Fighting the Major Trigger-Sleep

With PTSD I was told to stay away from certain triggers.

I try to avoid bleach or bleach smells because it triggers me getting drowned by my mom. I avoid things being tight around my wrists (I dont wear bracelets or watches) because it triggers memories of me being tied to stairs.

However, when I sleep, all these things come out as nightmares. These dreams (or lack there of) can keep me waking up all night. For them, I have certain riturals like making sure my feet are covered at night (I believe that by covering my feet, I can lessen the dreams) and trying to sleep during the day. It works for the most part.

Nevertheless, I can't be like the kids on Elm street (the movie). I cannot go around with lack of sleep. I have to sleep. So every night I open myself to these reoccurring dreams and cannot stop them. I am just happy to have someone sleeping next to me. My spouse keeps me from running out the door from my imagination. But it does put a strain on our relationship.

What can I do to avoid these nightmares. I tend to avoid all my triggers except for the trigger of sleeping at night.

Please reply if you have sound advice.

I wish I had an easy answer. Sleep is very scary for me--I worry that something (someone) will come and hurt me when I am asleep, vulnerable. I also worry about nightmares. The only thing that has really helped me is medication.

I also think meditation has helped me a little with calming down before bed. Progressive muscle relaxation can take some of the tension out of the body, and focusing on the breath can still *some* memories.

I'm sorry you have a bad time at night.

Thank you for reading. I see you can relate to me. I had something like you go through happen to me last night. I woke up thinking that someone or some people were going to shoot my house up. Unfortunately, I had to drink some wine to go to sleep. I know its not good for you but I have no medical insurance and it keeps my anxiety down when stuff like that happens.

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