I think what I have may be called "Night Terrors", but I don't remember.

Anyway, when I fall asleep, and actually get into a good, comfortable sleep, I begin to hear things, and see things, and it's freaking me the fuck out, as they aren't there when I turn the lights on.

I almost broke my toe last night, when I hear things moving, and saw a long, black shadow slithering across the foot of my bed.

But when I jumped up, out of it (along with my big toe slamming hard on the metal, bottom portion of a desk chair, ripping a small portion of my toe-nail off) I went to turn the light on, and nothing was even in my room, let alone on my bed.

This is only a small portion of the shit that goes on. I feel things touching me, I hear shit, and see shit. Shit that isn't there. Now I'm not generally a crazy person (not more-so than usually, anyway) but this is giving me a hard time grasping onto what little bit of reality I have fucking left. It's hard to sleep, let alone 'wanting' to sleep, even if I could.

This is only the least of my troubles. What makes it worse is the nightmares I normally have every-single-night, without a reason, that is still unbeknownst to me.

For an example, here is one of the Nightmares I have.
My dad is a pretty awesome man, and wouldn't harm me, not even in the slightest. Now, even if he did, which would be by accident, if anything, he'd want to hurt himself over it.

I've had a lot of dreams about him, where he is literally trying to kill me. Imagine those horror movies, where you're running around, and thinking you're hiding in a perfect place, and out of nowhere the person or thing, finds you, and breaks shit down trying to murder you. A lot of it involves me running around like that.

One other dream being where I"m just pulled into some fucking dark void, whilst having these..."things" (dark, so not knowing what it would be) hitting me, grabbing me, scratching at me. Pulling me around. No noise, no sight. Nothing but what I feel.

I don't know what the fuck is happening, but it was like this when I was younger, and just progressively grew worse. I think I may be losing my mind. Anyone ever had this shit happen to them, before? If not, do you think I'm crazy?

Do I need help in your opinion?

If you feel that it is having direct impact on your health or mental stability, yes, go get help. I suggest (and mind you - I NEVER give this suggestion) going to go see a councillor. Tell them the problems you're having, down to every last detail. They should be able to help you from there - after all they specialized in Jedi mind powers.

Now, personal tips for getting to sleep:

Dreamcatcher. I am not superstitious, but I've had these things for as long as I've been alive, and I've had so few nightmares that I can count them on my fingers. I don't know what it is, but these things fucking work and I don't question it.

Issues seeing things? STOP SEEING THEM! I sleep with a fan on, and sometimes the draft makes my eyes water or it's just a little too noisy that night. So what I'll do is take a small blanket and cover my eyes/ears with it, and lie flat on my back. This is both comfortable, blinding, sound-dampening, and what-have-you.

I don't know much about psychology, but I'm pretty sure a part of it is also in your own head. I've noticed that people who feel tortured generally feel literally tormented like this, like there's just some shit out to get them for no real reason. It may just be a mindset, one that made you see/feel this, and then you became consciously aware and it stuck. Like a placebo, or the opposite, whatever it's called. I've tried the placebo thing on myself before - telling myself something was wrong, and it had genuine negative effects. I can terrify myself at night like this, just by imagining these things you claim to be having happen to you.

If you think a mindset thing might help you, try thinking of things like this at night: You are the hero of your story - and it's a good story. One day you'll do something amazing, and for your story to work you absolutely have to come out okay. Predestination says that you have to come out okay.

^ Keep in mind that this may not necessarily be true, and it's bad for your probably already inflated ego, but it works for me as a countermeasure for when I freak myself out.

Hope I helped somehow.

There is some indication that night terrors can result from being overtired, in which case interventions such as creating a bedtime schedule can increase the chances of restful sleep. If the night terrors are more chronic, however, some evidence suggests that the sufferer should be awakened from sleep just before the time when the terrors typically occur to interrupt the sleep cycle

Wikapedia-

Sorry if its little help. i personaly have nothing but lucid dreams, lucky me

Have the door open in such a way that it leaves a trail of light to your bed. Stay in the trail on the way to bed. Once you get in bed, put on one of those sleep masks so the light doesn't keep you up.

I've had weird things like that happen before, not the dreams, but the other stuff. I'll be about to fall asleep when suddenly I'm jerked awake, it feels like something shook me or like something jumped on my bed. I don't know what to tell you. The dream-catcher thing Reilyx mentioned might work. I have three in my room and having them there has helped me clam down. If you're religious at all you might try putting some sort of symbol near your bed to ward things off.

