night terrors

HI what's meds are you on, I stick at a low dose of antidepressants, go higher then dreams worse, gone are the days where I do not dream , woke up 5 months ago sweating and sticky on esctilapram, and mitazapine,

Hi Tiana,

First of all, what do you mean by night terrors? That expression refers exclusively to a condition arising from the non-dreaming phase of sleep, in which the sufferer suddenly wakes in the grip of some crazy delusion, jumps out of bed and runs around for several minutes in fight-or-flight mode. It's related to sleepwalking.

I'm not trying to split hairs, it's just that the management of night terrors is entirely different from management of nightmares. Some people can have both (I do in fact) but the two conditions have to be handled separately.

If you're talking just about nightmares, there are various things that can be tried. In many cases, staying cool (I mean physically) in the night is effective. I can never sleep under a quilt or duvet. Even in mid-winter I have to sleep under a sheet with just a light blanket at the foot of the bed that I can pull up if I wake up cold. Overheating is sure to produce nightmares.

Apart from not overheating in the night, it can also be useful to try and identify what else may be triggering particularly bad nights. For example: are the nightmares more frequent at times when you're sleeping too much (morning lie-ins, afternoon naps; or are they more likely to happen when you're overtired; do certain foods, drinks or recreational drugs trigger attacks; are you more likely to get nightmares after particular activities late in the evening? In the latter case, too much late-night screen use can make nightmares worse, and sleeping with the TV on in your room is really not recommended. Different people have different triggers, so we all need to identify our own.

Also, don't forget that anxiety can be silent. People sometimes think that anxiety automatically means you're running around in a state of agitation all the time. That can be true, but some people suffer deep-seated anxiety that can be difficult to spot.

If you're just suffering from nightmares, identifying your triggers and maintaining good sleep hygiene can be very helpful. (You can google sleep hygiene.)

I'm also wondering what meds you're on, apart from the ones prescribed for your silent migraines. Reason for asking is that a few years back I was prescribed the anticongestant Sudafed (pseudo-ephedrine) for sinutis and immediately started having the worst nightmares of my life.

I suspect your doctor might be prescribing amitriptyline (Tryptizol) for the silent migraines. This is one of the older tricyclic antidepressants, and is very good at suppressing REM sleep, from which dreams arise. The more recent antidepressants have a similar action but are usually not as affective as the tricyclics, and some of them may even make nightmares worse.

If on the other hand you're really suffering from night terrors - i.e. suddenly waking from non-dreaming sleep, jumping out of bed and running around in a state of panic - then it's better to get yourself assessed in a sleep lab, as management of this condition is quite different.