Very vivid nightmares

[magnummx34]

Thank you, Dr. Steven Y. Park.
That helps me understand a little why I get them.
My next question, however...

I want to know why my nightmares are so scary?
As I said before, they usually are of my greatest fears.
I don't understand why though. Most of the nightmares I have are so vivid..when I wake up I can't fall back asleep. I remember one very specifically...

I fell into a very deep sleep this one night; and when I was having a nightmare, I was in a Doctors' office.
They had me strapped to a bed and about 8 nurses came into the room with a table full of doctor needles(One of my biggest fears). I was screaming and pleading that they should not do this and every time they would inject me, I felt myself as I was sleeping toss and turn. About the 15th time after they injected me, I woke up. My arms hurt so bad- the pain was excruciating.

I don't want to sound crazy but is it possible that your nightmares can have a physical effect on you?

Peace&Patience,

Maggie McClure.

[borkus]

I'm not an expert, but I have experienced similar things in my life. I also have very vivid dreams. Some good, and some not so good. But, to not go off into a tangent, what you have described has happened to me as well, before. For brevity's sake, I will just say that I had a nightmare in which one of my arms was hurt during the nightmare. Thankfully, my girlfriend was there with me and woke me when she could tell I was having a terrible dream. Long story to short, she said that while I was having the dream, my arm was tensed up. She said that my muscles were like steel, and that's what scared her. When she woke me up, my arm was aching for hours, which mimicked what would have happened in the dream. But, the science behind it was that my muscles were in atrophy for a length of time that would have caused discomfort in any athlete. The fact that you fear needles, makes me think that the same may have happened to you as well. While your pain may have been spread out throughout your arm, your memory of the dream would make you concentrate on the areas that your dream concentrated on. I may be off. But, I thought I would offer that, in having a similar experience within this year.

[tattooyu]

First, I think it's great that you are on this board Dr. Park.  I really admire your work with sleep apnea!

Isn't it possible that her nightmares are actually apnea events, especially since she is dreaming of being restricted or "strapped down"?  I know that happened to me before I got on PAP therapy.

[magnummx34]

Thanks.

[Steven Y Park, MD]

Dreams and nightmares are a very complicated subject which is out of my area of expertise. Sorry.