[Confused213]

Hi, everyone.

So, after I had one of the most horrifying nightmares, my sister told me that when I fall asleep on the couch, she can see (through my eye movements) that I go straight into REM.

I've read about this, and it says the more REM you get, the more nightmares or disturbing dreams you are likely to have.

Here was the dream I had:
I'm laying in my bed, and I'm being questioned. By whom, I don't really know.
But they're asking, "who are you housing? What are you hiding? Do you know that you're housing a child molester?"
I respond, "I don't know what you're talking about" and I roll over to show them that there is no one else in my bed.
They say, "see?"
Somehow my my body has changed and it's no longer my body but that of the one they were looking for.
I (or the body i was in) had giant, gaunt hands that I couldn't really control and my head was stuck, twisted over to one side.
I was dissociating so I could see myself and I had a face similar to the hunchback of Notre Dame.
A modulated voice started narrating and explaining to me what was going on.
As this was happening, I couldn't control my body and I realized it was because I was watching things that had previously happened to people except I was in the perpetrators body and there was no way that I could stop it.
Thank God, before anything happened, the scene changed to me watching YouTube videos, except the man with the creepy, modulated voice was still narrating. Faces started scrolling across my screen and he said, "this is who we've killed. [So-and-so] will die tonight" I saw how many similar videos they had of the killings/violations and they were countless.
The scene changed again and I was watching something (someone?) who looked similar to the body I had taken on. It was in a bar playing pool. It was tall, gaunt, and had long hands with skeletal, sharp fingers. It's skin was grey. As it looked up at me, I could see that it's eyes were buggy and his face was sunken in. All the while, the voice is saying with a strangely happy intonation, "we've taken very many, and we will gladly take many more."

Then I woke up and I realized I was crying.

THE SAME NIGHT
I dreamt there was a demonic shadow in the corner of my room.

I had another dream I started my period, but all I could use for tampons were marshmallows...hahaha.
It was very...bloody.
And I guess disturbing upon waking, but it wasn't a nightmare.

This is only one (two) of many nightmares

How can I help this?

I've tried "happy thoughts"
Praying about it
Meditation
Yoga
Reading happy news
Journaling about what I'm thankful for
Etcetera

None of this has worked.

What else? What else can I do?
I'm actually getting quite frustrated with this.
I can't fall asleep until 3 AM.
I often wake at 5- or 6 AM after a nightmare.
It's seriously interfering with my life.

I am currently seeing a therapist, but it hasn't changed anything.

What can I do?
Thanks

[Travelinglady]

I assume you are telling your therapist about the distressing dreams?

I'm wondering if perhaps you need to be connected with someone who deals with sleep issues. Perhaps you could at least TRY talking to your primary care doc about that possibility. I know some therapists don't put any stock into dreams and dream interpretations.

[Tagless]

Actually, REM sleep is normal in all of us. It is the 5th stage of sleep and we (almost) all get there every night. REM sleep stands for Rapid Eye Movement sleep and the dreams associated with it are due to the high brain activation. REM sleep isn't discriminatory to nightmares, REM sleep brings about any sort of dream.

Actually, the more REM you get, the more well-rested you will be as its the deepest stage of sleep. If you are super exhausted, you will reach REM sleep faster.

I experienced nightmares and a lot of REM sleep when I was going through a lot of stress once: so I was exhausted and had a lot of negative thoughts on my mind which induced frequent nightmares.

Getting a lot of REM sleep is actually good haha the nightmares might have something to do with current events in your life.