Nightmares

I hate nightmares.
unfortunately I have been getting them pretty often.
Sometimes it is me being in a panic running away from something, sometimes it is lots and lots of car accidents. But majority of the time it is someone close to me being injured or killed or harmed in some way.

I get stuck in these moments of panic, of raw emotion.
I am so stuck in the dream, but there comes a moment when I become acutely aware that I am dreaming but cannot wake up, It is like being stuck in a box. I try to wake-up and start fighting to get out.

When I finally do I am sobbing and gasping for air.
Waking up is almost worst than the dream itself, Because you are unsure if it actually happened. Did I actually just witness this? was it a dream? or was it one of those bizarre future telling dreams?

It takes me almost all day to start getting over it, to get back to "normal"
And than it will be almost time to head to bed again.
I wish I could find a formula for how to have a sleep void of terrors.
I don't understand it, and it ends up bringing out the worst in me... making me edgy, and just makes me want to punch people. Than I don't sleep, which makes it worst.
It is not a nice spiral to go through.
Trying to breathe deep.