Constant sleep walking/night terrors.
Posted , 3 users are following.
Good morning everyone, I hope you are able to help me or at least provide some information!
i've been having what in my house has been coined as "one of your sleep things", on and off for nearly 10 years now. Essentially I get up, while still asleep, and "have" to do something, because something has gone somewhere.
Normally this is relatively benign, just there's "something" I need to do, which usually results in pushing beds, moving furniture, throwing off bedsheets. But sometimes it can enter full Night Terror mode, where I wake up sweating and there's something which I perceive to be an immediate threat. Last night for instance I "woke" up and had to throw my bedsheets off, opening the window and nearly throwing them outside because there was some sort of poison on them. The worse one I've ever had was a dream where I was nearly going to be ground to mulch by an enormous rotating blade and I woke up screaming.
They seem to come in fits and bursts, and my sleeping routine hasn't really changed much over the years, go up to bed, read for a bit, go off to sleep. It's getting to the point where it's beginning to effect my sleep enough that I am constantly tired at work, so any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated!
0 likes, 10 replies
richard29068 matthemod
Posted
Sorry to hear you're having this experience. I've recently started having "nigh terrors", about 4 or 5 weeks ago they started, and have seen my GP, plus neurologist, have had a CAT scan, and am now waiting for an MRI and EEG.
All i can suggest at this stage is that you MUST see your GP and get a referral to a neurologist, who will then try and get to the bottom of it.
I've experienced things like the bed trying to eat me, I've tried to dig my way through the floor with my face, and various other "interesting" experiences. If yours continue to develop, I'm afraid you could find them life-changing, as mine have already been to a certain degree.
10 years you've been having them? Have you not been to your GP or anyone else? Please go and see someone, they are starting to affect your daytime routine/work, and you need to try and find the root cause.
There's a long discussion on my post in this forum, maybe you can read through it and pick up some advice from people on it that know far more than I do about this.
Good luck mate.
Rich
matthemod richard29068
Posted
Thanks for your input, I have to be honest and say I've had bad experiences with my local G.P. when it comes to things like this. I had mentioned it twice, but he usually responds with something along the lines of avoiding stimulus (tv, games etc), and going to bed earlier.
The thing is, these "dreams" happen in all sorts of situations, if I'm in an unknown bed (hotels), if I'm stressed about work, after a night out, on a normal Tuesday night, if I've got an early start the next day, if I've got a lie in. Point is it seems to be a non-discriminatory problem.
I think I will book in an appointment with my G.P. just to see what they say. Thanks Richard!
richard29068 matthemod
Posted
If your GP still doesn't take you seriously, you could just go to A&E (I suggest early on a Saturday morning like I did) and force yourself into the system that way.
I still haven't figured out all my triggers, although stress and coughing violently appear to be two of them.
I'm on clonazepam now, which is keeping a reasonable lid on it, although I'm still having lots of small "events" and a couple of bigger ones. This was prescribed by the neurologist.
lily65668 matthemod
Posted
I was lucky in that the really acute phase only lasted a couple of years in my case. I still have minor attacks several times a week now I'm in my 70s, but they're short-lived and rarely involve actually getting out of bed. My last serious one was about five years ago when, like you, I woke with something urgent I needed to do, which required a piece of kitchen paper for some reason. In my rush, I tripped over something in the darkened kitchen and ended up with a hairline fracture of my eye socket.
As a former nurse in the NHS, I'm less sanguine than Rich about your possibilities of getting something done about this. I suspect he may have been a winner of the postcode lottery. Also, his night terrors were unusual in that they started suddenly in middle age with no antecedents, and had convulsive elements - hence the urgent involvement of a neurologist. Yours sound more typical, apparently starting earlier in life (if the photo on your icon is really you). Mine started in my early 30s, though they didn't really take off till my mid-40s. I also sleepwalked as a child and a young woman. Did you do this, btw? "Normal" night terrors arise from non-dreaming sleep and are closely associated with sleepwalking. A lot of sufferers will have sleepwalked as a child.
However, you do have the right to insist on a referral. GPs try to pretend this isn't so, but that's because they face financial penalties if they make too many referrals. I know how hard it can be to face down your GP, but remember he's a public servant and you're funding his salary out of your taxes! In your case you're more likely to succeed by concentrating your efforts on referral to a sleep clinic. Night terrors are not normally a neurological problem, and yours seem fairly typical.
Your doctor may also reach for his prescription pad, which might not be a bad idea in a case like yours. Antidepressants or tranquillisers are sometimes prescribed for night terrors and can be quite effective. However, if you go down this road it's advisable to start with the lowest possible dose, as withdrawal effects can be awful. But please don't let your GP put you on antipsychotic medications. The side-effects of these can be truly terrible and withdrawal almost impossible. There's absolutely no reason why he should do this, but there is a growing tendency for GPs to dispense these dangerous drugs like sweets for all kinds of conditions where they don't work anyway. I doubt whether you'd get clonazepam, like Rich, as this is more specifically an anticonvulsant and and I don't think it's normally prescribed for night terrors.
