being anxious in my dreams

[blur]

really sucks

everything .. all the anxiety, panic attacks, that happens when im awake, happens in my sleep

[Robbed]

This is actually quite common. I tended to have rather anxious and depressing dreams well before anxiety really became a problem for me.

[synaptic]

i've been encountering this lately too. in fact just last night i had a dream where i was sick, worn out, stressed out badly, and my family kept pushing me to physically/mentally achieve more than i could cope with. it eventually left me, in my dream, crying on the floor.

not surprisingly, in real life my anxiety has been terrible for months now, it seems like i just cant catch a break from the stress in my life, and its been making me feel ill most of the time. and last weekend i did actually cry a little, which was triggered by the fact that it was the first anniversary of my grandfathers death.

this is the second time in about a week i was crying in my dreams. i have a feeling that its happened other times in the last few months too, but i dont remember them now. so it seems my dreams are mirroring whats going on im my life. (in their own dreamlike way.)

normally im not one to cry unless a real tragedy has occured, i bottle it all up instead...but i guess crying in my dreams is a way of either my mind trying to release it, or perhaps to get me to see things im otherwise trying to block out.

[ligeia]

wow you guys... similar things happen to me or have happened in the past...

i never thought about it before, but i had lots and lots of anxious and terrifying dreams as a little girl... i would wake up frightened and run to my parents room.... no wonder why i hated going to sleep!

now that i am older, i still have tons of worried, anxious dreams. i've been told by my mother or boyfriend that on several occasions they wake up in the night because they hear me crying in my sleep, or that i woke up screaming.

the past year or so my nightmares have gotten so bad that i decided to try a trick i used as a little girl that actually seemed to "work" to some degree-- one of those native american dream catchers!

i got this really pretty one and hung it above my bed. the nightmares are a bit less frequent, i have to say! i wonder if it eases my pre-sleep anxiety about having bad dreams, which helps lessen the negative brainwaves that might lead to bad dreams?