Dream Exhaustion

For the last several months, maybe four or five, I have been on a "dreaming binge". For whatever reason, the dreams occur all night long and sometimes I will dream 6 or 7 times. But the amount of dreaming isn't just the exhausting part, I seem to awaken immediately after the dreams and have a hard time going back to sleep only to awaken an hour later, repeating the same pattern.

My recall of the dreams are near 100 percent, at least immediately upon waking. I started a dream journal and jot down most of the dreams. I, also, utilized the pattern and notated in my journal the amount of time I felt went by in the dream and the actual time I was asleep. My numbers aren't perfect, since I could be off a few minutes considering the time it took me to go back to sleep.

The dreams aren't anything special; there's no real theme other than, oddly, Asian people (not sure of nationality) who appear in quite a few of them. Lucidity only occurred in 2 of them, with the first having a small measure of control and the second as a passive observer.

But, I am exhausted!

I told my doctor and, three months ago, was prescribed medication for sleep. He said I could be bringing anxiety into my subconscious. The meds seemed to help me sleep three hours or so straight but the dreams were even more intense ( I had some anxiety about being on meds after reading side effects). So, chicken or egg?

I write to you all because last night was extremely rough. I awakened every hour from 11:30 to 6 a.m. My dreams were very vivid and I experienced my second lucid dream. There has been a common denominator in my only 2 lucid dreams and it was the death of my child (once froma Godzilla type monster and last night's was a flood).The Asian group was back last night and I helped an old lion put Vaseline on his paws....

Anyway, does anyone have any tips.? I have both fought it and went with it. I have worked out and tried to exhaust myself in many ways. I have napped- dreamed the entire time...I have pages of dreams and a bottle of sleeping meds but an exhausted mind. The lack of or quality of sleep has nearly gotten to me.

Hm at least i got some questions, do you get enough physical and mental challenges daily? Straight question, do you feel like your daily life is boring to you, like there is nothing to wait or be exited in life at all? Another straight question, do you feel like you have clear consciousness, maybe something is digging to your awareness and you do not want to face it?
I got more questions but i would like to hear if these have anything even close to your reality?

I also do have some troubles with sleeping and my dreams are some what exhausting time to time but my dreams mostly are about fighting, running from somethings, like just moment ago i was running from trees sized giants, they were 4-5 of them and got really close to me all the time. Woke up feeling very weak and its 23:18 my time, so allot of dreaming ahead, if i get any sleep..

a reply to: Malraux

Diet (not meaning starve yourself, but eat nutritionally valid foods) and exercise, make yourself exhausted during the day and it will be difficult not to fall asleep like a baby.

a reply to: Malraux

Meds can make dreams worse sometimes. Try to find out what the source of anxiety is that is fueling these dreams and resolve the issue.

Dreaming only occurs if you are sleeping and are in REM sleep. I don't get what could get you exhausted from dreaming. Except for waking up every hour, it seems weird to me....

originally posted by: Sinter Klaas
Dreaming only occurs if you are sleeping and are in REM sleep. I don't get what could get you exhausted from dreaming. Except for waking up every hour, it seems weird to me....

I wake up from dead sleep bothered about the dream I'm having pretty commonly, and when I do, it's a good time to go use the bathroom if need be. Dreams can wake you up.

To wake up every hour would be pretty extreme.
(It's happened to me before though)

a reply to: r0xor

Dreams can wake you up.

I know. Trust me, I know what sleep deprivation feels like.

Do you use any medications, pills or have some illness? When your body is in trouble or you have some sickness dreams are much more exhausting and intense, to the point you wake up every hour or so. Do not trust medications in helping you. They may suppress these things, but they can't make them disappear.

And if that isn't the case maybe it has to do with something that you eat before going to sleep. Investigate what is either wrong in your life, or what other external sources can cause this exhaust.

Thanks everyone for the advice!

I like all the deep questions. My stress level isn't too bad, it was but has gotten better in the last year. I don't think I have a guilty conscience but I hadn't even considered that.

But, my life is INCREDIBLY boring in its mundaneness. I have amped my physical fitness up in order to tire myself out. One good side effect of this situation is that I am in better shape now than ever before; I ran the Army 10-miler a little over a month ago and I didn't die on the course! I am considering attempting a half-marathon but it scares me a bit.

As for the dream exhaustion- the dreams themselves are sometimes disturbing and in those few minutes between dream and reality can be confusing. Plus, the waking up every hour puts a damper on my night's rest. Sometimes it can take me an hour to go back to sleep, but waking up every hour also makes me recognize a full bladder or my husband's snoring and "jumping"...that's a whole other exhaustion! So, it's not the dreaming, per se, but the after effects that have taken quite a toll recently.


I don't drink, smoke, or take drugs so it isn't a byproduct of those. I'm sure it is some Non acknowledged stress. But I have had a great release of that...maybe it is still a tension left from last year.

The vividness of the dreams has increased as I have researched dreams. Realistic dreams can be depressing, scary, and I go through those emotions several times a night. I don't know much about the dreaming process, other than what I've read while researching this. Maybe I made it worse by concentrating on the dreams, another chicken and egg situation.

