Nightmares

[Jupiter551]

one more thing - I'm not going to touch on whether marijuana is harmful to smoke or not, but it IS a psychoactive substance and there isn't a single psychoactive substance known that doesn't have some kind of withdrawal repurcussions to longterm chronic use.

The most important thing is to realise withdrawal symptoms will disappear over time, but if you start using it again you're back to square one and everything you went through was for nothing.

So yes, if you started smoking again the dreams would probably stop, but if you ever intended to quit you'd just have to go through it all again.

PS, I also live in a hot environment and don't use AC - in summer a cool shower before bedtime makes it much easier to sleep I find.

 

[inkydoo]

For most people, coffee is out of their system by two hours after they drink it.
Same with just about anything you eat or drink. Two hours.

The coffee may be gone, but the caffeine isn't. The half-life of caffeine averages at about 5 hours (give or take an hour), but metabolizing of caffeine can vary quite a bit depending both on individual differences in metabolic function, as well as the effects of other substances. The fact that withdrawal symptoms tend to start 12-24 hours after discontinuation of caffeine consumption gives you some idea of how long it continues to have some effect on your system. If you don't want to or don't think you can give up the caffeine entirely, then cutting back and/or setting a "no more after this time" limit sound like reasonable compromises.

On a related note, while I know it's tempting to try every possible solution at once to do away with the nightmares, you may want to take a slower approach, to test out which change has an effect and how much of an effect. I totally realize it's easier said than done, but it might lead you to better understand what the trigger for the nightmares is so that you can specifically avoid or limit exposure to that substance or behavior.

 

[NoelleBright]

I'm gonna chime in as I suffered from chronic night terrors for most of my life.
They began as early as I can remember, and I had them up until a little over a month ago. It wasn't just a once a week thing, but every single night. I got used to dealing with the moderately terrifying ones, but I would fairly often have an extremely bad one that would effect me so deeply that I wouldn't feel right for DAYS.

What seems to have stopped them for me was a rather severe lifestyle and diet change that I decided upon just for my general health, the night terrors going away was a huge bonus that I wasn't expecting. I stopped eating all processed food, all sugar (that isn't found naturally in whole fruits) and anything with corn syrup, and no white carbs or wheat (no bread, no white rice, no potatoes except sweet potatoes). I still eat meat but only if it's organic, and I still have dairy but that also has to be organic and full fat. I also started taking fermented cod liver oil and doing an hour of yoga every single day. I'm petite and have no intention of losing weight, so I don't calorie restrict, I just stopped filling my body with crap.

I started feeling way better almost immediately and haven't had a single night terror since about a week in, which for me is a gigantic deal. I need way less sleep per night now in order to feel rested, and all of my dreams have been pleasant. Instead of being tortured and murdered in my sleep, I now have dreams that I'm fucking handsome men and stuff. :dance:

 

[JoleneBrody]

I'm gonna chime in as I suffered from chronic night terrors for most of my life.
They began as early as I can remember, and I had them up until a little over a month ago. It wasn't just a once a week thing, but every single night. I got used to dealing with the moderately terrifying ones, but I would fairly often have an extremely bad one that would effect me so deeply that I wouldn't feel right for DAYS.

What seems to have stopped them for me was a rather severe lifestyle and diet change that I decided upon just for my general health, the night terrors going away was a huge bonus that I wasn't expecting. I stopped eating all processed food, all sugar (that isn't found naturally in whole fruits) and anything with corn syrup, and no white carbs or wheat (no bread, no white rice, no potatoes except sweet potatoes). I still eat meat but only if it's organic, and I still have dairy but that also has to be organic and full fat. I also started taking fermented cod liver oil and doing an hour of yoga every single day. I'm petite and have no intention of losing weight, so I don't calorie restrict, I just stopped filling my body with crap.

