Are you taking some medicines like sleeping pills or you have just stopped taking some?
Do you usually have intense, vivid, violent dreams?
Can you think of sudden awakenings to restart breathing?
Do you usually wake up in a sweat during the night?
Has your husband noticed that you are choking or gasping during sleep to get air?

Never fear it's not uncommon I do it a lot as well, or so my husband says. With me I'm acting out my pent up feelings. All day I have to keep calm, collected and refrain from strangling many a stroppy teenager. I put up with abuse from kids that I have not sanctions over and parents who let their children rule the roost. So at night in my dreams I tell them what I think of them and give them the treatment they deserve. It a release that if I didn't have I think I go mad, better the night swearing then losing my cool at school and ranting on at the NEDs. After a few days holiday I sleep with hardly a F word passing my lips. May be you are acting out in your dreams what you would like to say and do in real life.

I do take Prozac and .5 mg xanax a day to help with depression/anxiety - have for like 10 yrs, so no changes in that. I have sworn in my sleep as long as I can remember as an adult.

I don't have the gasping for air or the sweats.

Just vivid bad dreams my whole life?

Do the swearing and vivid dreams tend to occur during the last half of the night?
Have you been told that you are also talking, shouting and laughing while sleeping?
Are you awaken quickly, becoming rapidly alert if someone tries to wake you up?
Do you usually have clear recall of a dream the next morning?

The swearing seems to be in wee hrs of the morning a few hours after going to sleep? But I'm not sure. I'll ask my husband.

I do talk and cry as well... but when I talk/cry because I normally have bad/sad/scary dreams. I have alot of vivid chasing/running dreams, falling down and almost getting caught/killed/shot, being chased by something but sometimes don't even see who/what is chasing me, I just know it's there. Sometimes I have to pick up random pets/people to drag with me as I run and protect them. Sometimes its that weird thing where in my dream I need to lift my arm and I can't make it move or I'm in slow motion.

I NEVER awaken quickly. Ever. My alarm goes off 1 hr before I will notice it and get up. At times when my husband will try to wake me if he needs me for something in the middle of the night, he says I wake up and talk to him or look at him, but flip over and he says I "go back to sleep" - - but I never wake up, I am doing it in my sleep. Sometimes I can vaguely recall him trying to wake me up, but I can't make myself wake up all the way.

I RARELY clearly recall my dreams. Sometimes I'll start to see glimpses in my head when I am waking up or when I am falling asleep the next night.

Ugh... it's wearing me out.

Do you find your anxiety/depression well controlled?
Can you relate the beginning of nightmares with the beginning of your anxiety?
One of the main symptom of anxiety is sleep disturbance. The suffer will either sleep too much or more likely, will only sleep for a couple of hours a night. Very often, sleep is disrupted because of vivid nightmares, which some sufferers may not even remember. Other sufferers may have recurring nightmares.

There are also, many clinical studies about relation between antidepressants and nightmares.
While dreams can occur in other levels of sleep, nightmares usually only occur during REM sleep. Prozac and related drugs cause a drastic reduction in REM sleep and many individuals on Prozac start experiencing vivid nightmares.
Over time this is depriving a person of enough REM sleep and the person's reaction is going into an REM sleep state while awake.
Also, when a person is asleep, the muscles are weak and more or less paralyzed due to a built-in mechanism that causes a person's muscles to remain weak and still during sleep. This mechanism can apparently be bypassed by a person on drugs like Prozac and he can appear to be alert and awake but actually be in a deep sleep state.
Nightmares are less common symptom of Xanax, too.

Is this a version of Turrets ?

My depression/anxiety are lovely traits in my father, brother and son as well. I got treated for depression with Prozac starting about 24... and my anxiety I just started on Xanax for last year.

My vivid nightmare/dreams and talking/swearing started somewhere mid 20s and haven't stopped. No matter what meds combo I tried (last year tried Cymbalta and then another antidepressant I can't recall the name of right now...) the dreams stay the same.

This Sat AM I awoke to my husband waking me gently... I was yelling the F word repeatedly - and I actually recalled the dream... which I usually can't do.

I call this my sleep tourettes... but I'm not sure if there is such a thing!!
I am thinking I have an REM disturbance sleep disorder... I got an order for a sleep study and I'm going!!!! See excerpt below...


REM sleep behavior disorder http://www.emedicinehealth.com/rem_sleep_b ehavior_disorder/article_em.htm
Patients with REM sleep behavior disorder act out distinctly altered dreams that are vivid, intense, action-packed, and violent. Dream-enacting behaviors include talking, yelling, punching, kicking, sitting, jumping out of bed, arm flailing, and grabbing. An acute form may occur during withdrawal from ethanol or sedative-hypnotic drugs

I have been told that I cuss and swear almost violently…most nights. (F and C words. Rooster Sucker...and any combination of the three.)

I also wake up sometimes as I am running across the room trying to catch my breath. Think I have some type of sleep apnea, but am not sure what the deal is.

I also cal it NTS (Night Tourettes Syndrome).

And wouldn't you know it... I didn't swear ONE time for them! I knew it would just be something they couldn't diagnose and sure enough... they don't know why I would swear. Its bad. I cried just this AM in my sleep, its how I woke up. Makes for a turd of a morning!!

I did get A diagnosis, not for my 'sleep tourettes' as we call it, but RLS. Restless Legs Syndrome. I notice it a tiny bit, but it's not bad yet. I looked up the medication they wanted to prescribe me on askapatient. com and many many patients on it had mania and compulsive behavior. Especially spending. Sooo, I'm not even trying that med!!

I just want to quit moaning and swearing and crying.

I tell my wife to f off and threaten to f'in kill her. I have no recollection and i do not dream of anything voilent. I do love my wife but she is quite depressed at the moment and how me no love so maybe like the CONABY post it is just a release.Better that than actually f'in kill her??

My husband does this also. Usually the F and S word, accompanied by my name. Wearing on my very last nerve, as I am getting terribly sleep deprived, and we can no longer have our nieces and nephews spend the night or go on camping trips with family. By day, we get along great. I have taken to sleeping in the other room with a headset on. We have tried sleepytime tea, warm milk, OTC sleep aids, melantonin...nothing works, and in fact we think melantonin makes it worse. This is a horrible situation, so if anyone has any advice, much appreciated.
Kris in Washington (the state)