question about nightmare..

jillio said:
Lucid dreaming is an altered consciousness state. In order for one to dream, or to have a nightmare, one must have entered REM sleep where the brain causes the body to be immobilized.
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Can you explain how I can control my breathing during dreams? Maybe there's something I don't know.


jillio said:
A flashback is not the same thing as a nightmare. The OP was asking about nightmares. She specifically said she "woke up" from the experience. Obviously she was not having a flashback.
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I'm not arguing whether SpiceHD had a flashback. I personally use the same technique for my nightmares and flashbacks. In fact lots of times they sort of melt into each other, where I will have flashback material mixed with what could only be dream material.
 
jillio said:
And, chances are, if you can gain enough control over your flashbacks to regulate your breathing, you can prevent the flashback from occurring. This is not the case with nightmares.
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I can control my breathing but not my flashbacks. I can also control my nightmares, in the sense I can decide where they go next.
 
Dream Analyzer - link

I was able to interpret my dreams and Liza got me involved in reading more about my dreams. It was really interesting how some objects in our dreams can be interpreted into real-life situations.

For example if you dream of a flying fish - this can be interpreted as a situation/person in your real life that is in harm's way OR someone in your life that is cold/distant.

Really interesting, eh?

In this book, (I'll need to get the title and author) it also teaches about resting the body before bed with natural herbs such as lavender which I really recommend! It is naturally soothing. Bathtime should be a ritual and not hurried. Some food can be known to trigger nightmares and I avoid eating spicy & heavy food a few hours before bedtime.

Cheese... drools... I avoid that as well as it is my nightmare trigger.
 
jillio said:
Nika is simply referring to the fear response. Fight or flight.
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Sorry -- didn't mean to go into too much detail. I'm a psychology nerd and when I get enthusiastic about explaining something to someone sometimes I get too technical.
 
Nika said:
Can you explain how I can control my breathing during dreams? Maybe there's something I don't know.




I'm not arguing whether SpiceHD had a flashback. I personally use the same technique for my nightmares and flashbacks. In fact lots of times they sort of melt into each other, where I will have flashback material mixed with what could only be dream material.
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You may think you are controlling your breathing when you are having a nightmare, but I can guarantee you that it is physically impossible for you to consciously control your breathing when you are in a REM state. In order to have a nightmare, you have to enter into REM sleep stage. Not having control over your muscles and your movement is a criteria for having entered into REM. You must be able to control your muscles in order to control your breathing. Only 2 things are possible...either you are not having nightmares, or you are not controlling your breathing.
 
jillio said:
You may think you are controlling your breathing when you are having a nightmare, but I can guarantee you that it is physically impossible for you to consciously control your breathing when you are in a REM state. In order to have a nightmare, you have to enter into REM sleep stage. Not having control over your muscles and your movement is a criteria for having entered into REM. You must be able to control your muscles in order to control your breathing. Only 2 things are possible...either you are not having nightmares, or you are not controlling your breathing.
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When the physical body is in REM state, the mental state is disassociated therefore controlled breathing is not possible unless by artificial means.
 
jillio said:
Not having control over your muscles and your movement is a criteria for having entered into REM.
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All I can tell you is that I have opened my eyelids before during REM and was able to watch as my eyes zoomed all over the place causing double vision gone haywire. It was a very cool experience, and I was not in a flashback at that moment.

How about people that act out their dreams or sleepwalk? I think I read in my psychology book that the paralyzing hormones are released for most but not all people. (I would go check but I can't read my textbook anymore.)
 
Nika said:
All I can tell you is that I have opened my eyelids before during REM and was able to watch as my eyes zoomed all over the place causing double vision gone haywire. It was a very cool experience, and I was not in a flashback at that moment.

How about people that act out their dreams or sleepwalk? I think I read in my psychology book that the paralyzing hormones are released for most but not all people. (I would go check but I can't read my textbook anymore.)
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People that sleepwalk have a sleep disorder. There is a neurological malfunction involved.

I would venture to say that you dreamed you opened your eyes. That is not uncommon. Nor is it uncommon to think that you are looking at an intruder in your room and trying to scream or to move to get away but are unable to do so. People report that they believed they were conscious during this episode, yet when repeated in a laboratory setting where the patient can be monitored, they are decidedly unconscious.

And yes, during REM sleep, the limbs are paralyzed. Otherwise, when you dream you are running, you would get up and run. When you dream you are swimming, you would throw yourself from your bed and attempt to swim across the floor. People also dream that they are urinating...and they wake up to find that they have wet the bed. Why...because they are in a REM state, and cannot get up to go to the bathroom.
 
