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Nightmares

This may be totally unrelated but since I started eating raw I’ve had nightmares almost every night. Everyone says you’ll need less sleep and you’ll feel better but on top of my baby waking up once or twice a night, I wake up from this.

Anyone have any ideas on why this might be happening?

Comments

  • BluedolfinBluedolfin Raw Newbie

    The nightmares might be linked to a hormonal imbalance. You might try to increase you intake of foods like seaweed to support your adrenals.

  • Will raw nori do or do I need something else? Where can I find this. TY!

  • BluedolfinBluedolfin Raw Newbie

    Think of the nightmares as your body saying it is not getting what it needs. So, you are working on providing a “raw” material it needs to work well. You have now gone into a “deficit” state and are working on building the supply back up.

    Yes, nori is good. For more suggestions on foods to increase, search on the keyword “hormones” for many discussions about hormonal imbalances and various ways the body tells us about them (if one hormone is out of balance, most likely others are also… avoid getting trapped in the “exact one” that is off or that you don’t have the same symptoms… they are all part of the same system). After adding nori or other foods, you might not experience results right away. Be patient and keep increasing until you start to see results.

    I use a supplement that gives my hormonal system hormone building blocks and allows the system to regulate itself.

    Sweet dreams. :)

  • My theory on having nightmares since going raw is a sign that you’re detoxing. You will have sweet dreams in no time!

  • BluedolfinBluedolfin Raw Newbie

    Karmyngirl: That could very well could be also.

    MontrealMommy: It could be a combination of a few things. Make sure you are drinking at least 64 ounces of water per day and pooping up a storm. Gotta get as many boogie men otta there, as quickly as possible. :)

  • Thank for the advice all. I wondered if it might be detox. I hope it’s that because I really try to listen to what my body wants. I think I’ll have trouble finding what the problem it is, if it’s a lack of nutrition. I’ll tough it out for a while and see if it changes on it’s own.

  • pianissimapianissima Raw Newbie

    my yoga nidra instructor told us that we would have nightmares after this practice of “yogic sleep” because we are removing the layers of muck that cloud our true nature… a purification process makes everything surface. so, i think karmyngirl may be right. =)

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    This is very timely for me – last night I dreamt that a woolly bear caterpillar turned into a monster and carried away my dog (a husky). After I calmed down and fell back asleep I dreamt that it was Christmas morning and I had forgot to do anything for me daughter so I was running around like a mad thing trying to scrounge up presents before she got up. TERRIFYING! I agree with the detox because I had more nightmares and dreams in general in the early days of going raw, but I do think the detox comes in phases.

  • jenergyjenergy Raw Newbie

    When I have bad dreams they’re almost always centered around feelings of anxiety. Being late for work and none of my clothes fitting is one example, or running and hiding from some kind of bad guy, having a fight with someone, etc. When I was first getting sober I had a lot of dreams about drinking and getting caught. Maybe you’re feeling some anxiety about something… I know having a new baby is an anxious time, and possibly some feelings of unease regarding your lifestyle change and what it means for you?

    Hmmm… I’m feeling rather Freudish… ;o)

    Hehe. Just my two cents.

  • Thats funny. I’ve started having bad dreams too. I coincides with my drinking green smoothies and increasing my raw food intake.

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    jenergy – I do think that’s part of it for me, I think the Christmas nightmare is exactly the same as the one where you go to class for a test and realize you skipped class most of the semester and are completely unprepared, it’s just the parental version! But I did have a lot in the beginning of going raw, so there’s something there.

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    I was always wondering this too…Is how you dream related to what you eat?

    My dreams are just plain weird and upsetting. They are more like jenergy’s dream I guess – not getting somewhere that you are going – not really any “monster” nightmares but they just really make no sense and never have. They are like 15 different movies all cut up and editted together and the parts are totally random. I never have any ones I would consider “nice”.

    I wish I wouldn’t remember them because I would say that 95% of the time I wake up “sad” from my dreams. I think there has only been one time where I had dream and I was mad that I woke because it was getting “good” (yeah, there was a cute guy in it! ha ha!).

    My bf said he never remembers his dreams. I am jealous. I wish I wouldn’t remember mine – actually, I wish I wouldn’t dream at all. I hate my dreams.

