Nightmares and Anxiety

Due to my Anxiety, I tend to be plagued by nightmares. Tonight is one of those cases.

In the dream, a man with a gun was coercing me to steal money for him. If I didn’t do exactly what he said, he would shoot me. If I told anyone that I was being threatened, he’d also shoot me.

Dreams like this are quite common, and I wake up with my heart pumping and crazy eyes.

I feel exhausted right now, but I’m also scared of sleeping.

I try to tell myself that it isn’t real, and to just buck up. I need to get back to sleep, or be tired in class tomorrow. Or worse, sleep past my alarm again.

But still I don’t want to sleep.

It’s quite a conundrum. I want to avoid the dream, but I also need the sleep in order to function and do well tomorrow. If I didn’t have anything to do tomorrow, I’d likely be able to stay up longer and distract myself before going back to bed. But, as it is, I don’t have time like that on my hands.

It isn’t real. When I wake up I’ll be safe in my bed. It’s just a dream, created by my Anxiety and stress. You are likely stressed about something, and this is how it is being manifested. You will be okay.

I’ll keep repeating thoughts like this to myself. I hope that good sleep will come easily.

Readers, how do you deal with nightmares?

PS: Side note, I also find it really funny that dreaming is not limited to humans. Sometimes I’ll catch my dog whining or growling in her sleep at some imaginary threat. Other times, her legs are twitching as she’s chasing some nasty invader squirrels out of the backyard. And on occasion, her eyes won’t be closed all the way and I can see them rolling around in the back of her head. Tonight she seems to be having good dreams though. Maybe her legs are twitching because she’s running towards a big tasty chicken, or an attractive male doggy.

I feel a little better now, humor helps.

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