# Sleep and Dreams > Sleep and Health >  >  Grinding my teeth horribly throughout the night.

## WhoNeedsReality

My girlfriend says that I consistently grind the hell out of my teeth.. especially when alcohol has been involved.  Its so bad that apparently it wakes her up from a deep sleep!  Why is this?  Does anyone else have this problem?

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## John11

I've had multiple dentists ask if I grind my teeth in my sleep because I have very flat canines, but I've never noticed myself grinding my teeth and no one has ever mentioned to me that they've noticed me doing it.

I just looked it up on Wikipedia (it's called Bruxism apparently) and it says about 25% of people suffer from significant Bruxism.

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## Tara

Bruxism. My mom has it and it's really bad. If you talk to a doctor about it they'll probably advise you to get a mouthguard so you don't damage your mouth.

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## Robot_Butler

I sleep with a mouth guard.  I would recommend it to anyone who has problems with grinding, clenching, or sensitive teeth.  It is a little hard to get used to at first, but after a few nights you won't even notice it.

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## Placebo

What the other's said. My mom has it bad too

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## magical mike

I use to do it, when I was on ADHD medicine

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## arne saknussemm

> My girlfriend says that I consistently grind the hell out of my teeth.. especially when alcohol has been involved. Its so bad that apparently it wakes her up from a deep sleep! Why is this? Does anyone else have this problem?



I actually chipped one of my front teeth during sleep.

It's probably best to go to a store that sells athletic equipment and get a mouthpiece.

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## JadedSapphire

I grind my teeth horribly.  I never did until my mom died and now I do it all the time.  I ground through 2 mouthguards and now I can't sleep with mouthguards cause they always wake me up..go figure.

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## acatalephobic

I have had the same problem. It is usually accompanied by tension in the face, neck, or shoulders. Such extreme forms of tension usually point toward unresolved mental/physical conflicts.

 I'm currently in counseling, and if what they tell me has any relevance: De-stressing methods help with grinding/tension.

*Increased excercise, meditation (or channeling of the chakras), journaling (or other creative processes), and conversations with loved ones have helped me.* Anything that calms you and increases your level of personal awareness (ie. music, reading/writing, whatever it is) will help your mind to overcome mental obstacles.

 I hope your stress subsides soon!



 ::hug::

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## Dizko

Aww flip!

I read this thread yesterday and ended up having a terrible case of it last night -_-

I had a dream that i had to get braces again, and i was grinding the shizz out of them.
Its not fun -.-

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## D1r3w0lf

I also suffer from this, stretching works very good.

Yesterday I had a nightmare and woke up without making a movement and notice that I was grinding my teeth, so my question is : can bruxism or muscle discomfort cause nightmares?

I looked back in my DJ and notice the pattern, maybe someone has some detail information on this or a link.

I stretch every night to avoid it, just yesterday I didn't and well...nightmare+bruxism...

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## SolvedSnake

I used to notice horribly strong teeth grinding on myself in the middle of the night a lot, but when I started to have SP about 10 months ago, I never had teeth grinding since... strange...  ::?:

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## SolvedSnake

> I grind my teeth horribly.  I never did until my mom died and now I do it all the time.  I ground through 2 mouthguards and now I can't sleep with mouthguards cause they always wake me up..go figure.



Yes, teeth grinding seems to be the release of strong emotional forces, like pain, anger, sadness, etc. for me.

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## Francisco

I grind my teeth too, anyone have a special brand of mouth guard the can recommend? i tried one brand and tge would hurt my teeth. Now they are a little crooked, so i stopped wearing it.

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## DeletePlease

I think I used to ground my teeth in my sleep because I'd have dreams where I'd start uncontrollably clenching and grind back and forth, side to side. It was a few months after it started that I realized I was probably doing it in real life as well since I'd wake up doing it. I don't think I do it anymore though since I haven't dreamt of it or woken up with lockjaw in a while. I used to have very sharp canines about a year or two ago but they're flat at the tip now. Kinda sucks cuz, when I was little, I thought my fang-like canines were so cool. :[

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## Morten

I grind my teeth too every nigth when I'm asleep. I did not know you could buy different kinds of mouth guards. I got one for free from the public system because i was under 18. I had to bite in what felt like gum and they made a mouth guard out of that so it fit my teeth. It might be expensive to buy one of these if you are over 18.

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## Mud

Suffered from this all through my childhood, now it's only once in a while. As far as I know, anyway.

It always amazes me when I hear someone doing this, how it can be so loud. I couldn't make that noise if I tried, while awake, but in my sleep it's possible. Freaks me out.

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## snoop

Are you stressed or depressed?  For a good while my dad told me I would grind my teeth a lot every night.  Eventually I started grinding my teeth so hard that I would wake myself up from it.  This happened during a time in my life where I was experiencing a lot of stress and I was also depressed.  Ever since overcoming the depression I haven't had the problem since.

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## DeeryTheDeer

I must do it too, because lately I wake up in the morning with an achy, clenched jaw that feels like I've been pushing it down all night, and I feel the urge to make a big yawn to stretch my jaw the opposite way.

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## tommo

I started doing this too recently.

Mouth guards are a good thing, but it is only going to stop you fucking up your teeth.

Clenching and grinding your teeth is caused by stress.
So what I do is meditate during the day and just do some relaxation/breathing techniques before bed.  You can find heaps of tutorials for these types of things on this forum.

Also stretch before bed, especially your jaw and neck.  Just open your mouth really wide, even pull on your bottom teeth with your fingers a *BIT* not too much lol.
Just stretch your jaw.  Then relax and keep reminding yourself to let your jaw just relax.

Practice this during the day as well.
If you sleep on your side, make sure your head is facing up toward the head of your bed more, if you're facing downward, your teeth almost automatically clench a bit, because it's pushing the bottom of your mouth up.

If you sleep on your back, put a small pillow or towel/t-shirt etc. under your neck, so your face is looking backwards a bit.  Don't have your head bunched up from a pillow so it's almost towards your feet, as I said, this causes you to clench your jaw too.

As someone else said, alcohol and some other drugs like amphetamines (speed, MDMA etc.) can cause this too.  When I drink alcohol I clench my jaw and bite the shit out of the inside of my mouth.

So basically, just keep reminding yourself to check if your jaw is clenched, and relax it if it is, during the day and at night.  Use relaxation techniques.  Everything else is optional with this issue, but they all help.

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## VitaminJ

Although relaxation and mediation techniques are recommended approaches, one can supplement with Magnesium Citrate in order to help sooth the muscle connections during sleep, creating less pressure or less likelihood of grinding teeth all together.

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## tommo

Only if you already have low magnesium in your diet.  Which most people don't.

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