"Inception" Type Nightmares.

[Howdy12]

I'm sure I can't be the only one that has nightmares that, as corny as it sounds, are exactly like the movie Inception...or the same concept at least.

Multiple times a week I'll get "caught" in a dream. I'm stuck in a nightmare and during the nightmare I'll "wake up" multiple times but not actually be awake. This happened just last night and was one of the worse nightmares I've ever had. I always have lucid dreams so it seems completely real. I can always tell I'm in a dream and while asleep I'll tell myself I need to wake up...but when I wake up I'm still stuck in that nightmare. This usually happens 3-4 times before I FINALLY wake up into reality.

I used to take Benadryl to fall asleep but quickly became dependent on it. I then tried Melatonin which somehow manged to give me worse nightmares.

I've had insomnia as long as I can remember (the first time I realized I don't sleep normally I was 7 or 8 years old).

Does anyone else experience nightmares like this? I haven't drank in almost a week, is it alcohol related?

[wywriter]

I have had very similar nightmares for years, especially if I sleep during the day (the time I have my most vivid dreams...and also the only time I can sleep when I'm upset). Many times I've been absolutely certain I finally woke up from a dream, and then something will happen and I'll realize I'm still there. Alternatively, if I can move at all while I'm asleep then I can wake myself up -- and there are many, many times I've known I was dreaming and either got scared and wanted out of it, or been sure someone was in my house and I had to wake up to defend myself, but I just could not wake up no matter how hard I tried.

All I can say is that it's definitely not alcohol-related, or at least not exclusively. I am here as the wife of an alcoholic trying to learn to cope, but don't drink at all myself. These types of dreams have also been present since long before I ever knew my husband, and also remained when I had moved away from my alcoholic parents. I don't know if it's the same for everyone, but for me they seem to hit most often when I'm preoccupied with something...not necessarily even stressed out (though that happens a lot), but just go to sleep deep in thought about something specific.

I have a mental health history that has led the doctor to forbid me to take melatonin, but at my husband's insistence I have had Benadryl a couple of times. I don't know if it was the Benadryl or just that I hadn't slept in a few days on those occasions, but the nightmares that are normally really vivid and "out there" were even more terrifying and even worse for trying to get out of. I've always had a really weird sleep schedule, but it got really bad about age 11 and has just gotten worse from there, with the exception of a few temporary improvements before falling back into the same patterns.