Nightmares...

[xbittergracex]

I just woke up from a nap a while ago, and I had a horrible nightmare.

I have the same nightmare recurring for the last couple years but today it was far more extreme.

Since I woke up, I can't shake this terrified feeling...I have some things to do and I'm afraid to leave, etc.

Anyone else ever have nightmares this bad? Where it just effects your whole mindset long after you've woke up?

[Miranda]

It's really odd because I have been told that the "average" person usually has 2-3 nightmares per year. I have been told this by numerous Dr.s in the field of medical sleep study and in Psychology. I have that per week, every week. I have many dreams that ruin my entire day, and if not the day the majority of it. Many times it isn't even a dream I can remember, it will be just one I know I had, a "feeling" that I am left with. Crying dreams are not unusual for me either. I am sure my body has rejected sleeping due to the dreams I have. I am a major Insomniac and even the strongest prescribed sedatives will not put me to sleep. I am not sure why these psychologically disturbing events occur in our sleep but I have been told that these dreams represent a deeper rooted meaning to us and that is why we are so upset and disturbed by them.

[wingdazrael]

When I was younger I used to have the same nightmare every night. It went on for many years. Then I started to read and try to relax by taking a bath right before I went to bed, and it helps alot. I only have one or two nightmares a year now.

[TygerLili]

When I was 14 I had a nightmare where I was a young woman living in colonial America. I was married to a man who brutally murdered and decapitated me with an axe. That dream was so vivid and stuck with me for so long I've wondered ifI had some kind of spiritual or past life connection to it; and this is coming from someone who doesn't even really believe in any of that.

Anyway, for a long time after that I couldn't watch any type of movies that showed or alluded to decapitation, no matter how fake it looked, and anything to do with the time period freaked me out a little. My parents thought I was nuts.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

I moved from Indiana to North Carolina and changed my line of work to get away from my nightmares. I worked in a cabinet shop... I watched 5 men, in 5 weeks, cut a good portion of at least one finger off... all of them in one case. My neighbor had a chop saw mangle his hand. I had a 2.5 inch staple surgically removed from my thumb.

My nightmares consumed me. I knew if I stayed I would loose my hands. I went as far away as I could at the time to exscpe them.

This is how bad they were... in one dream my hands were cut off and melting from chemical burns... yet somehow still at the ends of my arms.. there was a gap in my wrists.. the dream consisted of me screaming as I watched my hands burn away without being able to feel them. When I woke up... it took 4 hours before I could feel my hands or make my fingers move.

I also have a recuring "nightmare" I have had it since childhood.

It's a house. It always looks different... but it is the same house. It's haunted, buy something. Something that wants me... draws me back when I try to escape and deeper in when I try to leave. I never see "it" but it is there... stlaking me. You don;t step in any shadow in that house. Nor walk a dark hall. You stay in the lighted areas... i dont know why. The odd thing is, when I am "there" I see people... dead people from real life and I talk with them. I never remember what was talked about after or if I do it's totally inane... The last time I was in the house.. I talked with my Father and my friend from childhood. Both long past thier experation dates.

It's... I am not right for the whole next day.. sometimes two. Very unsettling.

[Onyx]

I used to have those types of nightmares where they would stay with you.

Lately I have just what I would call bad dreams, but I can't remember them when I wake up. Nearly every day I wake up exhausted too, like I've been running all night or wrestling. It's like I'm emotionally exhausted, hard to explain.

I hate it and nothing seems to help. I find myself putting off bedtime till way too late.

[Pandora]

The truly nasty nightmares I have revolve around being homeless, being locked up in a psych ward and being kicked out of the house by my mother, or being abandoned by any and all of my 4 stepdads and 1 birth father whom I;ve never spoken to.

Mostly revolves around homlessness though. Not fun, but the subconscious has to have some outlet. Usually have the worst nightmares when I'm really sick, or PMSing.

[Msterbeau]

Nightmares? I don't have them. Nor dreams much.. Not that I remember. I used to remember having them ... but not since I was a teenager.

[damagedangel]

I have a reoccurring dream that involves me being chased and being wrapped in plastic. (Please no Marilyn Manson jokes) I'm not sure what it stems from, but I usually can count on having it if I'm really stressed out that day. Perhaps it's my subconscious solution to the day.

[Homicidalheathen]

The plastic wrap...that was a new one to me. Quite creative subconcious minds going on here.

I have noticed if I watch a movie or have a discussion right before bed I will dream about it.

The other night I had this dream we hired an illegal alien and she sucked at house keeping but for some reason I could not fire her....and she kept chasing me around. I would wake up and try to shake it then fall back asleep but she would pop right back up again. Annoying.

Then the next day I realized why it stuck with me...

