Having high levels of stress and nightmares almost every night.

[sleepingtrubble]

I'm not really sure what to do about this. My first thought was to see a therapist but I don't have the money.

I have constant nightmares that are causing me physical pain/problems when I wake up. One of my earlier problems was, and probably still is, teeth grinding. I haven't been into the dentist for a couple of years, but the last time I went my dentist was telling me about a receding gum line (if I remember correctly) and that it would mean the loss of certain teeth if I didn't stop grinding my teeth. I told him that I don't grind my teeth, but his next question was do I have nightmares because that may be a cause for it in my sleep. I do have nightmares and do often wake up with sore teeth, sometimes clenched tightly.

My more recent problems involve muscle pains throughout my body. My back, neck, arm, or chest muscles can be extremely sore or have sharp pain upon waking. These can be quite severe at times, sometimes my neck muscles hurt so badly that I can't turn my head a certain way for hours after waking. Just in the last couple weeks I've been getting what feels like heart pain on the left/central part of my chest. It is very sharp pain that becomes worse with deep breaths, but it's difficult to avoid deep breaths because my heart rate increases to such a high speed when it happens. Sometimes it is so bad that I can't walk around my apartment and will have to sit still for around 30 minutes or longer waiting for it to subside to a smaller level. The way this pain starts has usually been a sore feeling in the back and chest region (left/central part of the chest and back) upon waking, it then will become a sharp pain out of nowhere (usually sometime around noon) which forces me to immediately stop whatever I'm doing (which has usually been getting out of the shower or organizing my school papers) and sit down.

I'm pretty sure solving my nightmares is what is necessary to solve my other problems but I figured I'd include a detailed description of the chest pain because it worries me so much. Is there any way to stop these nightmares or somehow protect my body from the inflicted stress at night? Any insight would be helpful.

[Jerry_NJ]

Not likely that "sleepingtrubble" will respond.  The only post associated with that person is this post, over two years ago.

It is always best to make a new post rather than dig up something from the archives.  The doctors response may apply equally to you.

Good luck.

[Jurema]

Hi !

I wanted to know if you have been able to solve your nightmare problem. I've been having several horrible nightmares per night for the past three months and I wake up every morning feeling like I haven't got any deep sleep and all muscles are sore and ache like crazy throughout the day. When I wake up from my nightmares, I feel some heavy anxiety, mostly chest pain.

Thanks in advance for your reply !!!

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

As you mentioned your symptoms could be due to  sleep disorders “Nightmare” or "Night terror" disorders . Here the person experiences symptoms of bad, frightening dreams which interfere with his sleep schedules. This can be assessed by a sleep questionnaire and therapy is based on the severity of symptoms.

Also, if with movement you are getting chest pain it is likely to be an inflammation of the skin, subcutaneous tissue or the bone. This can happen with injury, repetitive activity or an infection of the skin. Sometimes it can be costo-chondritis, inflammation of the sterna rib junction. If the pain is aggravated with work or exercise then it could be due to cardiac pain. But when in doubt always best to have it checked. So please consult your primary care physician who may ask for an EKG or a treadmill test to rule out a cardiac cause for the pain and may refer you to a sleep specialist if needed.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.