sometimes wakes up physically shaking. And if they're not that bad she is always extremely disturbed by them and her nightly sleep is often destroyed. She now prefers to stay up until 2, 3, 4 o'clock in the morning to the point of exhaustion and sleep until almost noon. Her sleep schedule has at times become a source of contention between the two of us. Her dreams often involve the safety of our children and in the dreams our kids are very young (even though our youngest is now 18). Or they involve the safety of other young kids that she doesn't know; someone dangerous is chasing the kids, etc. She told me about a recent dream in which she saw the bodies of numerous young children hanging from trees, with nooses around their necks. 🙁 🙁 She did not go back to sleep after that one. Sometimes the dreams include/revolve around water (she had a bad experience while on a rafting trip decades ago) but the one reoccurring theme is usually someone else is in danger and she can't get anyone to listen to her or help her.

I know from my own experience I had bad dreams for a period of probably 10 years where in my dreams I had some simple task to perform, like perhaps to tie my shoes first and then walk out a door, and I could never, ever accomplish that simple task in a normal amount of time. It was like my body would move in slow motion while my brain raced at a million RPM. The feeling that always accompanied these kinds of dreams was enormous frustration. This also corresponded to a time in my life when I was trying incredibly hard to accomplish a goal in my profession that I was not able to accomplish. Once I let go of that professional desire my bad dreams soon quit.

She has told me that for her entire life she has felt primarily overlooked or largely ignored other than her family. The reason I mention my own dreams and how they were resolved is that I've sometimes encouraged my wife to consider looking at herself differently, to look at her own self image and why she feels powerless to the degree she does. I've even encouraged her to go talk to a psychologist about these dreams. No dice.

Does anyone out there have any solid advice on what she can do or what I can do to help her out?