Sleep problem: Vivid dreams & waking up exhausted

Experiencing same thing. Dream mode all night. Goes in 4 hour spurts. So deep sleep. A wreck with shot nerves daily. Xanax does not help. The common remedy factor ive read over the past week is strenuous exercise. Ive tried all the herbs and aminos, they dont put me into stage 2 or deep sleep. So im heating up my pool and im going to do 200 hard laps hopefully without having a hard attack. I think part of the problem is dwelling on it daily which builds up to the night. Ugh, just want my life back. 

I responded to this thread 9 months ago and I'm still having vivid dreams every night and suddenly waking up during them, I wake up 3 to 4 times a night and it has effected my life so much (groggy the next day, anxiety, depression, slightly elevated blood pressure). But I'm obviously getting enough sleep to function as I've not had hallucinations yet from lack of sleep but it seems I don't get enough deep sleep because of the dreaming. Like others on here I feel the vivid dreaming is because of anxiety and excessive worrying

most of the day about not sleeping properly.

I have always been a very anxious person and I think it finally started to effect my sleep from last September (I did have more stress than normal in the couple of weeks before I started with the insomnia). It seems the only things that suppress the frequent crazy dreams are getting drunk or taking a sleeping tablet (obviously not taken together!)

I guess they must boost deeper slow wave sleep (SWS) and reduce the lighter dreaming REM sleep.

It's just a real pity that both alcohol and sleeping pills can cause a dependency and alcohol has bad health effects with regular intake. But sometimes I just get desperate for a few hours sleep without dreaming so sometimes I get drunk or take a sleeping pill. They don't keep me asleep all night but at least they suppress the dreams to only about one or two a night instead of 4 or 5 times.

I'm also wondering if I have high cortisol at night causing me to dream a lot and wake frequently. My doctor doesn't care, and says I won't die from not sleeping properly but if it's affecting my mood and making my anxiety worse then it needs to be addressed. She even said no to me suggesting having a sleep study done as she thinks only people with sleep apnea go and have one.

I'm running out of ideas as to how to solve my dreaming issues. Can anyone suggest anything that might suppress them like alcohol or sleeping pills do? Thanks.

I have the same problem- vivid dreams, all night long, not necessarily nightmare scenarios, but movie like stories. They could be quite quite bland but the feeling i would wake up would be VERY intense,

The only thing that helped, at least for a while, was going to sleep with my headphones on, listening to binaural beats, the delta waves.

I would get them directly on YouTube (keywords: binaural beats dreamless sleep delta).

I still dream, but it can diminish the intensity of some of these dreams.

Give it a try - might need a bit of time- and maybe share your experience afterwards.

Take care,

Wow reading my response this morning. So many bad typos. I'm exhausted. To be honest, too many alcohol bingers started all this anxiety in my opinion in addition to Xanax use over the years. Never had everyday use with either fortunately. At first I thought I screwed up my GABA receptors but I don't fit the symptoms for that. I'm taking a break from swimming to write this. I want to feel like jelly by the time I get in bed tonight. But yes just like Fermina stated above. It's not like real dreaming but more like movie mode. Last night I took 400 mg of theanine, 300 mg of GABA, 500mg of l tryptophan and a B6 pill. The only thing that stopped was my mind racing when I woke up the 3 times last night.

I had sleep issues for over five years ,I was lucky to get four hours sleep at night and vivid dreams. I would get up to go the restroom during the night.. and then the dream would start right where I left off ...like a VCR being paused. My doctor finally found a solution trazodone and melatonin combination. it’s been five months since I started the melatonin and trazodone ...I get eight hours sleep and no vivid dreams! Hooray

I dealt with sever health anxiety 4 years ago. My doctor put me on Lexipro for anxiety. The Lexipro basically caused me sever insomnia. She then put me on a Benzodiazapine to help with the sleep. It would let me scrape out 5 hours of sleep at best but made me feel awful the next day. I waited for the sleep to come back but it didn't. I switched to another antidepressant and that did not work. I continued to struggle with poor sleep for a couple more years. I have been off antidepressants and Benzos for some time . Various doctors attributed my extreme day time fatigue and dizziness to the poor sleep. Over the last year and working with a sleep specialist and Social Worker I started to get some sleep back. Since then I have no problem falling asleep but wake several times a night after vivid dreaming. I fall back after 20 minutes but start dreaming right away. Then wake 45 minutes later. I am In and out of sleep constantly dreaming. In the beginning doctors would tell me the dreams mean I am getting my sleep back. I end up getting a total of 6 to 7 hours of interrupted sleep. I wake feeling un-rested with day time fatigue and slight dizziness. The symptoms are very distracting most days. I felt if I could get uninterrupted sleep with out the excessive dreams I could turn the corner. I read a few things on Narcolepsy but don't have a number of symptoms that are listed. Just fragmented sleep with excessive dreaming and day time tiredness and fatigue.

looks like everyone was talking about 4 years agohas anyone made any headway? i have this same thing. It's miserable. I don't drink and I am not on any meds. im trying CBD but so far it actually just gives me energyNo THC just CBD (martha stewert brand) my dreams are so vivid i honestly dont know if my real life is my life or my dream life its horriblei would love to hear if anyone has found any answers

Hi All. This is the first time I'm using this forum. I have been constantly dreaming for around 3 years now. As soon as I fall asleep I start dreaming excessively about random things. I feel like I have 2 life's and just don't get a break mentally. Everyday I tried to work out what is causing this as it's impacted my daily life. I have decided to leave my job after 15 years to deal with it. I have recently done a sleep study and its been determined that nothing is wrong with me. No sleep apnea or RAM fragmentation. I tried Zoloft but didn't help. the doc recommended a psychologist. I do get anxious easily so I'm trying to work out whether there is a direct relationship. A lot of the posts I read suggests it does. It's difficult for me to accept my life to live with this condition. I appreciate everyones post knowing I'm not the only one experiencing this.

Hey everybody.

I'm 28 and since three years I have the same problem, so many dreams in the night and wake up completely tired. My brain is not working well when I don't sleep well.

I went to so much doctors and specialists but nobody can help me right now.

It's not sleep apnea and not a psychiatric problem. This is the only thing I know now.

Can somebody help me ? Someone find a solution to sleep well ? Thanks !