One word of caution: people rarely have attacks of night terrors (or any other sleep disorder) in sleep clinics. It's generally thought that this is because of the sense of security they generate. They may, however, be able to pick up on abnormalities of your brain-waves during sleep, so it's still worth doing if you can get yourself referred. And this shouldn't deter you from standing your ground with your GP.
I hope this current phase soon wears off. It may well be that a bit of reassurance will help, as this is usually a psychologically generated phenomenon (though the jury's still out in Rich's case, as he knows). As you've noticed, it tends to be cyclical. Stress definitely plays a part too, so it might be worthwhile having an honest look at your life to determine whether there are any hidden anxieties that might have provoked the most recent onslaught. Sometimes just acknowledging problems, even if you can't do anything about them, can help.
Try not to worry too much about this, but do take a firm line with your GP.
richard29068 lily65668
Posted
matthemod lily65668
Posted
One of the reasons I was hesitant to do so was my actual G.P. is about to retire and in order to prepare for this has merged his practice with a new healthcare centre which I do not know anyone there. In a way this may be a blessing because it was my old G.P. who was always a bit dismissive of it just being bad sleep routines, so maybe meeting someone new will provide another opinion.
It's interesting that you mentioned whether I had sleepwalked as a child, because I believe I used too. I remember vividly once waking up and getting ready to do my paper round, in my pyjamas at 2 in the morning! I think there is definitely an element of anxiety and stress involved which can cause them to flare up, however like I've said half the time they come on really sporadically with seemingly no trigger!
I'm interested in seeing what will be revealed at my appointment on Tuesday, I thank you both for your help, and will let you know if there's any developments!
Thanks again.
lily65668 richard29068
Posted
I seem to recall from one of your earlier posts that even a big tough guy like you initially wimped out of confronting your GP. Being rude there
, but for some reason it does seem to be true that men are more scared of their GPs than women! I think it's because men tend to see any kind of illness - and particularly one like this, that could have some psychological input - as a weakness they'd rather not admit to.
Whatever... I totally agree with you that Matt should go back to his GP and insist on being taken seriously, just as you did in the end. Night terrors can be very disruptive and deserve sympathetic treatment.
Just in case either of you is wondering why I never consulted my GP, even though some of my night terrors were potentially life-threatening at their height... well, I knew this was largely a psychologically generated condition, I knew about the effects of tranquillisers and antidepressants, I knew that investigations in a sleep lab seldom turn up anything solid, so I decided to take a calculated risk. Being a middle-aged woman at the time, I also had the advantage of knowing that my attacks were hormonally-influenced, and that this influence wouldn't last for ever. So far - apart from the fractured eye socket! - this approach seems to have worked for me. "Aliens" still come through hidden portals in my bedroom walls several times a week, but they never trouble me for more than a few seconds at a time - not long enough for me to do myself any harm - so I can live with that. But we're all different and some people can be helped by getting medical advice.
lily65668 matthemod
Posted
I was interested to hear about the childhood sleepwalking. This puts you firmly into the category of classic night terrors, which sleep labs are used to dealing with.
Good luck, and do stay in touch if you want to.
matthemod
Posted
I just thought I would keep you updated and say that I finally had the sleep study last night. It was unusual trying to sleep with electrodes everywhere, but apparently I did as the Sleep Technician said I tried getting up and walking around a few times which I have no memory of!
I'm glad that something was picked up, as I was worried I would have a perfectly restful night and there would be absolutely nothing to show for it. My results will be sent off to a consultant and my gp and I should hear back within 6-8 weeks, though I don't know what they could say/do!
lily65668 matthemod
Posted
Thanks for the update. I'm glad you managed to deliver the goods in the sleep lab. Most people don't. The doctors will probably put you on some kind of medication, but this doesn't always work, as I'm sure Rich will confirm. (He's taken himself off his meds and is currently finding his attacks slightly more manageable.)
The missing bit of the puzzle in your post is how you're doing now. I'm wondering whether your NT episodes are getting less frequent or more manageable now you've started addressing them. That seems to be the case for poor Rich, who was really suffering badly, though he has other health issues that are complicating his case.
I'm also wondering how old you are. Classic NTs, like yours and mine, tend to arise from childhood sleepwalking and gradually wear off with age. So if you're still quite young there's every chance you won't have this condition for the rest of your life, at least not in its current severe form. Again, Rich is the exception, as the physical condition that seems to be triggering his attacks is probably being made worse by age.
I see from your sleep lab experience that you're sleepwalking too, i.e. getting up and moving around with no recollection of it at all. That's just another manifestation of the same phenomenon, of course.
I hope you can find a solution to this problem, or at least a way of living with it without harming yourself, which is probably a more realistic expectation. And it wouldn't hurt to take an honest look at what may be causing low levels of anxiety that you might not be acknowledging.