[Misc] Nightmares

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I hardly slept last night. But I had a disturbing call from my mum at midnight about my dad and was on the phone for over an hour.

After the phone call had finished I was knackered but scared to fall asleep in case I had the same one again.

It really has gotten into my head. Its horrible. I'm still thinking about it now.

Judging by some of your other posts this year I suspect you may be having a tough time. I can recommend councelling but the NHS is very slow on this. I really think you should seek some help, though. Being held in thrall by a dream shouldn't be allowed to continue so you should act.

 

[Eeyore]

"Another successful thing to do was a bizarre trade off I developed as a youngster. Before I went to bed I would tell my brain the things I didn't want to dream about and then offer up in exchange some things I did, such as walking out to open the batting for England with Geoff Boycott (which would probably have turned into a nightmare when he ran me out"

I might try that . I dont have nightmares usually, except the time I dreamed someone was fighting me and I thumped the cabinet by the bed , ,and woke myself up. I do have unpleasant dreams , often I am back at work and being ordered about or just doing something mundane. I would rather have sweet dreams so I will try that suggestion

It seems that, at 12, I had a better handle on things. Although my seeming belief that dreams were determined by an exterior source was in keeping with my otherworldly nature and my extraction from the mainstream (I was a, relatively happy, loner). I had re-occurring dreams that I would never trade off. The dream arbitrator could have cricket and football if it took away ghosts and blood- but not the secret forest that I often found myself in with the talking animals. Even now it can't have that one.

But it was the 'Codeine dreams' that took things to a new level and helped me understand that dreams can be controlled when even in progress. Once that is mastered even nightmares can become a thing of beauty. After all, watching the fantastic weave of sub-conscience is a learning experience. One discovers just how unfulfilled their creative potential is. I have even had advice from my sub-conscience in dreams that I’ve written down, often in eloquent wording that I would never use in daily life. Damn our polluted minds !

I don’t think the process of dreaming is discussed enough. And folk who really are interested in this amazing insight into how the brain works should avoid things like those silly dream books. What has a certain meaning to one individual has something different to another.

90% of dreams are just brain dumps. The noodles processing crap from the day before. That’s why the world seems new every morning. The best time of day is before the conditioning creeps back in. But cherish the 10%. A part of you is trying to help you understand what you cannot reach.

 

[Algernon]

When we sleep we do it continuously in cycles of REM and non REM. The REM cycle is where you are dreaming, so if you wake up in the middle of it you're likely to remember a lot of the dream. Equally if you wake up at the end or just after the REM cycle finished you'll also likely remember the dream. But if you wake up towards the end of the Non REM cycle and just before you start the new REM cycle, you'll struggle to remember it. So what that means is if you're someone who wakes up a lot during the night, you'll likely remember you more of your dreams because you're waking up during or close to the end of the REM cycles.

 

[Braggfan]

It took me a long time to realise it but I get reoccuring dreams when I'm stressed about something. In particular that I'm being chased by something. What's chasing me varies from dream to dream, but once I realised this reoccuring theme I've noticed that threat posed by what's chasing me seems to increase according to my levels of stress. Low levels of stress, might just be being chased by someone trying to mug me or beat me up. Moderate levels of stress tend to be things like a bear, or a pack of wolves. When I'm really stressed out I'll be chased by zombies. They're never pleasant dreams obviously, but now that I've worked out what triggers them, its like a wake up call and more often than not, just recognising that I'm stressed and trying to be more relaxed stops the dreams.

 

[Braggfan]

View attachment 137614

Yeah sorry that was a bit wordy and confusing.

 

[Gabbafella]

I used to partake in rather a lot of recreational activities as a youngster, and as a result I used to have very vivid dreams, but they were always only ever that to me. The only ones that ever alter my mood are ones where my Mrs has dream-cheated on me, but even then it's more of a joke and we have a laugh about it.
I have met people who suffer quite badly with nightmares/night-terrors and wake up caked in sweat, screaming and/or crying and it take them days to get over. The mind is a powerful thing and dreams are often bizarre, but it's all imaginary.

 

[PeterOut]

You say that you are still thinking about them now. Perhaps it's the way in which you are thinking about them (negative, scary etc) that is preventing them from going away?

See https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/women-who-stray/201512/5-ways-hack-your-nightmares and https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/wellness/a31996190/how-to-stop-nightmares/ and https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/04/health/how-to-stop-nightmares-in-adults-wellness/index.html for suggestions on how to make small adjustmenst to your night-time before-bed habits, but also (importantly) how to get your mind travelling a more positive path. As others have said above, you can to a great degree take a large degree of control.

