]

I don't see this issue mentioned that often and don't know anyone else who suffers from these, especially non-drug induced ones.

But you're not alone. 3-4 nights/week i awake paralyzed in my body only to hear people trying to knock down my door, stab me in the chest, circle around me like witches on brooms, overhear people talking about breaking into my apartment or to kill me.

Then i get the strength to roll myself out of the paralysis to wake my girlfriend to warn her; then once i'm actually awake, nothing, silence, everything is fine.

I used to think seroquel caused night terrors for me but even hydroxyzine does too, maybe it's an antihistamine thing but even if i sleep with a z-drug they still happen, so i think it's definitely me. Even if i slip into a lucid dream after, things turn dark pretty quick. Anyway, anyone else get these? any cures? any thing help? Any studies done on this issue in particular?

I am getting used to the fear and panic, i know it's just hallucinations, auditory and visual, but they are about the scariest thing i've ever experienced. I seriously fear them far more than death, though i don't fear death and realize fearing these experiences may drive them, i still find they catch you off guard so much that it's scary no matter what.

Thanks for reading, if you're having the same troubles, you can drop me a PM or reply, i can certainly relate and this happens constantly to me, so i'm rather experienced with it.

 

[exists]

I honestly believe the best way to deal with sleep paralysis/night terrors is to embrace them. Just expect that they're going to happen on any given night, and face the fear. Remind yourself that what is happening is not real, that no harm will come to you.

Having such episodes so often can actually be a blessing if you are interested in spiritual/mental exploration. There are other interesting states besides classical lucid dreaming, some that may even resemble salvia or DMT trips.

Sleep paralysis has gripped me numerous times in my life, and I decided at one point that I would go with the flow instead of paddling against it. For the most part I have been successful, but every once in awhile I'll be taken by surprise, as these things happen so infrequently that I can't count on it always happening.

And yeah, anticholinergics may cause them to occur more often for you; any oneirogen probably would. You could always try smoking a bunch of cannabis before bedtime. A lot of people do that to keep themselves from dreaming (or remembering their dreams, ATCMB).

 

[Captain.Heroin]

I get nightmares/sleep paralysis all the time, to the point where I literally go out of my way to avoid sleeping so I don't have to experience dreams or sleep paralysis

 

[RobotRipping]

^same with me, sometimes i'm afraid to sleep.

I do embrace sleep paralysis but the night terrors are a different story, they play on my instincts and fears so badly that i feel it's necessary to respond just in case. I know it's not rational but in that state, you're not really thinking rationally. Sometimes i'll just say fuck it and just fall completely into sleep paralysis and then go lucid dream but i'm often caught off guard by it, which is the issue.

I do smoke cannabis but it doesn't stop me from remembering my dreams anymore, it used to though. I don't know what happened to my brain but cannabis just isn't the same anymore. I have insanely vivid dreams in the first place, the night terrors are different than nightmares, i can roll myself out of sleep paralysis (by rocking back and forth, it's weird) but with a nightmare i'm usually stuck and there's something distinctly different about night terrors during sleep paralysis. I'm conscious and not dreaming but in a state where i hallucinate. Perhaps i just have to face the fear head on, which means, i just lay there and not roll out of it and just keep telling myself these are hallucinations. Ideally, there would be no hallucinations though.

another weird thing, if i wait too long to roll out of the paralysis then i get stuck and end up lucid dreaming, however if i roll myself out of it constantly, i usually do 3-4 times, then so long as i don't wait too long i can roll myself out again and the longer i wait, the harder it is to get out of. It's such a strange experience. Last night i hallucinated that my girlfriend was calling the cops, rolled myself out of it and she was asleep.

 

[King-Anubis]

I used to think seroquel caused night terrors for me but even hydroxyzine does too, maybe it's an antihistamine thing but even if i sleep with a z-drug they still happen, so i think it's definitely me.

I used to get sleep paralysis every night for nearly a year when I started on quetiapine (Seroquel), along with terrible nightmares and the strangest dreams I've ever had. It got to the point where I didn't fear them anymore, and could actively predict what would happen (Dark men standing over me, someone on my chest biting at my neck, etc) but there was always the odd new one which terrified me. I actually took the time to experiment with them while I was getting them, and have figured out a way which - I at least - can somewhat reliably cause myself to have a rather generic sleep paralysis episode. I can post it here if anyone is interested, I don't guarantee it'll work though

Anyway one particular episode, and one of the last ones I had for some time, still plays in the back of my mind. Unlike most sleep paralysis episodes I woke up to a dark red room, surrounded by hooded figures and what I can only describe as the devil standing at the end of my bed. It was the most detailed and shocking thing I'd ever seen, I could see the hairs on his horns and the teeth in his mouth. Needless to say, I didn't sleep for some time after that and still struggle to get to sleep without some form of tranquillisers.