Again, thanks everyone for your advice. It may seem like a small thing but I have started to hate nighttime and that only adds to the problem.

Oh, going through the journal, I have found that chickens also present themselves. Chicken...or birds....are one of my greatest phobias. I'm sure that is a part of the stress component.

The symbolism is mostly about you fearing things that are out of your control.

The deaths of your child is a fear of loss from situations out of your control for someone you take great responsibility for.

The lion could mean that you're seeking the bravery to face these fears. You're applying ointment to it's paws where it spends a lot of time on and could have a thorn in there that needs removal. You want security and calm in the face of these terrifying possibilities. You want to be soothed that everything's going to be ok.

And seeing an Asian can represent an aspect of yourself that you're not familiar with.

Consider some simple melatonin to relieve yourself while you sleep and help balance your sleeping schedule. Don't take too many or for too long or it might cease benefiting you as much.

And you know, hey! Maybe it's time to take up smoking and drinking!

I had a difficult, intensive dream sequence last night myself that I don't have recall of, but I know what you mean by exhausting, because that's exactly what it did.

originally posted by: Malraux
For the last several months, maybe four or five, I have been on a "dreaming binge". For whatever reason, the dreams occur all night long and sometimes I will dream 6 or 7 times. But the amount of dreaming isn't just the exhausting part, I seem to awaken immediately after the dreams and have a hard time going back to sleep only to awaken an hour later, repeating the same pattern.

My recall of the dreams are near 100 percent, at least immediately upon waking. I started a dream journal and jot down most of the dreams. I, also, utilized the pattern and notated in my journal the amount of time I felt went by in the dream and the actual time I was asleep. My numbers aren't perfect, since I could be off a few minutes considering the time it took me to go back to sleep.

The dreams aren't anything special; there's no real theme other than, oddly, Asian people (not sure of nationality) who appear in quite a few of them. Lucidity only occurred in 2 of them, with the first having a small measure of control and the second as a passive observer.

But, I am exhausted!

I told my doctor and, three months ago, was prescribed medication for sleep. He said I could be bringing anxiety into my subconscious. The meds seemed to help me sleep three hours or so straight but the dreams were even more intense ( I had some anxiety about being on meds after reading side effects). So, chicken or egg?

I write to you all because last night was extremely rough. I awakened every hour from 11:30 to 6 a.m. My dreams were very vivid and I experienced my second lucid dream. There has been a common denominator in my only 2 lucid dreams and it was the death of my child (once froma Godzilla type monster and last night's was a flood).The Asian group was back last night and I helped an old lion put Vaseline on his paws....

Anyway, does anyone have any tips.? I have both fought it and went with it. I have worked out and tried to exhaust myself in many ways. I have napped- dreamed the entire time...I have pages of dreams and a bottle of sleeping meds but an exhausted mind. The lack of or quality of sleep has nearly gotten to me.

Years ago I was obsessed with the idea of lucid dreaming. I started reading books, made a dream journal, even ordered herbs online to help attain this skill. After practicing, I was able to go lucid from time to time. I saw things in my dreams that amazed me. I remember reading a book that held the meaning of life, I remember the vocabulary was beyond my own, and there were very deep psychological statements in this book. I was so excited (I was lucid) I decided to take myself out of the sleep state so I could write this information down...I awoke and I instantly forgot the information.

This event made me want to search the limits of lucid dreaming even further. I practiced and practiced. I became so good that nearly every night I was lucid dreaming. I awoke to fear several times with sleep paralysis. There were mornings where I laid there for several minutes, wide awake, completely paralyzed, unable to scream. The lucid dreaming was very intense, and it seemed to drain my mentality. I awoke every morning in a slumber, completely lethargic.

Eventually I could not stand it anymore. I did not want to lucid dream anymore. It felt like my soul was being drained from me. I had no concentration, I could not focus on tasks. I was a walking zombie during my waking hours. I started to fight the lucidity. I vaguely remember being in dreams, and someone would walk up to me, I would tell myself "this person isn't real" and the lucidity hit me. I would be angry. I had to "untrain" myself. I ended up "giving in" to the dreams, and eventually I started to experience them like a "normal" person would. This was a process, nothing happened overnight. To this day I do not lucid dream anymore - it's been about 5 years since then.

In a way I do miss it. I was able to control reality with my thoughts. I remember running up to walls and putting my face against them, to see amazing colors and patterns, psychedelic geometry. I had a dreams of communicating with aliens and other dreamers. I am still puzzled by erroneous dreams, where gravity would be glitched and I would be stuck to a wall, try to move, and fly and stick to the other wall or ceiling. There are many mysteries in that world. Many mind-bending conversations to be had. It does not come without consequence, though. I believe that if you want to stop bad enough, you will find your way.

Thank you for sharing.

When people have REM-sleep they are dreaming : several dreaming episodes per night is normal , ( don't bother with dream/psychoanalysis ) ...


www.webmd.com...

but being woken up by each of those dreams is not normal.

Possibly Rapid_eye_movement_behavior_disorder ,
where people physically act out their dreams , ( instead of being paralysed as they should be ) , which wakes them up.

