Hello everyone

I have been having a real problem with terrible nightmares and vivid dreams every single night and I'm exhausted. My problems started last August when I had been under a lot of stess. I woke up one night from a nightmare, sweating with my heart racing like mad, I was terrified and thought I was having a heart attack and then I ended up having a panic attack. Unfortunately it started happening frequently and I started get terrible anxiety and panic attacks during the day because of it. I became so fed up and worried out my nightmares and racing heart at night that I eventually went to my GP and she thought it was probably due to anxiety. I had an ECG and blood tests and they were both normal. I felt a bit better after that but then I had more stress when my 9 yr old son became very poorly with the flu and has ended up with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. He is still ill 6 months on and my stress levels have gone through the roof.

I am walking up a few times a night with terrible nightmares or very vivid, disturbing dreams. Everytime I wake up suddenly and my heart starts racing and I have to try and fight off a full-blown panic attack. I am tired all day due to me broken sleep and I now absolutely dread going to bed. I also sometimes wake up suddenly with a very loud sound in my head and sometimes I have woken up gasping for breath. Some of my dreams have been like something out of a horror movie and there seems to be a recurring theme of death and danger. I also keep dreaming about my poorly son and the other night I dreamt that he fell off river bank into a river and then got swept away, it was terrifying.

I also seem to have developed a problem of having weird short dreams just as I am falling asleep or waking up. I hear people talking or see weird images, I am not hallucinating as my eyes are closed and it only happens when I am dropping off to sleep or waking up. I have googled it and I think it could be something called hypogognic hallucinations but I'm not sure whether stress can cause them. Also, if I try to have a nap during the day, it won't take long before I get these weird short dreams. I have now stopped napping during the day because of it.

I have tried all sorts of things to stop these awful dreams, a hot bath before bed, lavender oil on my pillow, warm milk and herbal tablets for anxiety but nothing works. I am desperately trying to get over my anxiety problem but my sleep problem is really not helping me and if I have a bad night I feel terrible and disorientated all day and this can set off panic attacks. I am so fed up because I was sleeping completely normally before I woke up with that first attack of palpitations related to a nightmare and now I can't get rid of it!

I can't afford to feel like this at the moment because I need all my energy to care for my sick son. Have any of you guys had a similar problem with frequent bad dreams and was there anything that helped you to get over them? I have not yet been back to my doctor but she did tell me to go back if things didn't settle down and they haven't! Any help and advice would be very much appreciated. stressed lady