Sleep problem: Vivid dreams & waking up exhausted

Although this thread is 3 years old, I have read every post and I'm feeling frustrated.

This problem has affected my life so much that I have had to quit all commitments and responsibilities. I do not work, nor do I see other humans in public for friendly get-togethers. I do not trust myself to drive most of the time because of how tired I am when I'm awake. I'm sleeping way too much. 10-16 hours of sleep per day doesn't allow me to do anything. I have tried sleeping less, and I just wake up so tired that I pass out in a chair if I sit down.

Long story short: I have had intense dreams my entire life and struggled with fatigue, even as a child. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety when I was 12, at which point I embarked on a seemingly impossible journey to find something to help. I can't even list all the meds I have tried, or the therapists I have seen. I have tried exercise, meditation, and several sleep hygiene techniques.

Like someone else mentioned on here, I spent several years using alcohol to get restful sleep, but the problems continued since I quit.

In 2016, the problem got so bad due to stress in my life (abusive boyfriend) and I tried to kill myself 3 times that year because my dreams had also evolved into straight up nightmares.

My life has now completely collapsed, even though I am feeling better than I was. The dreams continue, and although they aren't scary anymore, I feel like I am living 2 lives and it's exhausting. I have talked to supportive family members, doctors, therapists, anyone who will listen. No one gets it. "They are just dreams". I know they are but that doesn't mean they aren't affecting my sleep and energy.

I have tried tackling my past traumas and anxiety directly via things like CBT and therapy. Nothing they have suggested has worked, despite my best efforts. I got to see a new therapist after having to wait 6 months and they are no help at all. Sees me once a month and makes no suggestions or advice. I am only 28 and my life has already crumbled to ruins. I am so frustrated now, that I don't know how much longer I will try to fix it until I just give up and lie in bed until I die.

Certainly, this is an anxiety and maybe even a creativity issue. But in my opinion, there is nothing we can do. Think about how many people are simply coping with anxiety, rather than cured or reassured. You can't spend your whole life looking the other way, or it will come back to haunt you in your dreams. But that is what they tell us to do, and any hope of dealing with it directly is met with the shrugging shoulders of mental health "professionals".

Thanks very much for your help.

Hello All. today is January 2018. I was looking for continual vivid dreams and found this. I am spanish. I have found that some of your problems relate what happens to me. i am in despair. Total despair. i have those continual vivid dreams you talk about. to the point my mind if foggy, headaches, no energy, no desire to do or ability to do anything. i want to tell my story, if it is a story or otherwise a nightmare. 10 years ago i started with anxiety. It all came about when I had to leave my dream house because one of my problems NOISE PHOBIA. yes something terrible, noised boher me to the point I have thought the best thing I could do would be to be deaf (operation). But I dont see very well with retinophaty problems. I am not sure i would like tobe blind and deaf. I am 47 years old. Widow. I have a son he is 8. Well when all this thing started and also a new job but specially leaving my dream house and only house and means of living...I went worse and worse and finished in hospital with psicosis. SO they said. The doctors have always been tricked because they thought I Heard noises in my head,,,which is not the case it is just i have a horrible noise phobia...anyways once your are diagnosed in Spain you are that for the rest of your life and the psiquiatric help is worse than hell. So officially I am squizoprhrenic. However 2 private doctors who see me say I am not, I just have anxiety disorder and they say the label is not accurate. i had some medicines or drugs better, antipsicotics, which had terrible adverse effects. Zypresa, risperdal. I started with seroquel 100 mg. this was not very bad for me. I met my husband I had a child. I was told to abort by my family....my husband died after a terrible lung cáncer. tHIS WAS ALL since our son was 3 months old. I was sent to hospital 3 months after birth. They treated me so terribly...tied to a bed (I had many pills that is true and wanted to die). Well, my husband died as I said, my son was with my parents, and I was not bad with seroquel 100. But when m y son was 3 or so, I started having nightmares. As you describe them, my case is the same. They are more vivid dreams, stories that run in my head when I sleep, as If i was in a continual movie from which I cannot leave. I read that seroquel gave vivid dreams so I gave this up. It was very hard, I then had another med, levomopramazine, which is an old neuroleptic and aids sleep. I alsohave lorazepam 5m . This was 3 years ago. After some days of nithg rest, my dreams started to come and grow, grow I mean in time, they were wors, more intense...I told and told the public psiquiatric to go to the sleep unit. butt they didnt want me to go. I was squizo so that was the cause. Well, last year I managed to go. They saw I had severe sleep apnea. I thought it was the cause of everything. I started using the cpap in march. I improved, the fatigue, tiredness, The horrible headaches. But i did not improve,,,,my vivid dreams went on and on. I was in despair, i went to a private hospital to the sleep unit, where they told me to increase de air pressure, and have rivotril fot the nightmares. This does nothing to me. I had a brain rmn and scan. The neurologist sees nothing. But she saw in my second sleep unit record, that with zero apneas, my sleep efficiency was very low. she saiys there is something wroing but cannot help me any further. i dont know that to do. I feel my head does not rest at all . Sleeping pills do not help me, I tried ambien, and i have a high tolerance. I am thinking to seek advice in other private hospital because I dont know what to do

After my wife passed away 3 1/2 years ago, it seems like I have these vivid dreams, not just every night, but all night long. I think the stress of 4 1/2 years of dealing with her cancer and eventually loosing her has left quite a mark on my sub conscience.

Playing sleep music helps, but not much. The nights are worse when alcohol or sweet desserts have been consumed.