I had 2 this past week... One was much different than any others I've had. I saw spiders at first, then jumped out of bed (per usual) and ran towards the living room... but I could see the spiders following me. Normally I just see the visual once, or in only one place - never in multiple rooms. I also ended up in the living room, so I guess it's a good thing I have a complicated chain on my front door that I wouldn't be able to figure out in that state (..hopefully)

It'd be really nice if these things stopped.

(tww is a blog)

1/11/2011 1:08:19 AM

Starting to sound like paranormal activity.

But seriously, hope you figure out how to make them stop

1/15/2011 1:06:50 AM

you should try to practice lucid dreaming. sounds dumb but if you try to make an effort to write down your dreams every morning and subconsciously try to increase your awareness that you are in fact dreaming (not sure how to describe how to do this) then you can start to control your dreams. this sounds so weird but I used to be afraid to sleep when I was a kid because I'd get nightmares and eventually I gained control of my dreams and now "nightmares" are fun because I can literally comprehend in the dream that the events are too unrealistic to be plausible and take control of the dream and turn it into something entertaining.

1/15/2011 3:52:06 AM

Quote :

"even if you get over a fear, your subconscious can conjure up a way to make it terrifying"

Very rarely, say four times a year, I will wake up and the walls and carpet are crawling with insects. Every-time I see that, I always make the same decision to stay in bed as getting a bunch of insects on my bear feet would suck. So I just lay there staring at them until a few seconds later I realize they aren't moving, and it was just the surface texture I was seeing, my brain was just mis-interpreting it. A few more seconds pass and all at once I remember who I am and that this happens occasionally, so I should ignore it.

I have no fear reaction at all, can't say why. Even though I once kept a cockroach as a pet, I feel that seeing a room covered with them should be worthy of some reaction.

1/15/2011 9:25:31 AM

For the last time, and I'm sorry if I sound bitchy, but IT IS NOT A NIGHTMARE.

Anyway... I had another one last night. Spider on my pillow...

1/21/2011 3:49:53 PM

have you done that sleep study yet?

1/21/2011 5:09:09 PM

Not yet... I go in Feb 9th, sleep, then depending on what it shows I'll have to stay for a series of scheduled naps :/

1/21/2011 5:18:44 PM

im really interested in what they come back with

please post results if they're not too personal

a good friend of mine suffered a severe head injury and had some weird shit happen after that. its all gone away now but i find it kind of fascinating

1/21/2011 5:22:02 PM

^ Yeah I don't mind... What happened to your friend? Were they having night terrors?


Bahhh I've had like two this week Last night I saw a cockroach coming out of my pillow

1/27/2011 11:00:32 PM

night terrors are nothing to screw around with. you have my sincere sympathies.

i'm interested to see if you find resolution with the sleep study (partly for your own sanity, and partly cause I'm curious if it could really help). good luck with it.

1/27/2011 11:06:03 PM

TThanks.. I'm pretty sure I had another one last night I don't even want to go to sleep anymore. I mean, physically I definitely want to sleep all the time but mentally I'm just scared of having yet another one. Only a week and a half to go..

1/28/2011 7:23:53 AM

About to go to the center... Going without coffee (or caffeine) for a whole day sucks

2/9/2011 8:34:48 PM

GOOD LUCK!

2/9/2011 8:35:19 PM

^^ take a hit you'll sleep much better

2/9/2011 8:41:20 PM

It takes an hour or more to hook up all the stuff

But at least I get to watch Justified

2/9/2011 9:34:48 PM

it feels strange to try to sleep with all of that stuff hooked to you, but the only piece that I found truly uncomfortable was the oxygen monitor they put on your finger.

2/9/2011 9:45:13 PM

good luck sam

2/9/2011 10:08:55 PM

Thanks guys I look like a space queen with all these cords on my head

2/9/2011 11:02:29 PM

comes from the days of evolutionary biology when we were monkeys in trees and the only way to ensure we fell from a great enough distance was with night terrors, same thing with snoring. it is an evolutionary mechanism to simulate the roaring of a lion to scare away potential predators /ftw

2/10/2011 6:32:56 PM

I would be willing to bet most people who experience them/work with them don't buy into that... Especially considering Darwin (and the theory of evolution) never said we came from monkeys. Besides, mine are never triggered by being scared as I go to sleep, or hearing a noise, or seeing a light, anything like that... they're just random.



Anyway, you'd think taking naps all day would be fun...... it sucks. I had a night terror right at the end of one of my naps... Scared the shit out of the tech

[Edited on February 10, 2011 at 8:27 PM. Reason : .]

2/10/2011 8:19:10 PM

it's ok Samwise16 - wit and humor are also developmental attributes designed by biology and the presence of a protector dude can quell the female fears

like the roaring of a lion

2/10/2011 8:21:46 PM

It's not wit and humor seeing as some guy actually suggested it, which is why I rolled my eyes:

Quote :

"...seperation from an attachmetn figure (in life) is found to be one of a class of situations of which is likely to elicit fear reactions but have no intrinstic nor real danger behind these reactions. These situations comprise amongst others darkness, sudden large changes of stimulii level including loud noises, sudden movement, strange people, and strange things. Evidence shows that many species are alarmed by similar situations, and that this is true of human adults and children. Furthermore fear is likely to be elicited when two or more of these stimuli are present simultaneusly, for example hearing a loud noise when alone in the dark. The explanation as to why individuals should so regularly respond to fear to these situations is because even thought these situtions are not dangerous in themselves, each carries with it an increase risk of danger. Noise, strangeness, isolation, and for many species, darkness, are all conditions statistacallly associated with an increased risk of danger. Noise may be a warning of a natural disaster, like fire, floods, or landslides. To a young animal, a predator is strange, it moves, and it often strikes at night, and it is more likely to do so when the potential victim is alone. Because to behave so promotes survival and breeding success, the theory runs, the offspring of species that have survived, including man, have been genetically predisposed and biased to have developed an increased response to the properties of noise, strangeness, sudden approach, and darkness by avoiding action or running away-they behave in fact as if danger were actually present. In a comparable way they respond to isolation by seeking company (hence getting appropriate attachment and bonding). Fear responses elicited by such naturally occuring clues to danger are part of a mans basic behavioural equipment."

