hi my lovely so today I'm going to talk
about night terrors nightmares bad
dreams
I believe it was it robbed at the
highlife it was me hi I'm really sorry
that's off the top of my head I got off
to discuss this especially like in
relation to those of us with BPD now
there are three differences between the
three with a bad dream you have it at
night obviously while you're dreaming
it's bad but it doesn't wake you you'll
sleep through you wake up the next day
chances are you will remember some of it
maybe all of that bad dream a nightmare
is kind of up a notch it's a bad dream
but a bit worse it happens when we're in
REM sleep which is rapid eye movement a
nightmare will wake us we wake up in a
panic but then we go back to sleep and
the next day when we wake up chances are
again you will remember some if not all
of your nightmare or you will remember
waking up from having a nightmare and
then we have night terrors now night
terrors were a lot less common and they
do not happen in REM sleep they when
someone has a night terror they may set
up they might start thrashing about they
might start screaming sleepwalking sleep
talking if someone tries to console them
they're kind of completely oblivious so
there's no point in trying to wake them
because you will not be able to but it's
really really scary to watch because
I've seen my son have a night terror
before where I think he thought he was
covered in bugs and he was screaming and
hitting himself and it was just really
terrifying to watch but the person
having the night terror will then go
back to sleep when they wake up the next
day they won't remember having it they
won't remember any of it so I started
like I didn't really know a lot about
this so I did do a little bit of
research on it and I looked up the
causes and sure enough the causes
Oh anxiety disorders a lot of us with
BPD also struggle with anxiety PTSD
again a lot of people with borderline
have had some kind of traumatic event in
their past
medication those of us with BPD a lot of
us are on medication now bearing in mind
like antidepressants that will alter the
chemicals in the brain which can then
cause nightmares night terrors bipolar
being overly tired is a cause and hears
like it's kinda like a vicious cycle
because if you're having regular
nightmares and you're waking in the
night it's disrupting your sleep if
you're having regular night terrors it's
disrupting your sleep so the chances are
the next day you're gonna be tired and
then if you have another one you're
gonna be more tired and then the
tiredness can cause the night terrors
and the night terrors are causing this
tiredness basically with nightmares with
night terrors you've kind of got to
think like what stresses a lot of them
are caused from stress going on in our
everyday lives look at your
relationships look at your work how how
are you feeling like for example I
mentioned to you that I've been having
nightmares about my cat now that's
really obvious why I'm having that
because I really really miss my cat
McAskill missing Severus is gone missing
and it's causing me a lot of stress so
then I go to sleep at night and then I'm
having dreams where I that I find him
dead or I keep seeing him and I'm
running chasing him but every time I get
there he just goes around a corner and
I'm not able to get to him and then I'll
wake up so that is really obvious I've
got this stress going on in the day it's
coming out in my dreams at night I
thought like a list that I wrote list of
some of the more common nightmares and
they include our teeth falling out
being chased unable to find a toilet
naked in public being unprepared from
exam flying falling being in an
out-of-control vehicle so obviously your
nightmare might have nothing to do with
any of those but if you're having
regular nightmares kind of like what I
would do is maybe keep a dream journal
and if when you wake up in the morning
if you can remember just jot down what
your dream or nightmare was about
because then looking at that it might
tell you things that going on in your
life that you're not even really
consciously aware of because that's the
thing when we fall asleep we're kind to
go into that subconscious and some
things start coming out I read actually
somewhere that like nightmares believe
it or not might actually be helpful
because just say okay just say we had a
really traumatic event in our life and
we just trying to get through the day
and then we go to bed at night and we
have this nightmare where all this
anxiety hi Remus and that comes out and
the reason that is happening is that we
can't process what is going on in the
day it's too painful so we're kind of
blocking out or pushing it to one side
and then we go to sleep and it's our
brain way of actually processing that
formatting event and yes it still feels
horrible but it's kind of our way of
helping us heal over time so also we're
not consciously doing in the day but
it's happening happening at night
I looked up like different ways to deal
with night terrors nightmares especially
the thing is if it's a one-off like it's
not really a problem but like I said if
it happens again and again it's gonna
affect your sleep and cause you all
other different kind of problems so it
is worth looking at treatment it doesn't
always have to be medical treatment
either it could be just having a good
nighttime routine before bed having a
relaxing night time to help you go into
a soothing night's sleep so you might
have a hot bath you might read a book
you might do some meditation you might
do some yoga there was some kind of link
that I read about eating actually eating
just before bed particularly eating junk
food now when you eat just before bed it
increases your metabolism which then
increases brain activity which then can
in turn lead to nightmares or night
terrors I say yes so haven't looked at
like what you're eating before bed what
you're doing before bed are you like
really active or do you have a real nice
wine down time because relaxing really
does help if you find even with this
it's not helping then speak to a mental
health professional you might need
talking therapy you might need to look
at CBT which is cognitive behavioral
therapy you might need some kind of
hypnosis therapy I mean these are all
options that you can do it might even be
I mean in really severe cases of night
terrors you might find that they
actually prescribe you with
benzodiazepines or something to help you
sleep through to stop you waking but
like I said I'd say that's an really
really extreme
cases and before you kind of go down
that road look at things that you can do
yourself like I said like relaxing
meditating et cetera but yeah like I
said do keep a kind of dream journal
because I know like I was saying my cat
and da da da and that's really obvious I
don't need to write that down and look
for meaning in that because my cat's
missing and I'm having bad dreams about
it bar your dreams might be actually a
way of trying to tell you something
that's not right in your life that is
going on maybe it's to do with a fear or
some kind of unresolved issue or some
anger or something and you're not even
consciously aware of it and so it that's
why it's coming out at night because you
need to deal with it you can't just like
live life and ignore all the things that
causing you problems even though we are
very good at often blocking our feelings
on certain things and yeah just trying
to so we don't have to deal with it
because sometimes it's easier just to
ignore a problem and hope it just goes
away and maybe that's why you're having
these nightmares maybe that's why you're
having these night terrors is because
you are actually there's something going
on for you that you're not dealing with
in your waking hours and so it's coming
out in your sleeping hours so just some
things keep trying on like I said if
it's really getting to a point where
it's disrupting your sleep then do seek
professional help
because again like I said it's a vicious
cycle if you keep having them and when
you're tired if you're tired you're more
likely to have them running really well
so I'll leave that there today guys but
I love you all loads