As for night terrors I used to get them a lot as an early teen. According to my parents I'd wake up in the middle night and start running around the house doing all kinds of weird shit screaming. Apparently in one I tried to kill my parents. I never remembered them though, and would often wake up with my parents holding me down while I was in extreme distress for reasons I couldn't remember. Thankfully they faded as I grew up, but I believe them to have been the early 'manifestation' of schizophrenia.

EDIT: SPelling

 

[exists]

I actually took the time to experiment with them while I was getting them, and have figured out a way which - I at least - can somewhat reliably cause myself to have a rather generic sleep paralysis episode. I can post it here if anyone is interested, I don't guarantee it'll work though

I'm definitely interested, KA! Even though it can be frightening, sleep paralysis with hallucinations is something I wish to experience more often Just so we don't derail this thread, maybe you could start another one over in the Philosophy and Spirituality forum? Maybe under a generic title related to sleep disturbances, and how to initiate them?

 

[King-Anubis]

I'm definitely interested, KA! Even though it can be frightening, sleep paralysis with hallucinations is something I wish to experience more often Just so we don't derail this thread, maybe you could start another one over in the Philosophy and Spirituality forum? Maybe under a generic title related to sleep disturbances, and how to initiate them?

Sure thing, I'll send it over there! It'll be an hour or two

EDIT: Here it is

 

[Captain.Heroin]

i can roll myself out of sleep paralysis (by rocking back and forth, it's weird)

When I get sleep paralysis, I literally get myself out of it by starting to move my finger tip, then the finger, then the hand, until I can slap my torso and get more of my body's nerves to start waking back up.

It is rather terrifying, so I know what it feels like to have no control over your body when your mind is awake. Very scary.

 

[drscience]

hmmm...i also have what can be labelled "night terrors" and what really worked for me was daily heavy marijuana use....

not sure about the pharmacokinetecs...but im assuming all the THC was making me forget dreams i had or i wasnt hving them at all?

 

[StrutterGear]

So glad other people have this. I've been suffering from night terrors since I was a small child; I'm 21 now and still get then. Literally the most horrific things, the most fucked up monsters to getting stabbed n shit. It's so bad. Woke up and screamed in my missus' face a couple months ago after a particularly dodgy one.

I don't think it's drugs related, I had them when I was young and then they sort of went in my early teens. Now they're back worse than I can ever remember them. More malicious and evil, feel more real. I can't ever convince myself it isn't real when I used to be able to as well.

I haven't had a nice dream in a long long time. Years. Even when I try and prompt a sex dream or something by thinking about it before I go to bed it just turns sour.

 

[kaywholed]

I smoke weed so I have no (memory of) my dreams, I am out cold all night.

 

[RobotRipping]

you are lucky kaywholed. I'm surprised that others have such similar experiences. Like people standing over them, dark figures, stuff like that. I've seen witches, demonic figures are usually represented by women in my experiences though. I used to have nice dreams and loved going to sleep and lucid dream. After opiate/benzo abuse shit just got really dark.

i know a few ways to initiate hypnagogia, when you have control over it is is nice and extremely interesting. I think i just trained my body so hard to lucid dream and to use the WILD method to get there that my body just does it on its own now, tho my drug use definitely amplified the occurrences of such things, seroquel really made it dark, like over the top dark.

last night i didn't have an issue for once, don't remember a single thing, my Dr can't help me, i told him about my problem and he wanted me to try nortryptiline which causes nightmares, fuck i hate him. I think a heavy amnesiac drug like alprazolam or temazepam or something like that would be the only thing that would help but they also seem to cause sleep apnea and that also increases these issues as well. I feel like there's no winning, may as well just embrace the demonic figures, see what they have to say and maybe befriend them, i don't know.

about sex dreams, since i often lucid dream i have the luxury of sex dreams however now, whoever i'm with ends up changing into different people, figures, shapes, usually going from nice to dark and fucked up pretty quickly. The more i try and manipulate the dream world when lucid dreaming the more likely i end up in 'the void'. I end up just sitting around in darkness floating in space, just like when i've smoked 5-meo-dmt, the exact same experience. It's not scary but just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[neversickanymore]

When I get sleep paralysis, I literally get myself out of it by starting to move my finger tip, then the finger, then the hand, until I can slap my torso and get more of my body's nerves to start waking back up.

