Steve McGovern She talked about the lifeless night terrors she suffered, which focused on her losing a child.
The 38-year-old BBC breakfast presenter revealed that she needed treatment to overcome the nightmares she had suffered for years before becoming a mother.
Steve gave birth to a daughter last November, but she has since feared losing her, after nightly dreams that terrified her.
As she prepares to launch her new live daytime show, Steph’s Packed Lunch, she speaks hoping it will help others who have faced the same fate.
(Photo: Channel Four / Tom Barnes)
Talking to the sunSteve said, “I never feel nervous, but the way you look is at night.
“I have crazy dreams and horrific night terrors.
“When I was younger, it was worrying about school things. I once got out the door and actually went to school – while I was sleeping, in uniform – at two in the morning.”
Steve said that in the adult years, nightmares seem more real.
“As I got older, I became more energetic. Since I had a baby, I would wake up regularly and think I lost her,” she said.
(Image: Channel 4)
Steve said her nightmares consisted of thinking she had “fallen” or “lost” her baby.
It got so bad that Steve’s partner found her “on the floor wandering under things or in closets, looking for the baby”.
She said it was “really scary” what her “brain” was tricking her to do while sleeping.
Steve admitted that “the night terrors have not been able to do my job lately.”
Steve said, detailing a recent incident in her home, that she dreamed that she “lived on the studio floor and saw a man revealing himself to me, pressing himself naked to the glass. It was horrible.”
(Photo: Channel Four / Tom Barnes)
She said her partner had to calm her down after he found her “screaming away” because Steve “jumped out of his bed and ran to the wall shouting,” This is an indecent exposure! I could have arrested you for that! “
Steve sought counseling after this episode, and while she said she had not “cured,” it did provide coping mechanisms for her to deal with bad dreams.
She said there is a new bedtime routine to help and Steve revealed: “Everything is now about baby.
“Thoughts are not rational – they are completely irrational. But this is something that I have helped with.”
She said this therapist helped her find that “it’s all about how you go to bed at night, and your peace of mind when you go to sleep.”
Now there’s no “looking at your phone, no reading horrible stories or watching the news” before going to bed.
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