Engima,

Oh, I understand the challenge I have had to deal with that off and on myself. When I was really bad, I had to take Klonopin to help me sleep at night for a while. After addressing a lot of things in therapy, I began to realize that a lot depended on what I dealt with during the day that may have somehow been a reminder of my troubling past. The more I worked on that the less and less I had the nightmares or Night Terrors and often waking up in a flashback.

I tend to fall asleep with the television on, I often try to find something on the History Channel or any channel that has something I can listen to, something about history or Egyptian history where I can think about what is being talked about and drift off with that in my head to distract my thoughts "away" from falling into these night time bad thoughts.

I have a strange ritual too. I take the hair dryer and blow hot air on my legs and arms and it relaxes me and I also blow it into the covers, I also sleep with a heating pad too. If I am nice and warm, I sleep better, much like your feet being covered.
I have learned over time that when I am about to have these night terrors I get cold, and get the chills. Sometimes I wake up and use the hairdryer again and that often "stops" the chills and night terrors from happening. I have tramatic experiences where these chills mean something important that goes back to when I was a baby.
I can't change that but I am getting much better at sleeping. I think I will always have to include my ritual though when I go to bed.

I found out that heat and warming up the body actually produces chemicals that help the body relax. That is probably why my ritual works so well.

Open Eyes