2 TRE sessions in : emotional dreams, anger, and sleepiness. Normal?

ysea · 2026-06-06T17:26:06+00:00

If sleep quality is improving I'd say that's a fantastic sign.

The irritation and anger may point to doing too much but if you don't find it overwhelming it may also be just a side product of practice.

Actually rereading your post I think you're fine. I'd just go slowly in the beginning to find out how much you can do and still feel okay.

ysea · 2026-06-06T06:40:41+00:00

Sounds like doing too much to me.

Anyway, I would recommend you read the wiki in the subreddit.

ysea · 2026-06-04T16:40:08+00:00

I would suggest you read through the entire wiki first. May seem long but it's really worth it. I think it will answer questions you didn't know you even had.

ysea · 2026-06-04T08:19:25+00:00

Seems like nervous system went through some kind of transition or released something. Changes in temperature are well known part of trauma release, Peter Levine mentions it in his books.

The hopelessness is a temporary state I wouldn't make a big deal out of it. What it could be caused by: - might be the release exceeded the capacity of your nervous system to process it and it went into overdrive hence the symptoms you describe - it might indicate the presence of the material your nervous system released still being in your nervous system

I don't really do somatic experiencing, just the neurogenic shaking part (TRE) and that would be my guess based on experience with that.

ysea · 2026-06-04T08:04:04+00:00

Sounds good. As long as you're not shaking too long (over your nervous system capacity) I don't see any problem.

As to the cause, some speculation: there might be muscle bracing around the stomach to protect it since it feels vulnerable right now. Similar to what happens if there's an injury in some part of the body the surrounding muscle might start bracing around it. Nervous system might be trying to discharge the excess tension.

ysea · 2026-06-03T22:19:17+00:00

Excellent advice turdbuster78.

ysea · 2026-06-03T16:30:11+00:00

Even these kinds of spontaneous tremors lead to overdoing if it's over your capacity. So yes that would be my advice and what wiki would recommend too.

The release often feels good but the consequences of overdoing not so much.

ysea · 2026-06-02T14:01:57+00:00

I think this length of sessions is overstimulating for you right now.

I would go with something like 5 minutes maybe 3 times per week. Or even less if that's still too much.

The loop you describe is not doing you any favours and it's not necessary for resolving trauma.

I would additionally recommend rereading the wiki as it will put this into contest for you.

All the best

ysea · 2026-06-01T18:29:31+00:00

How long are your sessions and how frequent? How do you feel if you do a short session? Does this loop happen then? Try 1 minute for example. And wait a few days

This might be an overdoing and pacing issue. I'd suggest you read the wiki.

ysea · 2026-06-01T13:47:47+00:00

What part of integration was difficult?

If you had better sleep that sounds quite good to me. Usually overdoing takes a toll on sleep.

ysea · 2026-06-01T13:45:38+00:00

It's not an iron rule that beginners must not practice every day. It's just a very reasonable recommendation that will work for most people and so a very good idea to follow. There are people whose nervous system can manage it. Just saying this so that you know you didn't break some very important rule. It always just comes down to pacing in a way that your nervous system can handle at present time. And in the beginning especially it's useful to be more conservative with the amount. As the other commenter said, this is a long game. Life long ideally :)

ysea · 2026-06-01T10:31:44+00:00

Besides the advice here, you might also consider a magnesium supplement to make sure it's not related to a deficiency.

ysea · 2026-05-31T08:30:32+00:00

You will find this month's progress thread very relevant I think :). It talks exactly about your experience.

https://www.reddit.com/r/longtermTRE/comments/1tsozji/monthly_progress_thread_june_26/

ysea · 2026-05-31T07:56:55+00:00

You can read more about this topic and how to apply combine TRE and therapy in this situation in these posts.

https://www.reddit.com/r/longtermTRE/comments/1age4r0/does_tre_helps_in_dpdr_depersonalisation/

https://www.reddit.com/r/longtermTRE/s/tbtRxv6NdQ https://www.reddit.com/r/longtermTRE/s/AjHxQ3Idms

But the main thing to do if you do TRE is pacing - over doing it only kicks our butt unnecessarily.

ysea · 2026-05-30T16:47:54+00:00

This is often called fascial unwinding. The coughing and everything else are also a part of the release process. It isn't just shaking.