Hope you find something that works.

Yeah, I'm far from being religious. I believe, but I don't. Let's leave it at that :P

I don't know what exactly is causing the dreams itself, but I do know personally, that I'm far from normal, and that I have a very 'creative mind'. Reading stories I create, is proof of that.

Now, when I'm awake, I'm obviously able to see reality as it truly is. But when I'm just about to fall completely asleep, I'm jerked awake by a sound or feeling. Now, it only happens 1 or sometimes 2 times every night. But it normally happens where it's hard to get back to sleep.

Now I do have this weird phobia, of Snakes and Mice. I know of a true story where a man went to sleep and a Rat found it's way into his house and started to eat his toes. Now a lot of my 'freak outs', I see what I think is a Mouse, Rat, or a Snake.

It might be cause of the experiences I've had with them, plus the story I mentioned, causing this.

I do realize, though, that your mind and body are in both the physical and dream states when you're finally able to fall asleep, and that will play major tricks on you.

I guess it just so happens to also mean that is when my mind replays the dreams I have, and the fears I have.

>>5 Same :V

>>1 My brother used to get horrible night terrors. He would be half awake at midnight screaming his lungs out, lashing around in his bed. He was too young to really explain what he saw, though. Sleep problems like that run in my family. The majority of my dreams are nightmares, and I'm prone to sleepwalk every now and again. I also get that really creepy feeling like something is touching me or crawling on me. I finally got to the point where I now sleep completely tucked in, head and all, under the covers so that I can know for sure there aren't any bugs or creepy things :|

Normally, people drink certain types of tea so they can remember their dreams. Melantonin works, as well. (The following will NOT work with normal sleeping pills.) They help you remember your dreams by putting you in a deep sleep. The deeper the sleep, the less likely you are to be in that half-awake state. This works especially well if you set an alarm. Go to bed earlier than usual and set an early alarm. Never let yourself wake up naturally. Make sure the alarm is annoying and is set at a time to wake you up from a deep sleep so your body doesn't get that inbetween chance. Once you get used to this, you may have to change the tone or put it in a different area of the room.

Like Rei said, dreamcatches help. Just tell yourself, "It works." Whether the theory behind it is real or not, if you can thoroughly convince yourself that it can work, it will.

Now, I'm not a religions person, see here. However, I find having a metal charm under my pillow helps. Sometimes I'll just use my old dog's dogtag, other times I'll use an angel charm or a dream charm, et cetera. I know it sounds stupid, but it honestly helps. Not always, but enough. I don't know if that's spiritual or scientific (maybe metal by your head helps your dreams >> dunno).

If you honestly feel that your mental health is at risk, however, go to a doctor/therapist.

>>7

Just to point this out, but they say that if you remember your dreams, you've not slept good. This hasn't anything to do with...anything, just pointing that out. The better your sleep, the less likely the chance you'll remember a dream.

Also I tuck myself in, which helps a lot, but last night my dog slept in my bed, which kind of helped. Though he is very annoying. He is still in that 2 year old puppy range, still. At least he is stubby legged and doesn't take up much room.

>>8 Sort of. Let me reword that. You sleep just as much deep and shallow. When you remember your dreams, it doesn't only mean that you've had a shallow sleep. It sometimes means that you woke up in the middle of it, and it sometimes means that you're good at remembering your dreams. People can sleep deep and still remember - just not everybody, and sometimes people need help with it. Certain teas help you remember like that, and they also help you sleep in general. The point is that they help you sleep either way, and waking up in the middle of a deeper rest is good when you're in this situation.

It's what we used for my brother, and it worked rather well :O Sleeping pills put you in TOO deep, which I've noticed personally, and alarms won't wake you up (for me) unless it's loud enough to wake up the whole house.

>>9 You dream just as much*

^It's so hard to find good threads to bump on this board =o=

I checked it online, as well. REM sleep supposodly gives you more dreams according to the internet, but the psychologist who I spoke to said otherwise.

As we all know, we don't know everything. The human mind is a hard concept to grasp. We might think we are understanding it better, but then someone else is completely different from the one being studied. That's why the mind is a tricky subject. It isn't as consistent as other things.