I was reading about sleep last night, just because I find sleep such a weird thing to do, lay down and become completely vulnerable. But I came across an article about sleep and bipolars. It was talking about how people with bipolar can experience night terrors, nightmares and much more vivid dreams at a much higher rate than the general population. Most children with night terror outgrow it, but with bipolar it can just hang around forever.

I found it interesting since I saw a dr for night terrors as a child and I still haven't out grown it. My dreams are so vivid, strange and usually very graphic and violent. It's always been that way for me.. Making me not enjoy even the thought of sleeping.

So how many of you deal with this kind of dreaming? Anyone find any ways to help ward off the awful dream states?

[Trippin2.0]

I've had horrid dreams for as long as I can remember. Yes, they sometimes still upset me, wake up in a cold sweat, crying, screaming, BUT, it is my norm. Idk any better, I have a bad/weird/disturbing dream most nights, most of which I've learned to laugh at.
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ETA: I'm a lucid dreamer, so when my dream becomes too much for me to bear, I eliminate the terror from the dream, if I don't have enough time, I will myself to wake up. Eg, just before I die.

[forever]

I have vivid dreams when increasing or decreasing my anti depressant. Mine are not usually violent just bizarre.

I also have other dreams that I don't remember. I wake having a full blown panic attack. Maybe these are night terrors, not really sure but I have had them for as long as I can remember. Not all the time, just when I am very stressed for a time. It happens a couple of times a year, if I had to guess they last for two to four days, recently however it lasted ten. My doctor prescribed Buspar, but truthfully after the tenth night I broke out the bottle of Nyquil. (cold medicine) It has never failed to knock me out and thankfully it worked this time too.

When I was young I had a hard time distinguishing my dreams from reality, I would have whole conversations with people while dreaming then not remember if it were a dream or true.

There probably is a correlation between my dreams and this disorder. What is kind of strange is that during mania or depression I don't dream.

[Irreplaceable]

When I have nightmares, they are very vivid and seem very real at the time. I have woken up from nightmares literally crying and too afraid to go back to sleep so I stay awake. I talk and make noises in my sleep. I will ask my partner if I have done or said anything weird lately but he has commented that I make noises that reflect displeasure or being upset, or crying and talking to someone in my sleep. I don't know...I never thought about the correlation. I'm a hard sleeper. If you try to have a conversation with me while I am sleep, I will have full conversation (sit up in bed open eyed) and not remember anything the next day...

[faerie_moon_x]

Oh yes, I have very vivid dreams and many, many horrifying nightmares. I believe this for sure. I do not have night terrors, but my nightmares are violent and scary and usually involve something terrible happening to me or my kids and husband.

I have no idea how to stop them, but for a while I kept a dream journal. That kind of helped me sort things out and relieve the after shock of the dreams. I don't remembered why I stopped keeping it, but I do recommend it.

Mostly, my dreams are very bizarre. Sometimes hilariously so. Oh! Just last week, I woke up laughing from a kind of dream within a dream. In it, I was describing a dream while walking with someone. They said something really bizarre in response, then I bounced off that with something so funny I burst out laughing and it woke me up. (Yeah, I'm funny even in my sleep! Oh, wait, I mean "easily amused". )

Sometimes disorientingly bizarre. Or just plain terrifying. Which tend to come in spells. A couple that readily come to mind actually meant something. Strangely enough, one was nothing if not my subconscious screaming "bipolar!", illustrated with flying (and not at all the super fun type of flying dreams I had as a kid). No plane, just me zooming WAY too high (plus I'm scared of heights), followed by sudden screaming sonic-speed nosedives, repeated endlessly, complete with physical sensations of falling and abject terror. In it, I had no control what.so.ever. It was f'in terrifying. Here's the thing. When those were happening, I didn't know BP from diddly and had no idea what the deal was with them. Years later it struck like a lightning bolt. Duh!

Other terrifying ones seem to have themes such as "lost and alone in a very scary place". Others feature violence or the imminent threat thereof, precipatating waking terrorized in a cold sweat and a sensation like... you know that lurch feeling looking down from a height? That. Teamed up with whole body uber-tension and it won't stop for quite some time. Paranoia and heightened vigilance of where I actually am in reality at the time too. Fear of going back to sleep? YES. Actually, it's fear of going back to the nightmare. Plus fear of letting my guard down because of oogidy-boogidys near at hand (see: paranoia).

The only pattern I've been able to discern at all is stress, but it doesn't seem necessarily so. If there is a particularly bad run going on, it definitely creates apprehension over going to sleep. Haven't found anything to ward them off, though I would be inclined to knock myself the flip out(!) to try. My son used to have night terrors when he was a kid. Not sure what my deal is, but I think it's just straight up nightmares. I do have spells of incredible hypnopompic hallucinations, which have nothing to do with any of this, just part of my sleep-world.

But VIVID whether bizarre, perplexing or terrifying? OH YES.

The night terrors are traumatizing. I wake up feeling like I have been fully victimized and traumatized. I know I PTSD but I feel like the night terrors have contributed to this as well. I physically assaulted my mother a number of times while having night terror. Have woke up with bruises and damaged knuckles from hitting walls and the bed frame. I'm a real treat to sleep with. It's not as frequent now that I am older but it still happens.

Yeah the fear of going back to the dream is awful, and usually I do go right back to where it left off. Sometimes I can start the dream over but it always ends the same. I still sleep with lights on and tv on, although I make sure the tv is set to the children's channel so that nothing weird comes on when I'm sleeping an sends me any weird msgs. Haha paranoid yes. My bf has to deal with my lovely sleep habits.

I won't go into detail because it seems all my dreams are horrific. The plain bizarre only happens once in a while. This morning before waking I was dreaming I had moss and other plant like substances growing out of my abdomen. I tried and tried to get help but people just looked at me like I was contagious, my bf came over looked at the messy stomach and said " interesting, that's what your made of, too bad because I'll have to report you". That was a better dream for me. I am having stomach pain right now, so I'm guessing this is my way of worrying about it.

I envy normal dreamers, I wish I could experience a happy dream.