Posted by Andi on March 14, 2000 at 15:50:39:

In Reply to: Running in the night posted by Connie Itchon on March 13, 2000 at 20:27:13:

Hi Connie, I've been having these episodes on and off for around the last 6-7 years. I'm 32 years old. My life has been through every imaginable change during that time so I really don't know what brings them on. All I can figure so far is that it is subconscious worrying, although I'm generally not really much of a worrier.

About a year ago, my husband was in a dangerous job. His boss would not spend money on safety and my husband was at risk every day. I had these terrors during my sleep almost every night, to the point where I went to see my GP who referred me to a sleep disorder specialist. Well I never ended up going, because the very next day, my husband resigned from that job and the terrors stopped (for the time being anyway).

Often I wake up and I'm at the opposite end of the bed, terrified, trying to get away from something. While I've never gotten up and run away, like you, I do tend to LEAP forward out of bed, but I won't get OFF the bed (I've had ones that involved the floor being a sea of rats so the bed is the only safe place). Often my husband will wake up during my leap and he will leap forward with me to catch and hold me. Sometimes he has become whatever it is I've been afraid of and I will wake up freaking out.

This really does freak my husband out, but not as much as it freaks me out!! After it happens, I can't even get up to go to the toilet, I'm so terrified of the dark (not when I'm conscious) and of being alone.

I am also a very vivid and frequent dreamer, being a light sleeper this is quite common.

I don't know what else to tell you. One of these days I might get some help for it but I find it quite embarrassing because often I can't even tell anyone what happened because I don't remember.

I do remember when I was a little kid this must have happened because my big sisters were asking me what happened and I ended up making something up because I couldn't remember what it really was.

Cheers
Andi
Melbourne, Australia

Follow Ups:

---

Copyright ©1995-2004 Sleepnet.com, All rights reserved