Thread: Repeated, but not recurring, nightmares

I went for a long period of time without having nightmares about three years ago. When I started college I began to have nightmares again, but they were less scary and more sad, where my mother kept dying. Those stopped after my freshman year and I barely had any while I was a Sophomore. Now I'm just about to start my Junior year and I've been having nightmares and restless sleep for about a week straight. Because I'm so restless when I sleep the dreams are very vivid and seem to last anywhere between a half hour to five hours.

The nightmares are not recurring, they're kind of random, but they always scare me and I have to find a way to force myself to wake up and redirect my dream. I can't remember all of them. In one about two nights ago I beat someone I know and dislike in the waking world to death in front of her boyfriend and spent the dream trying to cover it up with the help of the same boyfriend and my mother. It was only stopped when I was able to wake up and redirect the dream so she wasn't dead but badly injured instead.

The one last night made me realize these really are an issue. I was ghost hunting with a group and knew there was a ghost around - I saw a pink flicker in one room and then felt compelled to start drawing. As I drew, I realized I was drawing the ghost, who was a girl with a gasmask on. Once I drew the gasmask, I suddenly panicked because I had stopped breathing in the real world - my ears started ringing and I had a hard time forcing myself to wake up and began gasping for breath as soon as I did. After that, I couldn't fall back asleep because as soon as I did I felt like I couldn't breathe, even though there was nothing around my face. I'm not overweight and I've never had breathing trouble or sleep apnea.

In the real world I've been anxious and nervous because my significant other is going through a rough time and won't tell me what's going on. I know he's stressed out but he refuses to talk about it. I've also started feeling ill from the stress of not knowing what's going on with him and of starting a new school year. The restless sleep is making me tired and I've been sick to my stomach since before I went to bed last night. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I had recurring nightmares when I was little, I just summoned the courage to tell them to get out!