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Summary
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A person diagnosed with Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression asks about frequent nighttime terrors and ways to settle them. They want to understand the connection between sleep disturbances and trauma.
The answer discusses trauma-related nightmares and suggests seeking psychotherapy and psychiatric help, mentioning exposure-based therapy and Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) as approaches to discuss.
It also suggests learning ways to return attention to the present, including relaxation, meditation, movement, or yoga, while acknowledging that no single solution is offered.
Question
Reader · Identity withheldI have been diagnosed with PTSD and MDD. I have been experiencing night terrors. Can you take about this as it relates to PTSD. I get the night terrors several times a night. Are there any strategies I might use to calm this down?
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Answer
Mark Vigil Dombeck, Ph.D.For those out there that don’t know, PTSD is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and MDD is Major Depressive Disorder.
\nPTSD is classified as an anxiety disorder, and is a type of difficult that sometimes follows in the wake of a person experiencing a near-death experience or significant and violent loss. PTSD is characterized by three major classes of symptoms:
\n1) an exaggerated startle response, 2) avoidance of things that remind the person of the trauma, and 3) unwanted, intrusive thoughts (and sometimes dreams) about the trauma. The author of this short letter is writing to ask about the third class of symptoms.
\nThe nightmares experienced by people with PTSD are typically distinct from ‘normal’ nightmares (if such a thing exists), in that PTSD nightmares usually involve a reliving of the traumatic events that led to the PTSD, while ‘normal’ nightmares tend to be more fantastic.
\nWhile I have no silver bullet to recommend to you, I do have a couple of suggestions you might consider.
\nShow moreShow less
The first suggestion is that you do your best to get yourself state-of-the-art psychotherapy and psychiatric assistance for your difficulties if you have not done this already.
\nThere have been advances in psychotherapy techniques for treating traumas. Being traumatized involves experiencing an event that is so disturbing that it cannot be emotionally ‘digested’ and gotten past, and instead hangs around to haunt the traumatized person.
\nWhile I have not received the training and thus do not have first hand experience, therapists I respect often recommend a type of therapy known as EMDR (Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) as a way to help ‘digest’ the traumatic memories.
\nThe older but better scientifically studied technique of Exposure Therapy (a type of behavior therapy available from a behavioral or cognitive-behavioral therapist) is also known to be useful.
\nIn the psychiatric realm, there are various and sundry medications that can help calm a person down as well as lift their mood. You would need to consult with a psychiatrist to gain access to such medications.
\nMy second suggestion is that you consider seeking out and learning about various techniques for grounding yourself in the present moment such as relaxation training, meditation, hatha (postural) yoga and even just plain old physical exercise and dancing.
\nPTSD involves the re-experiencing of trauma long after the actual traumatic event has ceased. It is therefore helpful to a person who is prone to such re-experiencing to have one or more methods available to him/her of returning safely to the present (safe) moment.
\nGood luck.
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