    Does anyone know if there is a book or something that talks about dreams and whether or not your diet is related?

    For me, being raw or not, hasn’t really changed them. As result, I never wake up “refreshed” – in fact, I can’t remember the last time I ever woke up and couldn’t sleep anymore – maybe when I was a kid.

    I am really interested in this topic. I am so glad someone brought it up. I would really like my weird dreams to go away. Please keep this thread going guys.

  • jenny2052jenny2052 Raw Newbie

    I have no idea if this is relevant to anyone else, but my dreams are tied directly to my weak digestion. I have really low stomach acid, and I always had particularly horrible dreams when I ate meat (to be honest, though, I think that was partly ethical issues on top of digestion). It actually took me years and years to make the connection – if I ate meat, particularly late at night, I would have terrible dreams and would wake up continuously with panic attacks. I thought that was just how I was. But as I started to explore dietary changes, I noticed it happening less.

    I went back to being a vegetarian and and things got way better, then there was another great improvement going raw. But even now, I notice that if I eat anything heavy, garlicky, or spicy within a few hours of bed, my sleep is much less restful. It’s hard, because I often get hungry late at night! Whenever I can, though, I try to content myself with some grapefruit juice or a piece of fruit, because it makes a huge difference in how I will feel in the morning. Anyway, just my experience, but I hope this helps someone!

  • kandacekandace Raw Newbie

    I read a book a long time ago that talked about keeping a dream diary – each day, when you wake up, write down the dream you had in as much detail as possible. The idea was that your subconscious may be trying to tell you something that you could perhaps figure out – maybe this would help to cease the bad dreams. The downside for you, qeenfluff, is that the more you do this, the more you are able to remember your dreams!

  • Kandace, I actually did keep a dream diary for a while. It’s really fascinating because there is a pattern that emerges in these dreams that truly illuminates whatever issues you are having in everyday life (spiritual and physical) allowing you to “see” and address them. I found it very, very helpful.

  • jenergyjenergy Raw Newbie

    queenfluff… I don’t know much about it, but have you ever heard about lucid dreaming? I’m wondering if maybe learning to be conscious that you’re dreaming would help you to control the direction your dreams go. It’s something my mom has always been interested in. Just a thought. :o)

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    Ok, this is interesting, Jenny! We ate raw chili that night and my husband also had nightmares, come to think of it our daughter did too. My Mom always told me when she’d eat pepperoni pizza she’d dream of fires needing to be put out.

    queenfluff, that’s interesting that yours are sad, my nightmares are always absolutely terrifying or angry. I do a lot of screaming in them – angry or fearful.

    kandace – I’ve kept 2 dream diaries, one when I was a teenager, and one when I was pregnant, which I still have. There’s another time when dreams get vivid, pregnancy.

    And jenergy, I’ve also heard of the lucid dreaming, as long as I’m not having to fight the giant woolly bear caterpillar that has my dog in its mouth!

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    jenergy – Yes, I have heard of lucid dreaming. I was wondering about that myself. If you are conscious when you are dreaming, do you really get any rest or are you half awake? I might look into it just to see if it is something I could do – I am kind of a restless sleeper I think. I could just see myself not being able to fall asleep because I would be thinking “Must be conscious during dream”. Ha ha! If I could figure out how to direct my normally frustrating dreams to say one of me lounging on a tropical island with a tropical smoothie and a coconut that would be great! :)

    amysue – Well, I wake up sad and depressed – I wouldn’t say my dreams are always sad really – they are more frustrating and I feel like I “struggle” in them – not just physical. I am also angry in my dreams too. I can still remember what last night’s dream was about in a way and it was frustrating. I also think I am also disappointed often in my dreams.

    Pretty much all of this relates to stuff going on in my life right now so feelings wise I recognize it but what I dream has no connection to stuff going on often. I have no idea where the “thoughts” of the dreams come from. It is quite odd. I wish I could dream normal stuff that I could recognize! :)

    Actually one thing that is odd is I think I had LESS bad dreams before I became a vegetarian. That was 19 years ago. Hmmm…..I guess it is different for everyone. Well, I guess I had a hard time from others about becoming a vegetarian (family and friends) so maybe that is why?

