please help

[Sylentknyght]

I hope I am doing this right. Ok so here's my situation. I am 40, married with 2 beautiful children. I work a normal job and I do play video games and what not (nothing unusual). For several months (not every night) I have been having these dreams where something is messing with me. When I say messing I mean something is making objects in my dream move or preventing me from speaking. its 1:39 am, awoke from one of these dreams. I awoke scared. I needed to write this down because these dreams are really starting to freak me out. Growing up I have had really vivid dreams of pretty cool stuff like flying. Well lately the dreams have been about just random stuff in random places with random people. For example, tonight I dreamt I was at an apartment with my sister and some of her friends, just a couple, oh and my little dog "Angie". So from what I can remember, not to much of the beginning but more towards me waking, we where all just sitting around, not really doing anything, and can remember getting this feeling that something was not quite right. I stood up and was talking to my sister and I noticed a chair moved just slightly to me so I pushed it away back to the table. Just as i let it go it would slide back to me. Now normally I would have probably guessed a magic trick but no I could remember feeling like this before. It felt as if the chair was attached to me somehow. I started to freak out and that's when I realized I couldn't talk or even scream, I know, I tried. It felt as if something was ...holding my voice is the only way I can put it. Next thing I know I'm outside the building looking up at an opening, not sure if it was a balcony or a window but someone jumped out and landed on the ground, kind of like in the movies, and walked away. Next we were in a car trying to get away, I could feel something in the car with us, the driver (not really sure who they were) screamed "there's a face next to you" but I couldn't see anything next to me til I looked in the rearview mirror and that's when I saw it. Then I awoke. I'm telling who ever I was really scared, kinda still are. Now the dreams before were different but the feeling of being touched, pushed, lifted, things moving and my voice being held have been the same. I'm not sure what's going on but the dreams are getting more frequent and scary. I'm a grown man for crying out loud and this shit is freaking me out, I mean look, I had to find some place to share this so I wouldn't sound crazy. I have told my best friend and my wife about previous dreams and they just look at me funny. Well its 2:20 in the morning so I'm going to try and sleep. If it happens again I'll be back to tell.

[sisyphus]

Have there been any changes to your health? Diet? Daily routine? Stress? Depression? Sleep environment? Sleep quality? Do you take any medication and/or did your medication change recently? Those would be the first things to look at to explain the change in your dreams. If it is any one of those, you can possibly make a change to improve your sleep quality. If there hasn't been a recent change, you could also consider any long term conditions or habits that can gradually influence your sleep (like caffeine, nicotine, seaonal affective disorder, etc). Sleep quality and dream content are usually a reflection of everything else going on in your life. So the most therapeutic approach is to zoom out and look at what else may be ailing you. Another possible explanation is age. As you get older, you spend a larger share of time in REM sleep. You also need less sleep to feel refreshed, but by habit, you might continue to stay in bed the same amount as you always have. Both factors mean more dreams and greater recall of dreams. So it might not be that your dreams have changed significantly. You're just remembering more dreams in more detail. I'm 30 and I have definitely noticed this phenomenon over time. There's nothing wrong with it. But you might consider adjusting your sleeping habits to spend maybe 30 minutes less in bed. Instead use that time to try a new hobby like journaling, meditation, yoga. Walk the dog extra early. I personally enjoy doing a few crosswords first thing in the morning. So anyway, knowledge is power. Just knowing that your dreams aren't so unusual and that there is probably a rational explanation might help ease the instinctive reaction of fear. If you want to have more control over your dreams, you can begin practicing lucid dreaming. That's maybe what brought you here. But first, I'd suggest a honest look at the list of other life factors to see if there's something obvious that is negatively affecting your sleep.