I started feeling way better almost immediately and haven't had a single night terror since about a week in, which for me is a gigantic deal. I need way less sleep per night now in order to feel rested, and all of my dreams have been pleasant. Instead of being tortured and murdered in my sleep, I now have dreams that I'm fucking handsome men and stuff. :dance:

THIS THIS THIS! I was doing AWESOME for a while! I was juicing everyday and eating only really good, non processed stuff and my night terrors AND sleep paralysis got much better! I've been slacking lately and they have been creeping back.

 

[lordmagellan]

I am the exact opposite of all of you. I miss nightmares. I look at them as creative fuel. Granted mine were never paralyzing or kept me from sleeping; they were just little adventures in my head.

 

[SoTxBob]

yes, go decaf first. then taper off... I used to drink 2+ pots a day and had severe caffeine headaches when it was wearing off..... usually 6-7 hours after my last coffee for the day. How fast your system purges anything is tied to your physiology and metabolism. Some folks are faster and more 'efficient' while some are indeed more receptive chemically and dont purge it as fast.

 

[Jupiter551]

I now have dreams that I'm fucking handsome men and stuff. :dance:

I think, for Ana's benefit as well as the rest of us, and science in general, you should explain these in greater detail

 

[AnaVictoriaXO]

Thanks guys!

As for the way I eat, I eat pretty clean. Nothing processed, all natural etc so Im doubting that's the cause for me personally.

I drink caffeine because I need it lol. I work two jobs not counting camming. So Im up early working working with dogs and then I was dancing until the early morning hours up until a few days ago. I dont understand the draw to coffee when it comes to decaf lol, personally I dislike the taste but last night I was nightmare free for the first time in weeks! :dance: And I made sure to not have it before bed, typically I drink it right up until bed just to stay awake to get some work done. I dont know which suggestion it was but I stopped the coffee, and I made sure to not go to bed with things on my mind. Im going to keep doing the things you all mentioned and hopefully my nights will be more like last night!

Oh and as for the withdrawal possibility, Ive actually stopped smoking pot for the better part of a month so Im not sure that thats it but it is definitely a possibility!

Thank you guys!!!

 

[Jupiter551]

yay! happy for you

 

[Anonymous]

I had a nightmare where I was out somewhere, and me and my family were running some kind of stand, like at a fair or something? Who the hell knows...

Anyway, some guy came over, and my granddad leaned over towards my dad and made a smart-ass remark about the guy who was standing there. The guy overheard what my granddad said, and pulled out a gun and shot him.

We all screamed, but we couldn't do anything or make any sudden movements with the guy right there still holding the gun. We were worried that he'd continue shooting (my son was there, as well as my sister's kids), so we tried to remain as calm as possible, and then this dude just walks away.....

The next thing I remember after that is I'm back at church, and this woman from church is outside consoling my grandmom.

 

[AnaVictoriaXO]

Aww girl, thats horrible!! I remember when I was younger I had a dream that some men broke into our home and stabbed my mom right in front of me. It stuck with me for months. Those dreams are so fucked up

 

[Anonymous]

Aww girl, thats horrible!! I remember when I was younger I had a dream that some men broke into our home and stabbed my mom right in front of me. It stuck with me for months. Those dreams are so fucked up

Some years back I had a nightmare, and as I was about to tell my mom about it, she blurts out "What was the dream about? It BETTER not be about somebody dying!" WTF? It BETTER not be??? And her tone of voice when she said it...it's like she would've been pissed at me if someone had died. Um...sorry, Mom...I'm not intentionally killing off loved ones in my dreams.

 

[mynameisbob84]

Not a nightmare but I had a fucking dream last night that briefly featured MFC. In the dream, I'd heard that Aubrey Plaza had become a cam model, so I logged onto MFC to find her but before I could find her room, it crashed and then the dream went elsewhere (I can't remember where) and I woke up.

So, from that dream, we can deduce that I really wanna see Aubrey Plaza naked, and that I miss MFC more than I probably should (haven't logged on for about a week) :?