Living with Sleep Issues

I call them “anxiety dreams” and they started after my second child was born, 16 years ago. I have always talked in my sleep and occasionally would wake up and have a dream conversation with someone in the room. I remember waking up and asking my grandmother something that had nothing at all to do with the people in the house. I also wake up and see animals or people, then as I come fully conscious they just disolve.

These anxiety dreams started with my waking suddenly in a panic with the thought that there was something critical that I needed to do, or forgot to do. Then I went through a rash of wakenings where I knew that I was supposed to give life-saving medication to one of my animals that I had forgotten. Then it switched to medicine that I should have given one of the kids. Now, for the past couple of years I am the one who should have taken the medicine. I wake up certain that because I have forgotten my medicine that I am now going to die. I’ll even go into a panic because I can’t find the medication. A couple of times I was convinced that I was dead. I don’t have paralysis I just know that my heart has stopped. My husband has tried many things to get me to calm down and realize that I’m dreaming. I never believe him. When I am going through a period of these dreams I tell myself that I have taken all of the medicine I need to and that I am perfectly fine just as I’m going to sleep so that when I wake up I can let go of the dream faster.

I haven’t been able to find anyone who has had similar symptoms, however, the hypnagogic hallucinations seem to come close, as they always happen within the first 10-20 minutes after I have drifted off. Once it happens I don’t have to worry about it happening again in the same sleep cycle.