Mrs Bucket said:
When the physical body is in REM state, the mental state is disassociated therefore controlled breathing is not possible unless by artificial means.
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Exactly! You got it, Mrs.Bucket. One cannot be in REM sleep, and thus having a nightmare, and control their breathing at the same time.
 
I had terrible nightmares about my two surgeries. I ended up getting muscle spasms because of my terrible nightmares.... and that I was not able to move. I had to page my PCP and he called 911 for me. (Luckily, my pager was on my bed at the time..) I was rushed to the hospital, they ran a several tests on me... finally, they found out that I had muscle spasms.. and they had to put me on Cyclobenzaprine. It was no fun. :( The following week, I went to see a therapist to talk about my feelings about nightmares, etc. I felt better afterwards.
 
Jiro said:
i SUPPOSE that controlling your breathing is one of the way to control your own dream... just like in real life. You need to control your breathing (to stay calm obviously) if you got very afraid.... if not - then you lost the control of situation around you.

:dunno:
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what i don't understand though is how one controls their breathing when they are experiencing a nightmare. when you're dreaming, your body is unconscious meaning that breathing is involuntary.
 
Hear Again said:
what i don't understand though is how one controls their breathing when they are experiencing a nightmare. when you're dreaming, your body is unconcious meaning that breathing is involuntary.
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Can't be done. If you could consciously control your breathing during a nightmare, you could consciously control the fact that you were even having a nightmare.
 
nika,

i've tried using deep breathing techniques to help with my flashbacks, but they don't work. i experience what is called hypervigilence (according to my tdoc) where i'm overly sensitive to my environment, sounds around me and have a severe startle response. i lose touch with reality when i have a flashback and cannot hear anything around me. it's almost as if i'm having an auditory hallucination except that i do not hear voices (unless i'm experiencing auditory hallucinations specifically related to the situations that cause my flashbacks).
 
jillio said:
Can't be done. If you could consciously control your breathing during a nightmare, you could consciously control the fact that you were even having a nightmare.
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that's what i thought. :ty: for the explanation.
 
Hear Again said:
what i don't understand though is how one controls their breathing when they are experiencing a nightmare. when you're dreaming, your body is unconcious meaning that breathing is involuntary.
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Maybe it's simply controlling the breathing within the dream, not physically outside of it. The same way that the "eyes opening" could have been a dream that felt extremely real, maybe something is happening inside of the dream that feels like it has external physical components as well. :dunno: I know that I've had dreams where I felt more aware of myself and more in control of my body, even if that didn't mean that I actually was "outside" of the dream, maybe it's something like that.

PS, I think dreams are really cool. :D
 
lsfoster said:
Maybe it's simply controlling the breathing within the dream, not physically outside of it. The same way that the "eyes opening" could have been a dream that felt extremely real, maybe something is happening inside of the dream that feels like it has external physical components as well. :dunno: I know that I've had dreams where I felt more aware of myself and more in control of my body, even if that didn't mean that I actually was "outside" of the dream, maybe it's something like that.

PS, I think dreams are really cool. :D
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Exactly. You may dream that you are controlling your breathing, but it is all part of the dream.
 
Nika said:
I meditate on my breath. While I am having the nightmare/flashback, I think to myself, "I am still breathing, I am still breathing."

I also notice how fast my heart is going. Usually during these it's going really fast (maybe as high as 200bpm) and I control my breathing so that my heart rate slows down. I also think "I am alive, I am alive" and "I will come out of this alive."

I don't know if that helped at all. I'm not really sure how to explain it.

As for acupressure/jinsin jitsu, for mild anxiety, use one hand to hold the index finger of the other. For intense anxiety, hold the pinky finger. It doesn't matter which hand holds which finger.

You can also tuck your hands under your arms, tucking them far enough back so that your index fingers are in contact with the back of your armpits. Your arms will be crossed in front of you.

Another thing you can do is sit on your hands, with the palms up. Make sure you're sitting on bones and not muscle. These all help with anxiety and fear.

Obviously you can't do this during the dream, so what you can do is when you make up from a nightmare or flashback, do one of these holds. It should help. Try to do it for ten minutes minimum.

Hope that helps you all.
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thanks for the suggestions, nika.

i haven't learned how to deal with my flashbacks (my tdoc and i are starting to discuss that now in therapy). when i come out of a flashback, i have alot of fear and feel immobilized. it takes me awhile to settle down emotionally before i can start to think of or do other things. my tdoc said he has some exercises to help me cope with the flashbacks, so it will be interesting to see what they are and how well they work.
 
is it possible to experience a dream and avoid something you know will happen in it?

for example, if i'm having a dream about being chased by someone who intends to do harm, it is possible for me to make the decision to avoid that by waking up?
 
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