  • kundalalitakundalalita Raw Newbie

    i used to be so afraid to go to sleep because of constant dreams of being chased by persons who wanted to kill me, even the animals and things would be out to get me, then i stopped modeling and it stopped.

    I have a friend who has nightmares if he eats late at night.

    i am convinced that dreams are definitely an expression of what is going on in the body. I wish i could remember names, but there was a doctor who was able to predict the exact spot that a woman was on her menstrual cycle just by the descriptions of her dreams…it had something to do with if she was closer to menstruating her dreams would take place more indoors, as well as many other factors…there was also a study that compared pregnant women who had bad dreams and pregnant women who had pleasant ones, and the ones who had bad dreams had easier labors. the conclusion was that the women who had pleasant dreams had issues that were buried so deep they couldn’t even bring them up to be worked out in their dreams, but the ones who had gone through bad dreams had worked out their issues better and didn’t have them bottled up.

    I learned from a psychologist that if you do look at your dreams, make sure to pay attention to the feelings going on in the dreams. It doesn’t matter so much exacty the things that appear in your dreams, but how you feel… anxiety, fear, sad, angry etc… this is key to showing the feelings that you have during the day that you are trying to work out in your sleep.

    mon46, thats interesting how helpful your dream journal was… i have been reluctant to do it because sometimes i just dont want to remember my dreams, and also it takes Forever to write them because they are so long and complicated and detailed.

    another bad side to remembering dreams, is sometimes i wake up and i’m still mad at whoever it was for what they did in my dream! i’ve had boyfriends get slapped for cheating on me in my dream hehe

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    kundalalita – it is interesting that the feelings are real. Sometimes I wondered if my body/mind came up with situations that would bring out a certain feeling that I couldn’t express in real life, like anger that I had bottled up. Like screaming rage into a pillow, only you’re doing it inside your head. The pregnancy one is interesting too, this could be a coincidence but I’ve been pregnant twice and my dreams correctly predicted the sex of the babies each time.

    queenfluff – is it possible that it’s not the fact that you ate meat at that time, but maybe life was less stressful 19 years ago? Maybe less responsibilities?

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    kundalalita -

    Well, that is certainly interesting. I wonder what modeling had to do with the killer dreams? Did you have an adoring fan stalking you? I am glad they stopped for you though.

    I will normally eat later at night. I don’t care if it is after 9 (or whatever the rawie time to stop eating is) – although, it is not really late or anything. I am a night owl so I like dinner at like 7 or 8. But if I want a late night snackie – I don’t care what time it is.

    I don’t normally have problems falling asleep but I can sleep for a long time and still be sleepy because I feel like a “struggle” in my sleep. I know I move around alot. My dreams are not that bad that I won’t go to sleep – I know they are going to be weird – so I just expect it. I don’t look forward to it – but I just hope every night before I go to sleep that I for once will have a good dream.

    I like that theory about how those who have the tortorous dreams actually do not keep things bottled up. I don’t think I keep bottled up how I feel – I think it might be more that sometimes it would be nice to have more people to talk about the dreams. I remember once a very long time ago I went to see a psychologist because I was having trouble sleeping (I had bad experience at a job) – so it was the doctors idea that I go and see one – it was too weird – I couldn’t talk to the psychologist. Just seemed dumb…(funny that I say that because I have a degree in psychology)..I think it was more like I didn’t want to tell my problems to a stranger – I feel better telling them to friends or whatever. I know what my problems are – but that doesn’t mean the dreams will go away or get better by telling people about it (esp a stranger).

    That is funny about the bf – I am NOT a morning person and normally quite crabby in the morning and if I tell my bf I had a bad dream and I am sad – he asks if he was in it and than if he was and there was some sort of “cheatie” stuff going on – he makes a big deal about it. So, I don’t tell him about it anymore because he gets mad that I dreamed that! So I don’t tell him about my dreams anymore.

    I feel the same way you do. The dreams are so long and complicated that it would take forever to write everything down. I hope one they will invent a “dream recorder” – like a VCR to record your dreams in movie format. That why I can watch them and than step on the tape! (ha ha!)