I had a discussion about this rich guy I used to work for who had a rather interesting lifestyle....and buisness....to say the least. Anyway he had hired this illegal and couldn't get rid of her because she knew to much. Boy did she get on our nerves. Worst housekeeper in the world. Dirty diapers on the floor even and he was still paying her. Surprised he didn't just......oh never mind.

[Stymie]

I love nightmares!

Long as my kids are not in it and dieing.

Or something bad like that.

Then I love them.

Like being in a horror movie.

I been killed more times then I can count.

Had legs, arms and my head ripped off.

Fallen from 40 story building and went splat!

I watched the light sleep way.

Like in moves when someone dies.

Things go blurry, then nothing.

And I love when they pick back up.

After waking from what ever.

But that's just me

[Homicidalheathen]

Your weird. Welcome to dgn you'll fit right in lol

Seriously you LIKE waking in a cold sweat? Not having control of your sleep thought?

I used to pride myself on being able to control my mind......used to meditate in this certain way and train myself NOT to dream. I actually acheived this for 2 yrs str8 once.

Now, I am just lazy......but I still think its good practice.

The kids dying dreams yah, have had those......they are the worst.

The next day my kid was, MOM back off, it was just a dream...let me go out and play damnit!

[Stymie]

Your weird. Welcome to dgn you'll fit right in lol

Seriously you LIKE waking in a cold sweat? Not having control of your sleep thought?

I used to pride myself on being able to control my mind......used to meditate in this certain way and train myself NOT to dream. I actually acheived this for 2 yrs str8 once.

Now, I am just lazy......but I still think its good practice.

The kids dying dreams yah, have had those......they are the worst.

The next day my kid was, MOM back off, it was just a dream...let me go out and play damnit!

Cold sweat, well I just wake in them when sick >.<

And you can control some of your dreams.

Very hard to do at times.

It's like how you wake yourself in a dream.

(Holy shit this dream is fucked up! I'm waking now thank you!!!)

But you train not to dream O.o

Well you still dream.

Just make your self forget.

But having a bad dream isn't all ways bad.

It gives you a chance to stand up to your fears.

Or something wrong is going to happen.

Even if its dieing.

Like they say.

I am, my worse enemy.

This is tested at times in your sleep I think.

But I am just a odd ball dreamer.

I have daydreams.

As if I was sleeping.

My friends that do sleep study.

Had a feild day with me a few times.

Just try and let go in your nightmare.

Even though its freaky to do.

You maybe shock to find that.

You maybe able to over come them.

[Homicidalheathen]

So you believe in prophetic dreams?

Me too. I had one before my aunt died, 3 of us did. She died the next day. She was 92 but not sick.

http://www.accessnewage.com/articles/vario/LOTDREAM.HTM

I dont understand though, (and its not just you) how people can believe in that but not believe when someone says they dont dream at times, not just not remembering them.

It does happen. Trust me.

[CandyQuackenbush]

I have a nightmare. It's from my first tour. It's not something I can shake either. It took 6 months to shake the real life image out of my head, but I still wake up out of a dead sleep from it.

I don't like it, and it bothers me...alot. I hope that with time, I can finally get over it.

I hate PTSD.

[~Tszura~]

I have no idea how I did it, but I had a nightmare once that the waking conscious part of my mind was able to reach over and help me control. It consisted of me being in my kitchen being choked to death by a large, disheveled man. He had me on my back on he floor, and had both hands around my neck. I remember being scared as hell, but something made me cry out "you're not real." And as soon as I said it, I felt a burst of strength within me, and I said it again. He stopped choking me, and then I could see this freaked out look on his face as he started shaking, and then just disappeared.

I know it can be done, but I haven't been able to control my nightime reveries since then. Damn!

[Bernadette]

Well, when I was growing up I had a really seemingly real recurring nightmare, where I was alone in my house, trapped inside with a burglar. Every now and again, I have that same nightmare.

And just last nite, for no related reason, and I didn't eat right before going to bed (which are either or both why I believe I have dreams, and crazy at that, and sometimes nightmares) -- anyway, the one last nite --

I was a teacher of a kids first aid / biology class. Somehow the kids kept cutting / hurting themselves, mostly by accident. Well, I needed to find bandaids. And I kept going to every locker and cabinet in the room, and when I opened EVERY SINGLE ONE -- I'd find a bagful of nasty used bloody bandaids and gauze! Not to mention the screaming and blood squirting about the classroom lab environment. That's all I remember, when I awoke. But the unsettling part, was that I wasn't shaken by it -- I was in the nightmare, but not when I awoke?!

I also have recently realized that I do dream in color. I wonder if that has anything to do with me joining DGN recently...

[Stymie]

CandyQuackenbush,

I'm sorry you are having them dreams.

I hope they pass soon.