It is rather terrifying, so I know what it feels like to have no control over your body when your mind is awake. Very scary.

same technique I use captn, think sleep paralysis has some genetic roots as my father also gets this, worst is when you wake up from a terror in sleep paralysis, so you get hit with the adrenalin , but your breathing remains constant, feels like you are suffocating..

 

[Captain.Heroin]

same technique I use captn, think sleep paralysis has some genetic roots as my father also gets this, worst is when you wake up from a terror in sleep paralysis, so you get hit with the adrenalin , but your breathing remains constant, feels like you are suffocating..

Yeah

I learned to instantly and fearlessly start wiggling the finger to get myself awake, or to let myself get overtaken by the sleep paralysis and just let my mind slip back into "asleep" mode (which is really hard to do and took me dozens of tries to actually fully "let go" in this state).

 

[RobotRipping]

strange i don't do the finger/hand thing, I simply rock back and forth on my back until i can pull out of it. Feels like being covered in mollasses or something that has a barrier you break through. I suppose i'll try it next time, never even though it, i just learned the rolling technique in trying to have out of body experiences, or picturing climbing a ladder, i find it easy to get OBE like experience while in sleep paralysis, i often get pretty fearful about leaving my body though, for irrational reasons.

for nightmares i can actually fully talk to my girlfriend and wake her up while on seroquel lol without seroquel i can make out little squeaks as i'm yelling in my dream and actually hear myself. One day i just started talking, weirdest fucking thing ever to consciously talk in your sleep but i can only do that with seroquel. Anyone else get out of nightmares like that? where you need someone to physically wake you?

 

[Jean-Paul]

i'm so glad i am mostly over this. i used to get terror and paralysis. i still have nightmares about my childhood but it's not that bad. the worst i can recall recently is screaming FUCK YOU NICOLE and still not being to wake up even though i knew i actually screamed it and heard it in my awake part of brain.

the worst was the sleep paralysis i had in home room in high school high on dxm and the principal was there visiting to give some talk and i was just glued to my desk in this twilight state sweating so badly it was all over the desk and probably dripping.

they say weed isn't addicitive but when i quit before i wanted to for a while when i was 14 i used to wake up screaming from these dreams where i was inhaling it?

 

[StrutterGear]

same technique I use captn, think sleep paralysis has some genetic roots as my father also gets this, worst is when you wake up from a terror in sleep paralysis, so you get hit with the adrenalin , but your breathing remains constant, feels like you are suffocating..

I rarely get sleep paralysis, just the fucked up nightmares, but I finally got it the other week. I thought I was having a heart attack. Couldnt wake my girlfriend up, couldnt move, couldnt speak. Felt like an LSD induced ego death, when I couldnt speak. Was horrible.

 

[RobotRipping]

eventually you'll learn to speak through it if you're unfortunate enough to experience it that much. sometimes my gf tells me i end up laughing non stop in my sleep, but in the dream i'm just finding it funny that i can make noises while asleep. I suppose those aren't night terrors at least but it's still in sleep paralysis or lucid dream state, the first time i pulled it off i was like holy shit, i'm talking while sleeping!

it's not that i was hallucinating it either, my gf told me to be quiet a bunch of times after waking up. I should get a sleep study done. I can consistently wake my gf up during nightmares but it took a while to get there, just try yelling in your dream/sleep paralysis, you'll feel your body try to let something out but it's paralyzed but you try hard enough and you can break through this barrier.

when i used to quit cannabis i'd get intensely vivid dreams, i think that's normal as cannabis does suppress dream recall for most people.

 

[Jarhead]

I suffer terrible nightmares from Iraq, the just about useless VA doc prescribed a blood pressure med that the Seattle VA researched to help with PTSD nightmares. It worked like a champ for me.

 

[ad lib]

I suffer terrible nightmares from Iraq, the just about useless VA doc prescribed a blood pressure med that the Seattle VA researched to help with PTSD nightmares. It worked like a champ for me.

Is it a new medication? Do you mind sharing more details about it?