[Misc] Nightmares

[spongy]

Does anyone on here suffer with them?

I cant really say I ever have done before. And when I did have one in my younger years I used to just wake up, think WTF, and go back to sleep.

But on Monday I had one. And I'm still thinking about it. It felt so real that I literally woke up screaming and cried. I'm 42 years old.

And I havent slept properly since and I'm still thinking about it now.

It wasn't a Nightmare On Elm Street, or Paranormal Activity horror type of dream but something that could quite easily happen in everyday life, perhaps that's what has freaked me out so much.

Anyone else been here or have trouble dealing with them if they do happen?

 

[Eeyore]

I've always dreamed. The most vivid ones occurring when I take strong painkillers for my back. I had one last night which involved the UK having been taken over by Nazis and me being involved in an escape. I was caught and taken back to my first school for execution. Freud would love that one.

There is a secret to dealing with them that somehow I manged to do a few years back (although somehow not last night). I guess it is different for different folk but I learnt to be a spectator in my dreams. Like I was watching a film. I'm not sure how the mental process works but there have even been dreams that I wanted, and have managed to, go back to even after I woke up.

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).

That technique, as odd and eccentric as it sounds, always worked. So it does appear that the brain can take instruction and forward it to the sub conscience. It shows that what you command in the conscious realm can suppress the sub conscious in the times it take over during the night.

 

[el punal]

My nightmare, and I just hope it remains so, is arriving at the Amex on match day having left my season ticket/ proof of admittance at home. The circumstances are always weird like a kick off at midnight or travelling from some strange location. The core of the nightmare always remains the same - not being able to watch the f***ing match!

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Get them a lot and always have since a little kid up till present aged 38. Usually being chased by something for most of it. Expect means something but not that fussed. Only woken up in cold sweats a couple times. Usually it’s a case of oh that was a bit weird, and back to sleep.

 

[Perfidious Albion]

"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

 

[Is it PotG?]

Knock one out, back to sleep.

 

[Baker lite]

I often have work related nightmares.


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[Beach Hut]

Only on Elm Street

 

[Acker79]

My nightmare, and I just hope it remains so, is arriving at the Amex on match day having left my season ticket/ proof of admittance at home. The circumstances are always weird like a kick off at midnight or travelling from some strange location. The core of the nightmare always remains the same - not being able to watch the f***ing match!

I had a dream last night that I had got the 49 bus out to george street because brighton were playing on the sea front and as I stepped off the bus I checked my pockets and realised I'd left my ticket at home. Gah! Still, there's just enough time to phone home and get someone to drive it out to me. Except I'd also forgotten my phone!

 

[Worried Man Blues]

I have this thing where I am in trouble and need to wake up and know that by screaming I will be woken up...............and then I am woken by the Mrs and know that I did scream to get woken and so does she!!

 

[Swansman]

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.

 

[zefarelly]

 

[Braggfan]

I've always remembered something from a Psychology A-level I did years ago, that was about dreams. 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.

I’ve always found myself to be a light sleeper and wake up continuously during the night, and I remember a lot of my dreams. The only time I don’t is if I’ve slept right through the night without waking.

 

[The Wookiee]

I dreamt last night that I had eaten a giant marshmallow- When I woke up, my pillow had gone

 

[BN9 BHA]

My nightmare, and I just hope it remains so, is arriving at the Amex on match day having left my season ticket/ proof of admittance at home. The circumstances are always weird like a kick off at midnight or travelling from some strange location. The core of the nightmare always remains the same - not being able to watch the f***ing match!

I’ve had very similar dreams, especially if I was going to an away game I would dream about oversleeping or forgetting my ticket.
I have had dreams about the Albion being back at the Goldstone, sometimes it actually looks like the place and others a combination of various old stadiums. Not really a nightmare as I actually get into the ground but then I seem to be sitting in an area where I can’t see the pitch.

 

[AmexRuislip]

Never really have nightmares, only dreams.
Tip from me, play Chas nnnnn Dave music, that sends me to sleep

 

[Coldeanseagull]

I dreamt last night that I had eaten a giant marshmallow- When I woke up, my pillow had gone

Wow, are people still telling that one!

 

[Happy Exile]

For a long time in my early twenties I had sleep paralysis where I'd be awake enough to be aware of my surroundings but still asleep enough to have the dream playing around me and be unable to move. It's a state that's got a name I can't remember and isn't that uncommon but it can be terrifying, "waking up" and there being some shadowy figure looming over you, or people dancing round you, or at the end of your bed, and you can't move or make a sound. I remember one very clearly, a train crashing into the house and me unable to scream or warn anyone or get out of the way of it. This all seemed to stop quite naturally, though I've had more benign variants of thinking I'm seeing family or friends no longer with us in the room as I wake.

Now I have two common nightmare dreams when I'm particularly stressed. One goes back a long time and I'm at school and go to get exam results and discover I've missed an entire class for a couple of years without even knowing or anyone telling me. It then gets frantic trying to find out what went wrong. In the other, which is a bit gross, my mouth starts falling apart inside. This is really vivid and I can feel it unravelling, like one of those magicians handkerchief tricks where it just never stops. Really grim. I've managed to stop these pretty much, through making a list at the end of work each day of what I need to do the next day which I think let's my brain see what's happening so it worries less.

 

[spongy]

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.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Does anyone on here suffer with them?

I cant really say I ever have done before. And when I did have one in my younger years I used to just wake up, think WTF, and go back to sleep.

But on Monday I had one. And I'm still thinking about it. It felt so real that I literally woke up screaming and cried. I'm 42 years old.

And I havent slept properly since and I'm still thinking about it now.

It wasn't a Nightmare On Elm Street, or Paranormal Activity horror type of dream but something that could quite easily happen in everyday life, perhaps that's what has freaked me out so much.

Anyone else been here or have trouble dealing with them if they do happen?

Yes.

My understanding is that dreams do many things, one of which is processing issues that are held in the subconscious. My nightmares lately are catastrophe dreams, that probably relate to my anxieties about retirement, the futility of my existence and the inevitable decline in my health, and a lingering and painful death. And I'm not joking here.

The last two nights I had absolute corkers, waking up in a sweat. I have my appraisal on Monday and the forms are all new and designed for allied healthcare professionals rather than what I do, and yet I suspect I may have downloaded the wrong forms even though they are the ones in the link and.....that's probably the latest trigger.

I wouldn't worry about it but if you can identify a link between your nightmare and something in your life, you can dismiss it as your subconscious muching about and/or focus on solving the source of anxiety.

Oddly I find the catastrophe dreams far worse than the weird gothic otherwordly ones I normally get.

Ah and like Swanny I spent an entire year (in my case age 10-11) having nightmares every night, waking up screaming and requiring parental intervention. Only extreme use of the retrospectroscope would suggest that maybe I was anxious about the eleven-plus exam; and I suspect it was more likely I'd been freaked out by the cave scene in 'The Blue Lagoon' (the dancing skeleton) or something.