Being a nurse means you've probably seen some crazy things which can definitely take a toll on your mental health. This week we want to know if those situations have an affect on your sleep, so tell us:

Do you ever get nightmares from your job?

Being a nurse definitely is not easy, so tell us about your night terrors and how you got over them!

I'm so tired when I finally go to bed, that I fall asleep in five seconds flat and usually sleep soundly all night, except for when the phone rings and I jump out of my skin, I just know that somethings wrong at the facility or a nurse called out for the morning shift and they can't get it covered.  'There's been a time or two that I'm dreaming that the phones ringing and I jump out of my skin, or I  play over a difficult day in my dreams, YUCK!  It was bad enough living it once, I really didn't need to live it again in my dreams, and I wonder why I wake up tired.

No nightmares yet.

Definitely!!   Many a repetitive nightmare. Always an anxiety dream involving... I can't find my patients, it is 6 hours into the shift, didn't know I had THAT patient, etc. At least I am not naked! My good friend that has been retired for YEARS still suffers from  these kinds of dreams.

Oddly enough, my nightmares about my job are not coming from patients, or my unit right now- there are coming from management. I guess I don't have a management brain- but I do possess a brain; and compassion and very good nursing skills. To be made to feel inadequate is just wrong. I try to look  at everything as a learning experience- I am looking at this this way as well. In regards to developing my own leadership skills, I will draw on this experience- as a way not to treat people. 

My dreams about nursing usually involve not getting to work when I know I have to work a shift or unable to find lab results when I need them. I have had these dreams since nursing school when I would dream I was ready to graduate and realize i had totally missed going to one of my classes. I would then have to delay graduating until the next semester so I could finish this class! I think it has something to do with the anxiety I experience with my job and worrying I'll miss something.

The only nightmares I have are not job related.  The nightmares that I have are from repressing bad experiences related to resentments  of others and the harm/injury they have caused me which lay neatly tucked away in my subconsious.  The only way to aleviate these types of fearful nightmares is to admit the area of your life that was effected, search for any part you played in the scenario and admit to God and another human being the exact nature of your wrong and put it to rest.  Tough to do, but it works! 

Right after I started my first RN job on a tely unit, I had this nightmare where each nurse in turn left the unit to do something of some importance somewhere in the hospital.  As soon as I was the only staff person on the unit all the patients' rhythms abruptly flatlined and I was running from room to room with the code cart, each patient in turn looking at me dumbfounded saying, "Nope, I'm fine, must be someone else."  I did not find the patient(s) that were coding before I woke up.

Nightmares are usually classified as fears embedded in our subconscious regarding situations or things. As a nurse, the day is always hectic and in an effort to diassociate from the activity of the day, one should unwind by taking a nice long warm bath. During the  relaxingbath, release the days activites, bless them good, all of them even those that you don't think well of, (those are the ones that comes in different forms in your dreams that is classified as nightmares). Release it all and prepare yourself for the next day. Before falling asleep incorporate in your imagination pleasant thoughts. 

Head_Nurse says ...

Sleep with one eye open, gripping your pillow tight!

EXIT LIGHT! ENTER NIGHT!!

i had a pt at my facility who was end stage ckd and decided she was done with dialysis and didnt want to do it anymore she was admitted on my night off...the night that she died I had a nightmare that a pt who i was caring for  tried to eat my head i woke up hysterical at 130a...i know weird the next time i was at work i was telling my dream and the lady in my dream was spitting image of my pt. and she died at 130a it  scared the crap out of me. 

I am a 100% Totally and Permanantly Disabled Veteran.  I have nightmares. 

Many are from nursing in a Federal Detention Facility, doing Special Operations and Flight Nursing and working a Level 3 Federal Correctional Center. Some are residual from my time with the Marine Corps.  A mixed bag of potential threats and actual altercations/events (which contributed to the perm back injuries). 

A few years of therapy and lots of good pharmaceutical keep them at bay most of the time.  (Get the therapy if you are still having them.)

To those of you that dont experience nightmares, I am envious!  I've had nightmares all my life; seems to increase as my stress level increases.  Sometimes I must talk about them to get the images outta my mind or some of the really bad ones I cant talk about and just want to forget forget forget!  Thanks for the tips about relaxing b4 bedtime, I hope doing that will help my nightmares go away.  I am not a freak, but I have had many traumatic experiences in my life, from childhood right on thru to my 40's.  Nursing nightmares are scariest because in true life I am responsible for the well-being of my patients.  I cant have visions of nightmares and lost keys popping into my subconsious every now & then!  Really, I am not damaged goods, I have just always had bad dreams and nightmares that stay in my memories.  Any suggestions, anyone...?

rosemirrors, My heart goes out to you.. God Bless you , Teresa

HerbalNurse and TeresahRN, thank you so much for your kind words.  Very much appreciated.  I have seen an acupuncturist but she said she didnt know where to put the needles, there were just so many areas of tension in my body.  We tried about 7 of them and I fell asleep for 25 minutes.  I havent gone back becuz my insurance doesnt cover it but I think about it all the time.

As for aromatherapy, yes I tried it, loved it and practice it everyday at least.  I almost think I have an olfactory fetish!

Lori