(sorry, words)


Funny you mention the protective dude... mine doesn't go near me when I have one because I'll fight him

2/10/2011 8:30:02 PM

science: 1
me: 0

2/10/2011 8:45:24 PM

Diagnosed with idiopathic hypersomnia, but can't rule out narcolepsy. On average it took less than a minute for me to fall asleep for the nap portion of the sleep study. No clue what causes the night terrors as of yet (or hypersomnia).

2/15/2011 6:57:32 PM

^ do you have any treatment or management options?

and i just saw this

Quote :

"What happened to your friend? Were they having night terrors?"

i dont think she had night terrors but she would sleep walk (never sleep walked before the accident) and while normally thats not so bad, one time she woke up in her hotel lobby while traveling for work and she didn't know which room was hers and obviously didn't have a key

she also had debilitating migraines and would sleep for like 17+ hours a day following the accident

it also didn't help that less than 2 months after the accident (in which she wrapped her car around a utility pole on the driver side...) she fell head-first down a very narrow flight of stairs while drunk, which probably actually saved her from breaking her neck

i think shes almost 100% now but all this happened about 5 years ago

2/15/2011 7:57:46 PM

Goodness I'm glad she's feeling better now

Basically my only management is taking medication. No cure, and no other treatment options... and they don't know what causes it.

2/15/2011 9:05:45 PM

I've had really bad night terrors for the past 3 nights

The first 2 nights, it consisted of me "waking up" and thinking that something was happening. Night 1 apparently I thought the room was on fire and I was trying to scream but the smoke was filling my lungs so I just thrased around the bed a lot and kicked my husband is the ribs.

Night 2 I thought that a minature version of my husband was sitting on my bedside dresser staring at me when I "woke up". I rolled over and violently shook my husband awake.

I don't remember either of those instances but apparently I had conversations with my husband about what I thought I saw after both.

The third night (Wednesday night) was the worst. I don't know what triggered it. I think one of our cats jumped on my stomach while I was sleeping and it "woke" me. I thought I saw a horse's head on my stomach so I try and throw it off of me. Meanwhile I am screaming my head off for a good 5 minutes before my husband was able to wake me (he was shaking me and screaming my name for 5 mintues while I screamed/thrased about)

He thought the frequency of my night terrors this week (usually I only have 1 a week or so) had something to do w/ dehydration. So I drank a lot of water last night and didn't have a night terror last night.



My poor husband

[Edited on June 24, 2011 at 4:21 PM. Reason : f]

6/24/2011 4:21:37 PM

poor me, for just reading that.

i feel terrible now.

6/24/2011 4:23:13 PM

I'm so sorry, Sam I think another trigger can be sleep deprivation. Do you have any tylenol PM or anything? One of the suggestions my doctors gave me was to take a mild sleeping pill so that I would stay awake through that "danger" period. Do you think that could be an option?


In other news, I think what I experience is actually not night terrors. :\ I think they're actually hypnagogic hallucinations, which is a sign of narcolepsy. I started wondering when I woke up one night and it wasn't something scary - I saw my wall moving around like one of those puzzles where there's a blank spot. I also saw a bunny sitting on the pillow next to me one night...


Sam, do you ever see anything not scary and just hallucinate?

6/25/2011 3:40:26 PM

I went for a long stretch w/o any night terrors but since getting pregnant, they are becoming more frequent again.

Apparently some night last week I thought I saw a figure standing in our bedroom doorway so I tried to wake my husband up. But apparently I was trying to shake him awake with my hands around his neck

That was an interesting conversation the following morning. "You know you tried to strangle me to death last night, right?"

Oh and restless leg syndrome can go fuck off.

[Edited on June 22, 2012 at 8:42 AM. Reason : d]

6/22/2012 8:40:17 AM

I had a dream about a python the other night. Woke up and was all like, "Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no." Woke my girlfriend up, explained to her that there was a snake on my lap. Eventually I got over it.

This happens every now and then. Normally its with spiders, sometimes it's with a snake or something else that can be scary. Gives us something fun to laugh about at breakfast.

6/22/2012 9:20:55 AM

Quote :

"I thought that a minature version of my husband was sitting on my bedside dresser staring at me when I "woke up"."

haha





I had a dream last night that a hamburger was eating ME!

6/22/2012 9:38:52 AM

Fuckwads, are you sure you're not having bouts of low blood sugar? I think that is what is truly triggering mine.

I didn't have one for almost six months, then I had one in May right before graduating... Had a bad one apparently a few weeks ago and don't remember any of it, and two nights ago I had a horrible one about roaches. I don't know what I'm doing to make my blood sugar low, I guess. and now the problem is our new bed has one of those mattresses where you can't really feel the other person moving so when I shot out of bed, Eric didn't wake up.

6/22/2012 10:14:39 AM

One time in my life, one time, I had night paralysis. It was the craziest thing, and freaky as hell. I think I was awake, or trying to wake up, or maybe I was dreaming, but I couldnt move my body or get out of bed for like a minute.

6/22/2012 10:59:18 AM