Thanks SpeedyJason for your reply. It's so nice to talk to someone who knows what it's like. Unfortunately I am so bad at having a routine. I have none to speak of except for going to work every day... and even that, I don't always stick to my routine.
I don't know why routine is so hard for me. I feel that would make a huge difference in my stress levels but I can never seem to get it down. Then again, I haven't tried very hard either.
Today is my tenth day of not drinking and I'm not sure if it's had an effect on my night terrors or not. I know that the first few days I definitely had them... and I had very weird realistic nightmare-type dreams about drinking or not drinking. But since then I haven't noticed one way or the other. I think I will set up a camera in my room to monitor when I have them or not.
I will always really try to work on a routine. I need to make myself go to bed at a certain time every night (so bad at that) and I would like to wake up early and go running. I often exercise and it seems to have little to no effect on my night terrors... except that if I exercise later at night I'm more likely to have one! So maybe if I incorporate running into an early morning routine and otherwise structure my life, my night terrors will get better.
I often wonder if anxiety meds would help... I've been told by therapists and sleep disorder specialists etc. that they might but I am afraid to go on meds. Have you had experience with them?
Thanks again.