quote:

ORIGINAL: MissBlueangel

I just want them to stop TLS ....I get what you mention....last night was hideous.
So meditation worked....are they stress related then I wonder?

I had many years of nightmares and night terrors. Sleeping pills didn't help. Melatonin helped me sleep better but I cannot remember if it helped with my nightmares or not.

If you are watching any scary movies, stop. If you feel unsafe for any reason, find out why. With me, I used to sleep walk and to alleviate the feeling of being trapped...I used to unlock the front door and go back to bed. Yeah, OH GAWD!

Anyway, do whatever makes you feel safe. Before going to bed, check that every window is locked and that all of the doors are locked. There are door alarms, floor to doorknob thingies that make it impossible for someone to push the door open from outside, leave on night lights if it helps, play some soft music or noise all night long (the beach, whatever works for you).

Make some bedtime rituals to make you feel more safe. Play music, light candles, have a bubble bath, buy a new nightgown or pjs, spray your pillow with perfume right before going to bed. It might even help to keep a baseball bat beside your bed and a sheathed Klingon looking knife under your pillow. THEN I would meditate.

If you are having too many stressors in your life...

What made mine the worst was stuff I thought I got over long ago. I thought I had put it behind me but then what I called "bad anniversaries" would happen, triggering me. Often when my brain decided I had to work something through yet again, they would start up. What worked for me...if details of dreams don't help then I went with feelings I felt in the dream...and think it to death...why did I need to keep feeling that particular chain of feelings? Some nightmares I was having half a dozen or more times per night for many years...were because I was blaming myself and my mind kept recreating impossible, terrifying situations again and again where nothing I did could change the outcome. That's when the lightbulb went off. I haven't had one of those in over a dozen years.

I don't know what to say about doctors and meds, because the more I complained of insomnia and nightmares the more they kept giving me until I couldn't even drive a car anymore, lol. By that time I went running to my family doctor for help with my balance and with the room swirling a bit, and she said I was overmedicated, and took me off of everything. Thank God. My shrink probably just sucked and I'm sure there are a lot better ones out there who will actually listen and work with you.

When my son was having a lot of nightmares and night terrors, I had him take karate. It was free through Karate for Christ, and lessons took place in a church. When my sister and her daughter had fear issues (she had been robbed at gun point while in a laundromat, and when her teenaged daughter told the gunman "HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO MY MOTHER!" he shot point blank at her face and somehow managed to miss), anyway, they went to kick boxing classes for a while. It helped with nightmares.

Good luck. :)

quote:

ORIGINAL: MissBlueangel

I just want them to stop TLS ....I get what you mention....last night was hideous.
So meditation worked....are they stress related then I wonder?