    Anyhow, I can’t help but feel a little bit better knowing I am not the only one who has weird long complicated dreams that they remember. I feel like less of a freak.

    amysue – Well, yes and no. I mean, I have had times where my life was going really good and no real stresses in a way – responsibilities yes but normal stuff I can handle – and I still had weirdo dreams. I normally handle stress pretty well actually. Right now, because of the recession, my bf and I are having a hard time finding a job and my bf and I have no idea where we are going to the money to pay for the bills this month, the car we had is dead and I can’t buy a new one to even GET to a job when I get one (we were borrowing one for a while but the person wants to sell it now) and we just relocated to a new state too so we have bills from that. So, yeah, in a way, right now life sucks a bit. Things are NOT working out as well as we planned. For me it is hard because I am one of those people who employers usually love to hire since I such a great worker – I have never had problems finding a job before now. It is hard on my self-esteem I guess. I am natural worrier too as I like to be financially secure. I am sure all of this is making my dreams worse.

  • It is strange, I remember my dreams very rarely, but when I do they are before a significal event of my life, before which I had been thinking about that a lot. These times my dreams are quite complicated and sometimes weird and unrealistic.

  • kundalalitakundalalita Raw Newbie

    lol, you know whats ironic? Just before I woke up this morning I dreamt about this thread! i was dreaming i was looking at gone raw and Zoe posted something here and it was long and i was reading it all interested hahaha. so yay, a pleasant dream!

    Queenfluff, its hard to say what exactly the connection was, i think its because when i first got involved in the “pyseudo-hollywood” industry as a freelance model, pretty much unprotected, when you put yourself out there you really feel vulnerable to attack by anyone and i kept meeting people who appeared nice but had different agendas so to speak…really had to learn about trust then especially as a naive teen.. but i found it interesting to experience that if you change what you do in your daily life it changes your dreams.

    I agree with your take on some psychologists! that particular psychologist actually wouldn’t let me talk because she wanted to talk most during the session lol! my experience has been a little frusturating because i’ve found that the psychologist will not truly listen, unless what they hear supports whatever preconceived notion or psychiatric label they’ve already got in their minds about you…does that make sense? i told one psychologist my story and she spent the whole session trying to get me to “open up” because based on my childhood/story she didn’t believe that i hadn’t tried any drugs/alcohol not even marijuana, or done crimes or that i hadn’t tried any lesbian experiences etc..?! i’m not that kind of hippie lady!

    thats so funny that your bf gets mad if you dreamed about that! i guess he really wants to make sure that theres no doubt in your mind :)

    and yes you are no longer a freak because now there are more of us hehe. really though, ive been told the long complex dreams are supposed to signify a creative high intellect.

    wow, queenfluff, you really have a lot on your plate right now. i really wish i could help, especially since you are closer now! if you ever need a batch of fruits or anything just let me know :)

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    kundalalita!

    hehe! Well, no surprise that you dreamed that! Don’t see the Zoe post though? Maybe it is coming up soon? :) That was good your dream was pleasant.

    I can remember a smidge of my weird dream from last night. I didn’t wake up as sad as I usually do but still tired. I remember that the actors of Beverly Hills 90210 were in it (one of my fave old shows!) and that we were trying to name who the pictures were of someone that was on something that looked like the wheel from the wheel of fortune but the pictures showed up in middle and flashed and I can’t remember who the picture was of but they guessed it was someone who it wasn’t – in the dream I knew it was wrong but can’t remember now. I think it was Andrea that guessed wrong. :) I have no idea where this dream came from but that is only the very last “scene” in my dream – the rest of it I was running around with Brenda I think and whatever it was it was something frustrating. Weird considering I did even watch Beverly Hills yesterday! (I normally watch the reruns). So this was one of my less weird dreams but still don’t know what in the world it might mean. :)

    When I went to see the psychologist this was before I even was in college to do my psych degree (my degree was more animal psych but I still had to take human psych stuff) and all I can remember is that she asked me stuff like “why do you think you can’t sleep?” and “what do you think your problems are?” Duh! I know this – why do I need to waste money to tell her? Yes, like you said, I sure she knew already what wrong with me and had a label for me – all I had to do was mention two things – that I couldn’t sleep and I had a bad experience a job. Your psychologist sounds very unhelpful! I don’t see why whether you had a lesbian experience or not should matter. Sounds like you had one those Freudian psychs – Freud was the guy who always asked about the patients childhood, relationship with parents and sexual stuff. Weird my psych hardly talked at all – she wanted me to do all the talking which I hated! :)

    Yeah, when I would tell my bf “yeah you were in the dream and you were talking to another girl” – he would say “See you don’t trust me”. :) Like I can control what I dream!

