What can I do about nightmares? (From Lancashire Telegraph)

What can I do about nightmares?

5:06pm Thursday 5th February 2009 in Health By Doctor Tom Smith

Q. I’m 31, and am healthy, but I have terrible nightmares almost every night. I can wake up most nights several times in a state of terror. Sleeping tablets don’t help. Must I put up with these nightmares?

A. Night terrors like yours are a special type of sleep disturbance that needs specialist help: ordinary sleeping tablets, as you have found, don’t work. Your doctor may be able to pass you on to the regional sleep laboratory, where your sleep levels can be studied in detail, and where the doctors can organise sleep management for you, perhaps with a drug not normally dispensed by your family doctor.