"happy pills" can be the cause ...

wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_eye_movement_behavior_disorder wrote:-
" Monoamine oxidase inhibitors, tricyclic antidepressants, Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and noradrenergic antagonists can induce or aggravate RBD symptoms ..."

en.wikipedia.org...

I seldom remember any of my dreams. It would be nice to have a few vivid dreams every now and then.

originally posted by: Malraux
Thanks everyone for the advice!

I like all the deep questions. My stress level isn't too bad, it was but has gotten better in the last year. I don't think I have a guilty conscience but I hadn't even considered that.

But, my life is INCREDIBLY boring in its mundaneness. I have amped my physical fitness up in order to tire myself out. One good side effect of this situation is that I am in better shape now than ever before; I ran the Army 10-miler a little over a month ago and I didn't die on the course! I am considering attempting a half-marathon but it scares me a bit.

As for the dream exhaustion- the dreams themselves are sometimes disturbing and in those few minutes between dream and reality can be confusing. Plus, the waking up every hour puts a damper on my night's rest. Sometimes it can take me an hour to go back to sleep, but waking up every hour also makes me recognize a full bladder or my husband's snoring and "jumping"...that's a whole other exhaustion! So, it's not the dreaming, per se, but the after effects that have taken quite a toll recently.


I don't drink, smoke, or take drugs so it isn't a byproduct of those. I'm sure it is some Non acknowledged stress. But I have had a great release of that...maybe it is still a tension left from last year.

The vividness of the dreams has increased as I have researched dreams. Realistic dreams can be depressing, scary, and I go through those emotions several times a night. I don't know much about the dreaming process, other than what I've read while researching this. Maybe I made it worse by concentrating on the dreams, another chicken and egg situation.

Again, thanks everyone for your advice. It may seem like a small thing but I have started to hate nighttime and that only adds to the problem.

Oh, going through the journal, I have found that chickens also present themselves. Chicken...or birds....are one of my greatest phobias. I'm sure that is a part of the stress component.

I think one thing might be as you suggested, related to your mundane life; it may be that you have a very intelligent and creative mind/potential. You are evolutionary and personally equipped to handle much more than you have 'on your plate' so your subconscious, or dreaming mind, personally I think dreams are nothing more than very focused thought, as the data of external senses are cut off, the awareness that is you, during sleep, has free reign of the imagination and memory, and can explore thoughts and potentials and visions of shape and color and quantity and quality, put into vivid imagery even faint emotions or sequences of complex data. Find a hobby in your free time, consider something artful? You have an abundance of creative and energetic power, that because they are not being used, they are being used for dreaming.

Again, thanks for all the advice.

But, I do have an update. As I said yesterday, the night before had been terribly unnerving . About 6 pm yesterday evening, I was brushing my teeth and putting on Pajamas to just lounge around. It is kind of hard to explain, but as I looked into the mirror, there was a weird sensation where I didn't recognize myself. I looked pale and gray and my skin startled mottling. Within seconds, I lost all control of my body and fell to the floor.

When I awoke...only seconds later...I was having difficulty breathing. My arms and legs, and my chest seemed nearly paralyzed. I tried to make it downstairs but again passed out. My husband heard me and I asked him to take me to the emergency room.

During the ride to the ER, I was fighting to stay concious. As soon as we made it to the ER, I couldn't hold out any longer and collapsed at the counter. When I awakened, I was in an exam room with oxygen, still fighting to breathe.

I had an MRI, a CT scan, X-rays, blood gas artery drawn?..is that what it's called? I had an eKG, other blood and urine tests. About an hour or so after I checked in, I noticed the mottling and swelling in my right arm had started to subside. As soon as it did, my breathing dramatically improved. Ten minutes later, my left side started coming out of whatever had me and my condition improved drastically.

The testing showed a mass on my thyroid and several nodules in my lung. I'm not a smoker so that worried me a lot. I was released with instructions to visit my primary physician.

I went to the doc today and had more testing. During my episode, I hallucinated a few times and that seemed to catch his attention. I had a biopsy of my thyroid gland (which, despite the mass, seemed to be in working order). The biopsy, or whatever it was, involved a needle being inserted into my neck. I was referred to an endocrinologist and am expecting results in a few days.

I'm sure this has affected my sleeping and is likely what caused such restless dreaming.

Has anyone been diagnosed with a mass on their thyroid? I'm trying not to freak out but I am still shaken up. Anyway, maybe this can be a warning sign to others. And, if anyone is medically experienced, can a thyroid problem cause the numbness and distortion of reality?

Thanks guys for helping me with this. Please ignore any grammar mistakes, my vision hasn't returned completely yet but I have slept a lot this afternoon and wanted to warn anyone having similar issues to be more concerned than I was.
,

originally posted by: Malraux
... can a thyroid problem cause the numbness and distortion of reality?

Psychosis is a symptom of both over-active and under-active thyroid ...
Over active thyroid = Hyperthyroidism.
under active thyroid = Hypothyroidism.

The psychiatric and other symptoms are reversible when the thyroid hormone level is normalised, ( by your endocrinologist ).