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Nightmares while training
I am a newbie to the running hobbie and have a new found desire to run a marathon. I am not a
athletic person, and never played sports in HS or college. I have been training for about 2 months
now, and have begun having very vivid dreams, and even nightmares. They cause me to wake up in the
night, unable to get back to sleep and feel refreshed. Is this normal with training?
Is there any "cure"? Will it last throughout my training?
Thanks for the advice!
erin@risenministries.com (erin) wrote in news:f55c2987.0401191728.42c9b850
@posting.google.com:
> I am a newbie to the running hobbie and have a new found desire to run a marathon. I am not a
> athletic person, and never played sports in HS or college. I have been training for about 2 months
> now, and have begun having very vivid dreams, and even nightmares. They cause me to wake up in the
> night, unable to get back to sleep and feel refreshed. Is this normal with training?
>
> Is there any "cure"? Will it last throughout my training?
>
> Thanks for the advice!
As part of your marathon training, do you plan on doing any shorter races? Having some medium
distance racing experience might elimate your apprehension. This is assuming your nightmares are due
to your fear of running a marathon.
-Phil "not the Dream Doctor."
On 19 Jan 2004 17:28:49 -0800, erin@risenministries.com (erin) wrote:
>I am a newbie to the running hobbie and have a new found desire to run a marathon. I am not a
>athletic person, and never played sports in HS or college. I have been training for about 2 months
>now, and have begun having very vivid dreams, and even nightmares. They cause me to wake up in the
>night, unable to get back to sleep and feel refreshed. Is this normal with training?
>
>Is there any "cure"? Will it last throughout my training?
>
>Thanks for the advice!
Ok going on the assumption this is not a troll...
A couple of things.
Restless or interupted sleep can sometimes be a sign of doing a bit to much. I know if I work out to
hard or to late in the day my sleep can be affected even completely screwed up IOW I don't get to. I
also know that sleeplessness or restless sleep for me can be an indicator of "overtraining"
Another poster mentioned doing other races. Some of us are effected in different ways by
differenet stress. You may be leery of the marathon and could be affecting your sleep. Doing other
races may help.
I'm sure there is a plethora of other reasons, diet pops to mind also.
I'm by know means a doctor but these are few things that poped into my mind as possibilities. But
then again I'm guessing again.
I can say that personally, other then the afored mentioned intense and or late workout, working out
makes me sleep like a baby. In December I took my annual few weeks off and by the end I had more
problems sleeping than I've had in a long time.
~Matt
In article <f55c2987.0401191728.42c9b850@posting.google.com>, erin
<erin@risenministries.com> wrote:
> I am a newbie to the running hobbie and have a new found desire to run a marathon. I am not a
> athletic person, and never played sports in HS or college. I have been training for about 2 months
> now, and have begun having very vivid dreams, and even nightmares. They cause me to wake up in the
> night, unable to get back to sleep and feel refreshed. Is this normal with training?
>
> Is there any "cure"? Will it last throughout my training?
>
> Thanks for the advice!
If you check out http://www.abe.com (http://www.abe.com/) you may find a book by Thaddeus Kostrubala called the Joy of
Running. Tad, a psychiatrist, wrote the book back in 1976 and touched on the Jungian aspects of the
unconscious when one is running, especially longer distances.
For me dreams are the: am I a catepillar dreaming I'm a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming I'm a
catepillar.
Often the unconscious sends us messages that we don't know how to intrepret.
Or it may be that the muscle tension from all my running while I sleep induces a dream to go along
with the pain/tension and it is the pain or tension that wakes me up and I can only remember having
a vivid dream.
In dreams, people have had revealed to them what they have been working on consciously but were
unable to understand or solve. Kuerkule had the benezine ring revealed in a dream when he dreamed of
the ancient symbol of uroborus, a snake biting its own tale. Also a woman physicist who had the
concept of the neutron, or one of the particles come to her in a dream.
You may want to write down your dreams. Keep a pad and pencil by the bed side. Write the key
thoughts/ideas and go back to sleep.
Let us know how your training and dreaming progress.
In health and on the run, Ozzie Gontang Maintainer - rec.running FAQ Director, San Diego Marathon
Clinic, est. 1975
Mindful Running: http://www.mindfulness.com/mr.asp http://www.faqs.org/faqs/running-faq/
e i got off my meds when i had dreams like that , just kidding=)) plodizlla = glad u r here - b ware
there b trolls here
erin wrote:
>
> I am a newbie to the running hobbie and have a new found desire to run a marathon. I am not a
> athletic person, and never played sports in HS or college. I have been training for about 2 months
> now, and have begun having very vivid dreams, and even nightmares. They cause me to wake up in the
> night, unable to get back to sleep and feel refreshed. Is this normal with training?
