GreenEggsAndHam

I know that no one can say for sure, but wondering if this is common.

I've been sleeping but not well and my dreams are always...not great. I keep having dreams of abandonment, being lost in big cities, losing my business and getting into legal trouble, etc. During the day I feel great, but it's like I'm more stressed out when I sleep than when I'm awake. It's making my back tense up during sleep and making me not look forward to sleeping at all.

I hope it's just due to early sobriety and ends soon. I'll mention it this coming week to my therapist as well.

Looking4Help123

I've had very bad dreams all my life including before I drank. Hopefully yours will abate. They are just dreams, try not to sweat it too much.

bigsombrero

Oh yes, this is extremely common. I also had extremely vivid dreams early in sobriety, sometimes they were very frightening. The dreams are so realistic they can often leave a person very shaken even after waking up. You are not alone in this regard at all.

afloatsober

Very much so. They are easing down big time now but to start with, every night. Like you say more 'disturbing' rather than full blown nightmares. And always loosely related to real life. They do pass but got to shake them off first thing in early recovery.
Doing well
G

Sulu1

Oh yes, I'm early on but I know from doing this too many times before the vivid dreams can be quite bad at the start.

I was having crazy nightmares last night and then the bizarre experience of being in a huge underwater theme park where everyone moved about with jetpacks. More of these and less of the nightmares please.

I'm also still at the cold sweat stage, which really is gross.

GreenEggsAndHam

Oh MrG - I'm so glad I'm past the cold sweat stage! It made it impossible to sleep!

Thanks for the replies all. At first I thought I may be having like mini-seizures in my sleep or something but now I think it's just stress dreams. Hopefully they will ease up as time goes on.

Pipefish

For sure, definitely identify. The first 6 weeks, recurring dream, very repetitive, that woke me up every bloody time, was the sense that there was someone in the house, but when I went to switch on the lights, none of them would work. Haven't had one of these for about 6 weeks now, so it definitely passed

Also, your thread re relapse (thanks for posting) what I notice is that when am not in a good space emotionally or spiritually, dreams of the kind above, and those you describe being lost, come back again. Not rocket science, but had never made that connection before, and dreams do seem to say a lot about emotional state.

resolute50

I had dreams that always had the same theme.
I'm at a motel on a business trip and I have only so much time to make it to the airport.
I can't find anything that needs to be packed,I'm dreadfully late.

Now that I have 8 months behind me I have dreams involving package stores.
I'm either in the store freaking out about being there.
Or I'm in the parking lot freaking out about why I'm there.
Always leave without buying anything.

Jus

Year ago I went through that, not a fun time.

Not today, I'm doing things different. I can't stress this enough, meditation is a gift we give ourselves. Maybe if you try that before you go to bed, it will help.

If anything it can't hurt. Give it a try.

I've posted a thread about meditation here, it's a FREE 21 one, starting April 14th. Deepak is amazing, he knows how to calm you down.

Today when I have bad thoughts, the odd bad dream, I remind myself, it's just thoughts, they don't mean a thing. Positive works wonders.

Wishing you all the best

LBrain

In January they put me on zoloft. the dreams were wild, vivid and fantastic. Some very scary and some just intense. I was taken off it by my own request in March. During the tapering off period the dreams came back with a vengeance. I miss them now. But I still get very active and incredible dreams sometimes. Sometimes I wish I can get back to sleep to resume where the dream left off. But, hey, that's just me.

Weeks ago I had nothing but work dreams. I have been worrying about my job and it manifested in my dreams. Nothing horrendous but night aft night something or someone from work in my dreams. I even had a long conversation with the VP in one of them. I haven't had a work dream for a few weeks. Lately I've been having music dreams. More like live entertainment dreams, talking to musicians, working sound equipment, seeing things from another place etc.

I found that carbs too close to bedtime helps with strong dreams. Or causes them I mean.
Dreams are just dreams, harmless adventures while you sleep. I wouldn't worry too much about it. they'll go away.

Thepatman

Yep same here, weird dreams.

My 50 cents is that going to bed drunk prevents your brain from performing it's functions. There are emotional cleanups done in ERM I think.

Now that we are sober, the brain is a doing a cleanup.

Ok changing from 50 cents to 2 cents. LOL!

DrunkTx

I think patman hit it on the head. In alcoholism, we basically drank to numb our minds - hide the pain...stop the bad dreams (lol, stop the bad dream by ensuring we actually experienced the horrors while awake). Your mind is now dealing with life on life's terms. This is all goodness, you can finally start addressing those deferred emotions. Daunting at first, cathartic over time. When the dream converts from fear to professional skier....then you know you have made it!

GreenEggsAndHam

Good points.

I guess now that I think about it, blackouts were a nightly occurrence and I'd usually just pass out sitting straight up on the couch. Not much dreaming going on then. Ugh.

QuitinMsp

Every single night since I stopped and they keep getting more vivid. I do agree with the patman. I think I forgot that I dream.

badatbooze

Mine were violent and creepy. But lately I've had some good ones