And thank you!

For what you do for us!

[~Tszura~]

CandyQuackenbush,

I'm sorry you are having them dreams.

I hope they pass soon.

And thank you!

For what you do for us!

I second that!!

Thank you!!

[Burrich1]

I know it can be done, but I haven't been able to control my nightime reveries since then. Damn!

I heard of a method to teach yourself to dream lucidly. You're supposed to write on a piece of paper "am I dreaming?" and kept it in your pocket. Then pull it out and read the question multiple times during a day. Think about it, and give an honest answer. Apparently, after you do this several thousand times, it will become such a part of you; you'll do it in your dreams, and be able to answer yes. Then, volia!! You can now control your dream. Personally, I've never been able to try it.

My "nightmare" is more of a symptom of narcolepsy called sleep paralysis. It's when your mind wakes up, but your body is unable to move. Vivid hallucinations are supposed to go along with this. Lucky for me, my vivid hallucination is a horrendous feeling of evil engulfing me, which is so horriblely excruciatingly terrifying, I will never be able to properly convey it with words. I'm more concerned at this point in waking up than controlling my dream. It's kinda complicated as to how I accomplish this, but it involves a lot of screaming and thrashing about in my head. It's interesting to see what happens in the real world. (and a little creepy) It sounds like I take a massive deep breath, and I sit bolt upright very suddenly as I come awake.

Sleep paralysis is a theory many scientists have for both alien abductions and some ghostly encounters. I saw a show once where they were able to recreate the abduction feeling in a lab. Kinda interesting, but not the route my experiences with it takes.

[Stymie]

My wife (at the time) had a nightmare. That I was cheating and doing something else.

So she punched me. In my back, 3 hit combo x.x Then when I rolled over to say something.

Boom! I got a bloody nose!

Then when I woke her....

We both laughed>.>

[Timata]

I hate it when I get nightmares about locations (any kind, rooms, whole buildings, fields, anywhere) that I have never been to, then I happen upon the place sometime within the next couple days. That shit scares me. The nightmares never turned out to be prophetic on events, just showing me a place where i was going to be sometime in the very near future.

[Oh_My_Goth]

I just woke up from a nap a while ago, and I had a horrible nightmare.

I have the same nightmare recurring for the last couple years but today it was far more extreme.

Since I woke up, I can't shake this terrified feeling...I have some things to do and I'm afraid to leave, etc.

Anyone else ever have nightmares this bad? Where it just effects your whole mindset long after you've woke up?

Reoccurring dreams mean something.....

Pay attention to what is going on in the dream.....How it changes and all that.....

It usually means you need to change something in your life.....

I am great with dream interpretation.....If this is still a reoccurring issue, you can PM and I can see if I can help.....

If ya want.....

[pomba gira]

I do occasionally have those dreams that aren't all that memorable, but leave me with a feeling of... what... unsettling wrongness... that stays with me the rest of the day. Very disturbing.

I used to wake up screaming a lot, from when I was very small through my mid-30s. Doesn't happen more than maybe 3x a year now. I usually couldn't remember what those dreams were about... and if I did, it wasn't really anything that horrific, just a semi-scary situation overlaid by a feeling of intense dread. When I was a cub I also used to get the "paralysis" thing, thank all the gods I outgrew that 'cos it was horrible.

When I was very young (preschool-kindergarten age) I had a recurring nightmare where I would be in the grocery store with Andy Griffith and he was carrying me on his shoulders. Then we would drive in a car to the flat where I lived until age 6. He would go inside and leave me in the car. A shovel in the back seat would grow a head with a frightening, expressionless face... kind of a more normal looking Herman Munster. The shovel/head would start fighting with me... I would pull the head off but the shovel would keep fighting. As I struggled for my life with the demon shovel, I could see someone watching from the house. They never came to help me. Eventually the whole scene would kind of fade to black and I would wake up terrified. The mind is such an amazing thing... I haven't had that dream in at least 35 years, but I can still see Andy Griffith, the inside of the car, and the shovel-head like they were in front of me right now.

[Shade Everdark]

This part is completely off-topic but, Pomba, I can't believe you put that chant up as your sig. A friend and I were talking about that just two days ago. Weird.

Anyway, there was one particular nightmare I had, that is worth note. I had this while I was still together with my ex-fiance.

I dreamt that I walked into our bedroom, and found her and my father having sex. I started yelling at them, being rather upset (understandably), at which point my father becomes angry, stalks over to me, and proceeds to choke me to death. I could actually feel myself losing consciousness.

I used to think that sitting bolt upright from sleep was a Hollywood exaggeration. Not anymore. When I woke I was upright and screaming. Talk about reverse Oedipal weirdness, ew. Oh, and I also couldn't sleep beside her anymore that night.