>
> Is there any "cure"? Will it last throughout my training?
>
> Thanks for the advice!
"erin" <erin@risenministries.com> wrote in message
news:f55c2987.0401191728.42c9b850@posting.google.com...
> I am a newbie to the running hobbie and have a new found desire to run a marathon. I am not a
> athletic person, and never played sports in HS or college. I have been training for about 2 months
> now, and have begun having very vivid dreams, and even nightmares. They cause me to wake up in the
> night, unable to get back to sleep and feel refreshed. Is this normal with training?
>
> Is there any "cure"? Will it last throughout my training?
>
> Thanks for the advice!
Not to say it isn't the running that's causing it, but is there anything else that's going on
differently in your life that might account for the nightmares and sleep disturbances? The main
reason I ask is that I had vivid dreams and disturbed sleep when I quit smoking using the patch, and
it's not uncommon (and very commendable/recommendable) for someone to take on quitting smoking and
exercising regularly at the same time.
erin wrote:
> I am a newbie to the running hobbie and have a new found desire to run a marathon. I am not a
> athletic person, and never played sports in HS or college. I have been training for about 2 months
> now, and have begun having very vivid dreams, and even nightmares. They cause me to wake up in the
> night, unable to get back to sleep and feel refreshed. Is this normal with training?
>
> Is there any "cure"? Will it last throughout my training?
I suffered the same way when training for my first marathon and I don't think that it due to any
form of psychological stress or anxiety. I think its origins are physical and relate to the unusual
amounts of stress that you're subjecting your body to for the first time.
Although I never bothered to check, I strongly suspected that my body temperature was slightly
elevated as I've suffered from similar vivid dreaming when I've been running a temperature.
The good news is that it almost certainly will settle down. It helps if you don't leave your
training too late in the day if you can. A taxing run in the evening is more likely to disturb your
sleep than one in the morning.
HTH
Tim
--
Remove the obvious to reply by email.
erin wrote:
> I am a newbie to the running hobbie and have a new found desire to run a marathon. I am not a
> athletic person, and never played sports in HS or college. I have been training for about 2 months
> now, and have begun having very vivid dreams, and even nightmares. They cause me to wake up in the
> night, unable to get back to sleep and feel refreshed. Is this normal with training?
It's too hard to tell from these few words if you problem is psychological (general fear, concern)
or physical(transition to physical activity and maybe too much, too fast, too soon). With that
generic statement aside, why the marathon out of the gate?
Gonna rain on your parade!
Since you are new the sport jumping to a marathon isn't a good thing to do. Take the first year
slowly and allow your body to gently adjust. At best shoot for a 1/2 marathon some 6 months or more
down the line. Get a year of experience under your belt and then if you're still interested and your
body has not rejected your startup efforts, try a marathon.
All too often people take up the sport, get pumped up with the early physical changes and then off
to the marathon for what turns out to be a horrific experience(assuming you even get to the starting
line) and the running shoes go back into the closet to collect dust or used to mow the lawn.
> Is there any "cure"?
Sure, ask yourself why.
--
Doug Freese "Caveat Lector" dfreeseS@NOBShvc.rr.com
M~ I've read studies that concur with your statements. On a personal note, I've found exactly the
same them thing... overtraining=restless sleep and odd dreams.
> Ok going on the assumption this is not a troll...
>
> A couple of things.
>
> Restless or interupted sleep can sometimes be a sign of doing a bit to much. I know if I work out
> to hard or to late in the day my sleep can be affected even completely screwed up IOW I don't get
> to. I also know that sleeplessness or restless sleep for me can be an indicator of "overtraining"
>
> Another poster mentioned doing other races. Some of us are effected in different ways by
> differenet stress. You may be leery of the marathon and could be affecting your sleep. Doing other
> races may help.
>
> I'm sure there is a plethora of other reasons, diet pops to mind also.
>
> I'm by know means a doctor but these are few things that poped into my mind as possibilities. But
> then again I'm guessing again.
>
> I can say that personally, other then the afored mentioned intense and or late workout, working
> out makes me sleep like a baby. In December I took my annual few weeks off and by the end I had
> more problems sleeping than I've had in a long time.
>
> ~Matt
Sounds like over-training. I recommend working up to 30-minute runs over six months, 1-hour in one
year, 2-hour in two years, a marathon after that.
erin@risenministries.com (erin) writes:
>I have been training for about 2 months now, and have begun having very vivid dreams, and even
>nightmares. They cause me to wake up in the night, unable to get back to sleep and feel refreshed.
Well, you have to consider the possibility that maybe all those dreams are actually not nightmares,
but ... the REAL THING! BWAAHAAHAHAHAAHAA!!!
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