 

[Coach_Carter_92]

I once dreamt I was being attacked by zombies so I was fighting them off. My then gf at the time was really grumpy with me the following morning, it turned out I'd been thrashing about in my sleep and punched her in the head!

 

[m@goo]

Fascinating thread. Touch wood I've never suffered from awful dreams like some of you. I've had unsettling and disturbing dreams which have been semi-based in reality. Things that could pheasibly go wrong but in reality but probably wouldn't. I've heard that that is what some of the science around the reason for dreams believes, that they are a way for our brains to cope with stress and in a way practice for real stressful events.

 

[Frankie]

I keep dreaming I'm the England football manager and I'm convinced I would be better off taking 2 injured players to a major football tournament instead of picking fit ones .

Crazy stuff .

 

[Blazing Apostle]

I have had constant nightmares during these covid times - nothing directly linked but must be something underlying - mainly about the job I left 10 years ago!!

 

[Weststander]

Judging by some of your other posts this year I suspect you may be having a tough time. I can recommend councelling but the NHS is very slow on this. I really think you should seek some help, though. Being held in thrall by a dream shouldn't be allowed to continue so you should act.

I was going to gently suggest similar.

My experience of consistent bad dreams, always quasi real life situations, is that they occur in unhappy times eg at work or being in a bad relationship.

The dreams aren’t the problem in themselves.

 

[GREASED WEASEL]

Dreamt about Steffi Graf once
In the locker room at Wimbledon

Only nightmare was I woke up!

 

[Wellesley]

I had nightmares every single night when I was between 7 and 9. Eventually I had to see some child therapist and some experts on dreams.

She said that I should try to take control over my dreams because you have a small level of consciousness in dreams and it increases if you dream often, and if you are aware that your mind/imagination is what creates the content of the dreams, you can take control over them. She said that the best way to stop dreaming was to defeat the foes in my dreams.

So whenever I had a small suspicion I was dreaming, I used to pinch myself in the arm. If it didnt hurt, I knew I was dreaming and could act accordingly. Most of the times it would feel difficult to control the dreams in the direction I wanted and instead I used to suicide in the dream (like jumping with my head first from some stairs) to wake up.

But every now and then I used to go into a battle with the enemy in my dream. Since I knew I was dreaming, I also knew I could determine the outcome. I used to transform my arm into some big bad axe or something and I knew that my way to win the battle was to really believe that I could - any doubt would reflect itself in the dream and I would lose. I woke up with incredibly satisfaction whenever I had success (which I didnt, most times, as it became more and more difficult to conciously trick myself into thinking positively, because I was also aware of the fact that I was tricking myself.)

Eventually, and I think this whole method played a great part in it, I stopped having nightmares. So my advice would be that if you struggle with this, try to be aware when you go to sleep that you might dream. Then when it happens you are likely to be a bit aware of it and you can pinch yourself and when you do, it will be very easy to have some sort of control over the dream. Try not to escape whatever is happening in that dream - try to outthink it instead, to change the direction and the outcome of the dream. Face the enemy/problem, solve it.

You can pinch yourself all you like, but when you wake up, you'll still be ******* Swedish.

 

[Swansman]

You can pinch yourself all you like, but when you wake up, you'll still be ******* Swedish.

Not sure that is generally considered a nightmare..

 

[Brian Fantana]

Not sure that is generally considered a nightmare..

Agreed. You're alright in my book, Swansman. You bring a lot more to this board, in terms of both football and non-football contributions, than an awful lot of posters.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

I remember my dreams almost every night, especially if I've had a restless night, they're always bizarre!

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

 

[Winker]

When I was a child I used to have a recurring dream which I have more recently seen described as an 'Out of Body Experience'.
Basically it involved leaving my sleeping body and floating around the bedroom ceiling looking down on everything. On one occasion I floated down to the end of our garden to where there was a stream running and I started to panic as I was drifting off into the sky. I remember grabbing hold of a shrub that was growing there and trying to hold on. The next thing I knew I was back in my bed.

Looking back it seems quite fascinating now and I wish I could try it again.

 

[Doc Lynam]

View attachment 137613

I've dropped a couple of cheddar's lets see what happens.

 

[METALMICKY]

I used to have recurring nightmares involving wigwams and marquees. Eventually I sought help and the doctor said I was simply too tense!