Question
I am 60 years old and for the last several years I have episodes during the middle of night where I walk on a porch and a dog attacks me and my wife wakes me from screaming and fighting.There is no dream leading into it. Even when I am out walking if I hear a dog bark I get a stick afraid of being attacked. Sometimes it is being attacked by a man with a gun and wake my wife up fighting and kicking the covers. My wife thinks it is because I am a postal worker and watched too many westerns as a child and it is my subconscious working overtime. What say you?
Answer
Your sunject is violent jerking in the sleep at night, if you are having twitching you need to see a neurologist for possible sleep seizures, if not you could have what is natural normal phenomnon which is hypnangogic hallucinations, our bodies and brains are wired to fall asleep and awaken together however once in awhile for some unknown reason one or the other lag behind a nano second hence you are dreaming with ones eyes open and usually they are so vivid that even after being up for a half hour you still might think someone is chasing you, etc.. If this happens often and your daytime wakefulness is being affected by this then it also could be a symptom of narcolepsy which is not what you have, but if you go to sleepnet.com and click on disorders narcoelpsy read down to the symptom hypnangogic hallucinations it explains it, also 3 hours before bedtime stay away from caffeine, tea, cofffee, chocolate, caramel colored soda like coke pepsi ginger ale and exercise all this make for restless sleep, also 30 min. before bedtime take a warm bath and l5 minutes before drink a glass of warm milk. Milk when heated contains tryptophan an amino acid sleep inducer. feel free to email again karel,