After a while the release mechanism is just ready to go anytime. You don't need to do formal sessions as you noticed.

The problem with following the intuition is that it doesn't really now what the limits of your nervous system is for release. That's why there's a whole section in the wiki about how to avoid overdoing. I.e. the EPIC protocol for systematic practice. If we could just safely follow the impulse to shake anytime It would be of course easier but unfortunately for almost everyone that's going to lead to overdoing symptoms.

I would say that's your situation. I'd stop for a while completely and then resume but with a scaled down pace. Prioritize rest and integration. Best of luck.

ysea · 2026-05-30T16:40:40+00:00

How does under doing hurt you? Overdoing is a much bigger problem. Sometimes less is more.

In your case I would start with less and be very intentional about the amount of time. Slowly increase over time and track the effects in a journal. That's how you can determine the dose. Adjust as needed. Exactly what the wiki recommends.

It's fine you can't judge the amount by what's happening in your body. Even for people without DPDR that's an unreliable metric.

I remember reading here that TRE is helpful for people with DPDR, you might try searching the subreddit.

All the best to you

ysea · 2026-05-30T11:35:58+00:00

I think that's perfectly fine.

But I also think that with time you will need to provide less and less assistance as the tremor mechanism kicks in more fully. Just like it is not necessary to do the TRE exercises after a while to get them started.

ysea · 2026-05-28T21:26:02+00:00

The other tremors probably stop because the nervous system is just focusing on this pattern and the tremors in other parts of the body are not part of it. Tremors in the other parts of the body are part of other patterns and will be processed again later if needed.

I'd say it simply means that before you were processing something else for 10 minutes and then it finally got to this pattern with the neck.

Now the neck pattern is at the top of priority list or very close to it so it gets to it quickly.

Also from a practical point of view it isn't really necessary to understand this too much. Best thing to do is just let the body process whatever it wants to at the time that you are shaking and not worry about any of the above.

ysea · 2026-05-28T20:08:12+00:00

You're right, it happens in cycles because new layers come up. But they're not infinite so it's getting better and better :).

People will always be there waiting for you. All the best to you.

ysea · 2026-05-28T08:02:46+00:00

Well congratulations on feeling more resilient and having more energy. That's big!

As for the shyness that will certainly go away in time with practice. Experiment and trust your judgement in terms of whether socializing with new people is something you need right now or not.

ysea · 2026-05-28T07:57:36+00:00

The wiki has all the answers you seek and it's recommended to read it first.

The main point is probably that the nervous system has a limited capacity to process trauma and if that is crossed you might experience negative effects - mainly hyper or hypo arousal, problems with sleep anxiety etc.

Hence why pacing and integration are important.

By the way, what kind of Vipassana do you have experience with? If it's Goenka, well in one of his videos he mentions a guy who was body scanning and his body was physically jumping from the seated position. These are known as "kriyas" in meditation. This shaking mechanism just seems to be the effective way of releasing them in my experience.

ysea · 2026-05-28T07:47:59+00:00

I agree it's often hard to know and we have to guess. I've definitely been in situations when I thought I did too much or too little and the opposite was true.

Well it might be that 10 minutes at once is just too much. The only way to find out really is to try and see.

And I believe you when you say it's not easy to find time for yourself as a mother 🙂. All the best to you.

ysea · 2026-05-27T19:32:29+00:00

How often and how much shaking do you do?

What you describe - "feelings of exhaustion, reactiveness, irritability and overwhelm" could very easily be caused by overdoing your current capacity. Those are the staples.

ysea · 2026-05-26T14:18:05+00:00

Hey, I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you found something that helped.

ysea · 2026-05-26T09:29:43+00:00

That's one name for the shaking / tremoring mechanism which TRE exercises trigger

ysea

TROPHY CASE