    Well, at least all this means we are super smarties! :)

    Yes, a lot on my plate. I feel like once I get job it will definatley fall more into place and lot of the problems will be resolved since they are money related. Next time I come down to Santa Monica, I will stop and pick up that fruit! he he! Thanks!

    There are some positives to my situation – we got a nice apartment with lots of sun coming in the window and my cats are just loving it! They are addicted to that sun! It is amazing what a difference some Vitamin D makes in a kitties energy – they are all over the place now! My one kitty likes to sit in the window on the cat tree and wait for the neighbors to walk by the window and talk to her! :)

  • Well when the nightmares stated I had been 99% raw for almost a month. On saturday I spent the day out with my fiancee without the kids and I cheated. I ate cooked vegetarian food all day. The nightmares have stopped since.

    I am so curious why it has stopped. I guess I could explain it away by saying my detox must have been interupted but I can’t help but wonder if my body was missing protein while only eating raw. I wonder if it was cause by an imbalance in my diet.

    I have since stayed raw again. It’s only been 2 days now but I’m very curious if it will start again.

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    MontrealMommy -

    What were the nightmares about and how did feel while you were dreaming? I wonder if they were related to just the whole transition to raw – were you kind of “obsessing” about everything being raw and having trouble with cravings? I know when I first got interested in raw, you have so many questions and sometimes get obsessed over the details and checking on what is raw and so forth. It can be kind of draining and makes your mind go in circles.

    As far as detox, eating cooked is one way to stop detox so in a way that would make sense but I am not sure if dreams are related to detox but no one really knows! Did you have other detox symptoms around that time too?

  • bad dreams are due to poor digestion, and gas, try food combining

  • I wonder if it is because all the toxins that are being eliminated are affecting the brain cells and you know how you get an emotional detox as well and you are concious in the daytime about it, well, just because we are semi concious when we are asleep, it doesn’t mean that the detox process is stopping and having a rest just because we are. You know what I mean!

  • kandacekandace Raw Newbie

    This thread has gotten me quite interested in thinking about my own dreams each night – I may even start that dream journal! I had acupuncture for the first time yesterday and had the most intense night of dreaming of my life last night. I was in such a (rare) deep sleep, but woke a few times, as with each night, to my kitty’s cuddling attempts. Each time, I would realize that I was in the middle of a nigh-long dream recapping my life as a series of steps on a long, winding path through water, rocks and hills (all with bare feet, no less). I woke up feeling more rested and refreshed than ever. I’m curious to see if this continues!

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    Hey kandance -

    That is really intersting about the acupunture. I have never had it before but i am wondering if it release something (toxins) that help you sleep deeper. They say that it is good if you dream because than you are in REM and that is the restorative state.

    But if you don’t wake up feeling rested even though you dream and you are in REM I wonder if it really matters if you dream or not. It could be that the acupuncture is so relaxing that you were more relaxed than you normally are when you sleep. I think the deeper the sleep them more likely the dreams.

    My kitties wake me up too but it is usually by stepping on my head! :)

    bluebells – When you sleep is when the body does alot of its replenishing and healing which is probably why alot of rawies have that 9 pm eating rule. If you eat too close to when you go to sleep, you body will be doing too much digesting and not enough healing. I have been trying to follow the 9 pm rule for the most part – or at least trying not to eat several hour before I go to sleep. I drink alot of water before I go to sleep though – I don’t know if that matters or not. I don’t think it does except for I have to get up in the middle of the night to pee some times. That doesn’t bother me though.

    Right now, I can’t even sleep at all because I have too many problems buzzing through my head (which is why I am up at 3 am posting on here!)

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