Lingering Nightmare Anxiety.

I am 24 years old. Over the past few years, I have come under increasing stress due to a family member being diagnosed with a serious illness, my parents divorce and the eventual loss of my job. I have social anxiety, and all that that entails. High-computer, television and book use.

I have noticed something unusual over the past month. I experienced a nightmare, nothing incredibly scary, but a nightmare nonetheless. What made it different was that upon awakening, I felt lingering "sensations" from the dream, almost as if certain parts of my brain were still functioning within the dream. The anxiety at the dream material was still present and hard to shake. I have never experienced this before. In the past, upon awakening, I would immediately realize it was a bad dream, and in a minute or two, would be back to sleep.

This new sensation is almost as if I have to convince myself that it wasn't real. Genuinely convince myself.

Last night I dreamt of an abandoned lot in the city. The grass growing wild on the plot. A chain-link fence was nearby. The sun was hot and beating down over me. The word to describe the atmosphere was "acrid" though with no smell. There was a fury corpse, a flash of blood, a section of exposed body, I don't know. There were dogs, ravenous dogs, paying me no heed. I could hear them crunching as they ate whatever it was. I didn't have fear of the dogs, what made me panic was that I suddenly realized that I was there. Me. The me that is typing this out. A moment of lucidity, standing in a sun-beaten, overgrown lot while dogs ate something dead.

Upon awakening, it took nearly 45 minutes to get to where I could fall asleep again. I slapped my face several times, reaching for my phone to look up encouraging words.

I don't know what is causing this.

Thank you

Dayvan, I used to have creepy dreams that stayed with me for a long time when I had unresolved issues with something, as well as anxiety. You could talk to a doctor and ask them to point you in the right direction if this gets worse.