@mazeppabob

Your doctor may be right about rare disorders as there often is not a lot of research done, but that doesn't mean that you should stop looking for answers.

As it seems like this stress of sleep interruption is problematic for you, it certainly might be helpful to get a second opinion on this problem.

Is the sleep specialist that you see part of a large medical center? These facilities are more research-oriented and have medical professionals who are great at solving hard-to-treat problems. I'm thinking of a university medical school or a multidisciplinary health care center like Mayo.

Would you consider having someone else take a look at this with you?

I am 27 year old lady. And u just describe what my whole life had been like. The worse part of it is that i woke up every single day feeling like i had been crushed by a truck. Waking up from sleep never been a joy for me. Its always been that constant sigh everytime. I never try any medication or consult with any doctor since i dont know how to begin with. I cant imagine telling my sleeping problem to doctor, and it seems ridiculous to talk . Its not like i cant sleep, i can. But its more tiring when i start sleeping. Its like my brain never stop working 24hours. I'm already tired working my ass off during daylight, and at night i cant even sleep peacefully.

Same here. I dream constantly. Both at night and during a nap. As soon as I drift into sleep, the dreams start.

It might be very rare but you're not alone. I have the same condition.

I definitely think it gets worse when I'm experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety. However, the dreams are constant regardless of my emotional state.

I think it could be related to ADHD and/or a very active brain.

You sound exactly like me! I have dreams every night, and remember everyone of them. I told my doctor about them, (who at the time was giving me medicine) and he was like, "they don't make medicine for dreaming." I never brought it up again. When I want to, I can remember that saying and instantly withdrawal. I don't think I can live without my dreams, but I wake up exhausted and can sleep for hours never getting enough sleep.

I feel like I wrote this myself. I dream from the moment I close my eyes until the moment I wake up. I'm exhausted from my dreams when I wake up the next day. While I'm dreaming, I often recognize that I'm dreaming, but despite recognizing that it is a dream, I have only a few times (so rarely) tried to control the dream like lucid dreaming. I take no medications other than OTC pain killers, like tylenol, as needed for frequent headaches. (I've found that my headaches are usually because I'm tired and feel physical stress on my body.) I don't use caffinated products or energy drinks. I've never considered bringing it up to a doctor as I just figured "that's life." I wouldn't mind finding a solution that doesn't include taking some kind of prescription to suppress the dreams or change my sleep. I guess what I would prefer is knowing that there is some natural way (like, for random example, eating less processed foods) to get better sleep and less exhausting dreams

I appreciate this post is from last year. I just wanted to say I am 29 and have exactly the same as you describe. I was diagnosed with adhd in Feb 2020 due to racing thoughts and I've wondered if it I'd related to this. I wake up tired every day , I can wake up and go back into the dream, occasionally I can even influence the dream. I can fall asleep no issue, I can stay asleep fine but no matter if I get 8-12 hours I am exhausted

OMG this is EXACTLY how my nights/dreams go!!!
I was prescribed sleep meds but supposed taking them as 1- I was so groggy when I got up 2- I felt trapped in a cycle of not being able to wake up from the active dreams as I could without meds, the meds basically didn’t help

Hi @mazeppabob ,
This is exactly what I experience every night for many past years. Waking up exhausted.Dont know what to do I am 27 yrs old. Nice to know others are having same issues.

Every morning when I was a child I would wake up and over breakfast tell my mom my dreams, I would go on for an hour, finally one day she told me to stop lying , that I was making it up. I’ll never forget that. I’m 43 years old male, Every night I dream the most incredible crazy adventures, meet and interact with people I’ve never met, I’ve never had a recurring dream. I explain it like this…
“If you took a Wes Anderson, Magnolia Pictures, Guillermo del Toro, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Roman Polanski Films, horror, drama, sci-fi, porn, daytime tv including commercials, Epic Shit, Low budget shit, and throw a mishmash of every other film, wildest thing you've ever thought of, and then max that by a million, shatter it into a billion pieces, throw them in a kaleidoscope.
And as I fall asleep even before l'm really dreaming, the kaleidoscope starts turning…I wake exhausted every day, they are giving me Modafinil and that helps but other than that I’m an anomaly. I’m glad to see I’m not the only one. I wish there was a medication that helped me get into slow wave sleep but there isn’t. I’ve tried everything from meditation, to gabapentin, exercise, everything..nothing has ever come close to helping me feel rested. It’s a gift I feel but many days I wake and wish I hadn’t dreamed so much. I love them but it’s wearing my brain out and really starting to catch up with me…

This is EXACTLY how I dream!! Short nap in the car, falling asleep at night- doesn't matter! I am immediately dreaming! They aren't usually nightmares, but they aren't recurring themes either. Very vivid and most often of places I've never been and people I've never met, even though in my dreams I know where I am. Sometimes they feel like lucid dreams, and I am aware I'm dreaming again, but not always.
I always thought I was some kind of unicorn with this sleep habit, until I recently met somebody else in real life who does this. I got so tired of hearing from others that "you CAN'T be dreaming like that because you're not in REM sleep, you only THINK you're dreaming..." Really?? Pretty sure I know when I've woken up from a nap in the car where I've been asleep for MAYBE 15 minutes, that I'm NOT in REM sleep but DID have a dream. I'm relieved to hear you say the same thing, but filled with anxiety to hear most sources say this could be a precursor to Parkinson's 🙁 And then REALLY frustrated to hear that there is more than likely no research being put into figuring this out because it is supposedly such an obscure thing. I honestly don't know what to do with this information, but I feel like it needs a better name than "Epic Dreaming". Sounds like a silly Hollywood name. I'm not even necessarily looking for any treatment, because I can't say it really bothers me after all these years, I would just like to know why it happens, AND it appears I have somehow passed this trait down to my teenage son!