Hello Your friend..
A warm welcome to the forums..
Im sorry your struggling with PTSD nightmares...The same thing used to happen to me very regularly...
My psych..told me to try to go to sleep with a calm mind..I now use meditation and gentle sleep stories to get off to sleep...These have helped me so much and the nightmares are not as frequent..
When I wake up..the first thing I do is deep breathing and I tell myself..it’s a dream it’s not real..if I’m in panic mode I get up and make a hot cuppa tea, to settle me down..it helps to ground me...Then I go back to bed and listen again to a sleep story....It might not work for you.but we’ll worth giving it a try..if you feel to....
We have a thread title..”Grounding What is it and how do we”...you can search the title in the search bar top right of this page..there are many ideas about grounding ourselves when we are in a panic attack or just really stressed out in that thread...you can at any time ask questions on that thread and/or join in the conversation when ever you feel up to it...It’s important I feel to try to calm down as quickly as we can, so we are not re running the nightmare through our minds....
Other lovely members will pop in and add some more suggestion for you dear your friend...you are not alone Your friend..we are all here to help you as much as we can..
Sending you my kindest wishes with care..
Grandy..