6 ms·

Mild "night terrors" are occasionally a side effect of taking melatonin for me. I will wake up and see a swarm of aggressive insects flying towards me, or a lar

Mild "night terrors" are occasionally a side effect of taking melatonin for me. I will wake up and see a swarm of aggressive insects flying towards me, or a large rat in my bed, or a person in my room who is trying to kill me. The first few times this happened I reacted strongly, jumping out of bed and running out of the room. It would take me about 30 seconds to convince myself that what I saw was not real, making for interesting conversations with my roommates who sometimes saw me exhibit this behavior. Now I typically realize quickly that what I am seeing is likely not there, and try to wait to see if it will go away before acting.

justinsaccount 10y ago
One thing that helped me during a stretch of events like that was sleeping with an eye mask on. If I was wearing the eye mask when I woke up, then it was impossible for me to have seen something like the 'swarm of aggressive insects' in the first place. low-tech, but effective.
- DigitalJack 10y ago
  Unfortunately for me, this would just make things worse. I'm in some in-between state of dreaming and waking and if I can't see physically then my mind will fill in the blanks. For me it's crucial that I be able to see when the night terror happens. So I have a nightlight.
  - justinsaccount 10y ago
    For me, not being able to see was what made it possible to tell the difference between what was real and what was not. If I have a dream about a 'swarm of aggressive insects' and I wake up and can't see anything, then I know that it wasn't real. Are you sure your nightlight isn't making things worse by blurring the dream world and the real world? If the real world is pitch black then anything you thought you saw couldn't have been real.
    - DigitalJack 10y ago
      The high level thinking parts of my brain aren't active in my night terrors. It seems perfectly rational to think the ceiling is made of compressed junkyard cars. Much like it would in a dream. You aren't really awake when you are running around in the panic state of a night terror. Not being able to see would simply allow my semi-dream state to continue while I fumbled around in the real world wearing a sleep mask. But you are right, some things seen do filter into the dream state. When I would think my condo was on fire in florida it was often when I'd take an afternoon nap on a Sunday and the sunset would color the whole place yellow-orange, and I often thought that might have been why the idea of fire popped into mind. However, I think the more reality I can get into my system, the faster I'll realize the nonsense of the night-terror-fugue. I could be wrong, it's just my personal theory about me.
      - justinsaccount 10y ago
        Ah, yes, I think our dreams were quite different.. Mine never involved 'nonsense' as you put it. I used to have dreams like a giant spider crawling across the ceiling directly above my face. When I would wake up I would jump out of bed and try to find the spider that was there a second ago. The mask helped remind me that there was no way I could have seen anything in the first place.
angry-hacker 10y ago
Interesting. I have had same experience with every drug for sleep. From melatonin to mirtazapine.
morganvachon 10y ago
I have night terrors a few times a year, in fact I had one just a few nights ago, where I thought I saw a large, grey, pulsating spider climbing down the wall towards my wife's head. I woke up holding a flashlight and waving it around our pillows searching for the spider. I'm not even afraid of spiders, but this apparition scared me to my wit's end. More often, I suffer from sleep paralysis, which is truly frightening given I'm highly claustrophobic as well. I've suffered from that my entire life, and my mother has too.

justinsaccount 10y ago

One thing that helped me during a stretch of events like that was sleeping with an eye mask on. If I was wearing the eye mask when I woke up, then it was impossible for me to have seen something like the 'swarm of aggressive insects' in the first place. low-tech, but effective.

DigitalJack 10y ago
Unfortunately for me, this would just make things worse. I'm in some in-between state of dreaming and waking and if I can't see physically then my mind will fill in the blanks. For me it's crucial that I be able to see when the night terror happens. So I have a nightlight.
- justinsaccount 10y ago
  For me, not being able to see was what made it possible to tell the difference between what was real and what was not. If I have a dream about a 'swarm of aggressive insects' and I wake up and can't see anything, then I know that it wasn't real. Are you sure your nightlight isn't making things worse by blurring the dream world and the real world? If the real world is pitch black then anything you thought you saw couldn't have been real.
  - DigitalJack 10y ago
    The high level thinking parts of my brain aren't active in my night terrors. It seems perfectly rational to think the ceiling is made of compressed junkyard cars. Much like it would in a dream. You aren't really awake when you are running around in the panic state of a night terror. Not being able to see would simply allow my semi-dream state to continue while I fumbled around in the real world wearing a sleep mask. But you are right, some things seen do filter into the dream state. When I would think my condo was on fire in florida it was often when I'd take an afternoon nap on a Sunday and the sunset would color the whole place yellow-orange, and I often thought that might have been why the idea of fire popped into mind. However, I think the more reality I can get into my system, the faster I'll realize the nonsense of the night-terror-fugue. I could be wrong, it's just my personal theory about me.
    - justinsaccount 10y ago
      Ah, yes, I think our dreams were quite different.. Mine never involved 'nonsense' as you put it. I used to have dreams like a giant spider crawling across the ceiling directly above my face. When I would wake up I would jump out of bed and try to find the spider that was there a second ago. The mask helped remind me that there was no way I could have seen anything in the first place.

angry-hacker 10y ago

Interesting. I have had same experience with every drug for sleep. From melatonin to mirtazapine.

morganvachon 10y ago

I have night terrors a few times a year, in fact I had one just a few nights ago, where I thought I saw a large, grey, pulsating spider climbing down the wall towards my wife's head. I woke up holding a flashlight and waving it around our pillows searching for the spider. I'm not even afraid of spiders, but this apparition scared me to my wit's end. More often, I suffer from sleep paralysis, which is truly frightening given I'm highly claustrophobic as well. I've suffered from that my entire life, and my mother has too.