Fuck. I shouldn't have trusted that dream, things were going too well. Then bam! It had me and wouldn't let go.
Night terrors are intense episodes of fear or terror during sleep, often accompanied by screaming or flailing. Experts recommend against waking someone up who is experiencing a night terror.
The screaming and flailing is actually to wake up. Either to wake yourself up or have someone hear you and wake you up. The "sleep foundation" doesn't know shit. "Parasomnia", they gave it a scientific-sounding name so I guess they're the experts.
Sure it can be PTSD, or anxiety, but what if there are actually dream entities that feed on our fear? I wanted to write "evil dream entities" the first few times, but now I'm thinking why would they be evil? It's not their fault or choice they feed on fear, the lion isn't evil for being a carnivore and feeding on the gazelle (yeah, there was no metaphor I could think of in which the supposed dream entities aren't the predator lol). But lion might be the wrong one, spider is a better one cause I didn't feel hunted, I felt ensnared.
I had to write this post cause I couldn't risk going back to sleep so soon after, that's how they get you again. After some time the entities move on. But it's probably PTSD and anxiety.
CW abuse
My girlfriend has night terrors like yours; feeling extreme pain from torture, like being buried upside down in a metal tube filled with ants in the middle of a blazing hot desert, having to relive seeing her loved ones being tied and beaten in front of her and ofc the same happening to her and worse, just really fucked up shit in general. She wakes up several times a night crying, although I sleep heavy, so that only occasionally wakes me. I have nightmares too also related to PTSD, but I've thankfully never once experienced pain or anything like that, just the feeling of extreme terror and reliving a similar experience, like having to go down into the basement with my dad, people kicking my teeth in, etc. We both use cannabis, as it's proven to help PTSD night terrors; I highly recommend it.
We "joke" about an entity like you describe, actually, and call them dream wasps or soul bees, because, well, they appear as wasps in her dreams that eat her brain and generally just destroy her body in ways I can't describe without getting very NSFW. After learning about this I had a dream about a wasp randomly flying up my nose and have had similar dreams ever since lol, although it's rare, because cannabis stops my ability to even have dreams
We both use cannabis, as it’s proven to help PTSD night terrors; I highly recommend it.
I actually quit smoking weed (with THC) this year. I've been smoking it a lot to cope with these feelings, but then I saw that it negatively impacts other parts of my life.
cannabis stops my ability to even have dreams
Same, or at least it makes me not remember them. I do enjoy dreaming 99.9% of the time, so having vivid and lucid dreams again has been a nice benefit of quitting. I smoke CBD and I find that I get most of the benefits that way.
We “joke” about an entity like you describe, actually, and call them dream wasps or soul bees,
For me it is "shadowy" entities (pitch black, like a shadow) and some kind of dog-beast (also shadowy). I was shocked that last night the beast/monster had a form and colour and it was terrifying as fuck.
Give a try to Doxazosin or something similiar. It is off label used against nightmares, night terros etc. It is not guaranteed that it will work but there is a good chance it will
Not to keen on taking pharmaceuticals if I don't need to. Haven't had a night terrors episode in years, so they're not that frequent. I've just been super anxious lately and I've had a few extreme panic/PTSD attacks, so that's probably the reason for night terrors. My nightmares are usually of the form that someone or something is after me, and I think that's classic anxiety.
Of course, that's up to you to decide. Especially when it is in the context of PTSD, nightmares of this kind are common. If it occurs much more frequently, which I sometimes had every day, certain medications can help. It's always good to know that there's a solution in case :)
Yeah, I'd like to try other solutions before going for drastic measures. But as you say, always nice to know it's available. Thanks.
