Nightmares, as in bad dreams.

I used to have dreams that I had killed or hurt someone badly. I never actually dreamed of the act just the aftermath, feeling really bad and guilty. I also did not know who the person was, just someone. Usually the act was unintentional or negligence, not premeditated. Often I feared being caught and worried about hiding the body, though I never saw a body. As the dream progressed I would often discover that the person was not so badly hurt. I was always happy to wake and felt relief that it wasn't true. Been years since I last had the dream, don't need it to come back.

My dreams of late are pretty innoxious, a lot of them about people I knew in the past, not in a bad way just with the faces recurring. Some times I dream of my parents or grandparents and feel bad when I realize they are gone. Not a terrible thing. These days that's as bad as it gets.

Oh, in the awake world I had no role in the parent's (or anyone else's) passing and have no bodies buried in the backyard. So far as I know anyway.
 

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Purwell said:
I regularly get bad dreams, always have done.
Various themes but the most common ones involve cattle chasing me, usually those African ones with enormous horns.
They have recently got more frequent caused my some medication.
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If it helps any, Purwell, I once actually had a herd of cattle chase me while I was out walking in England. It was pretty frightening because there were lots of them and they are big animals.

After jogging away from them for a few minutes I stopped, turned around and yelled at them while jumping up and down and waving my arms. They stopped coming. We forget how timid herd animals actually are. They probably just thought I was taking them to food, but when I turned all scarey it wasn't worth it.

Try that in your dream. I've read that you can actually "face your fears" in dreams while a part of your brain knows you're dreaming.
 
Murrmurr said:
When my first wife and I married we had this 7-year plan that seemed rock solid; she'd work while I went to college, then I'd use my degree to get a job that would put her through college plus save up a down payment a house. Then we'd both have great jobs to buy a house and start a family. But the family came 6 years too soon. And every time one kid was old enough for daycare, we'd be pregnant again.

So, I suppose when she ran off with the neighbor guy and left me with our 2 toddler sons and infant daughter, my confidence in solid plans was shattered. And I guess that's why I had this horrible nightmare time and again for about a year...

It's twilight. I'm in bed and I hear the baby cry. I check the nursery; the crib is empty. The crying is coming from outside, so I look out the nursery window. There's a playpen out there in a bleak, grey field, and my baby daughter is in it, crying desperately. I grab a coat and run outside into a blustering wind, and the closer I get to the baby, the harder and colder it blows. Her blanket is flapping around wildly, over the top of her, in my face and against my arms, but I manage to get a-hold of her and lift her out of the playpen, and I hold her tight to my chest as I run inside, struggling to keep this flailing blanket around her, 'cause she's really cold.

But when I lay the baby blanket down on a table and start unwrapping it, the baby isn't there! She's outside in that playpen, crying harder. I tighten my coat and go out to get her, fighting that freaking blanket; and the whole thing repeats, and repeats. Finally, about the 3rd or 4th trip to the playpen I actually get my hands on the baby; there's no blanket at all. But it's not my baby. Instead of a chubby, pink, green-eyed little baby girl, I'm standing there in a freezing wind, torn as to whether or not I really want to rescue this floppy, grey-skinned, very unhealthy-looking ...baby boy.

Worst. Nightmare. Ever. Worst I've ever had, anyway. Repeatedly. And I'm not joking when I say I can still hear and feel that icy wind and that baby blanket flapping against my arms, and how suddenly empty it felt soon as I got it inside. woough
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Yeah those qualify as 'worst nightmares', for sure.
 
Had few 'scary' dreams as a child, but then i wasn't scared of much when awake. Oh and when starting certain relationships i often would dream i was driving but the controls on a car weren't working--not quite nightmarish after the first time, especially when i figured out what those dreams were trying to tell me. Only thing that came close to nightmares were threats to my children's safety.

In my early teens, during cold war and when there were a lot upheavals in the life i'd felt very 'safe' in, i did have 'apocalyptic' dreams, that if i related basic scenario--most would say were nightmares--but usually i said or did something that changed it if for no other reason than i felt i was 'taking action' against whatever. None of them, despite some involving extreme violence, were as disturbing as the seeing an older sister confined to locked room with 'barred' window in a baggy grey 'uniform' of some kind. (Found out within the week she'd had a 'breakdown' and was in VA Mental Ward.)
 
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Della said:
Try that in your dream. I've read that you can actually "face your fears" in dreams while a part of your brain knows you're dreaming.
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Absolutely, i tend to face fears head on in waking life too--so it was only natural for me to do so in my very active dreamlife. It works. i was 'lucid dreaming' (being consciously aware you are in a dream and realizing and realizing you can make the suspension of normal physical rules/laws in dreams work for you to resolve a dilemma) long before i ever heard the term or they were studying it.

One of the things i dislike about modern civilizations is a tendency to label and dismiss practices of older cultures. Many so-called primitive cultures recognize that at least some of our dreams are things we should pay attention to and discuss with others. Children learn from an early age to share their dreams and to figure out the 'meanings'. i did this with my children. A year or two after i taught my boys some basic 'dream control' and understanding i found out one would usually just wake himself, the other created a 'white light shark' that ate anything that 'threatened' him in a dream.

My sons are 8 years older than my daughter. When she was about 4 1/2 and just learning to talk and think about her dreams--she shared one of a big hairy monster chasing her to edge of a deep canyon. One of her brothers said 'And then you woke up?' and she replied 'No, i turned around smiled and made friends with it!' Both sons were duly impressed at her solution. Talked about how they would either have woken themselves up (first thing i taught them--you realize you're dreaming you have 2 good options--become the director of the action or wake up) or jumped and manifested wings or parachute.
 
feywon said:
Had few 'scary' dreams as a child, but then i wasn't scared of much when awake.
Only thing that came close was concerns about my children's safety.

In my early teens, during cold war and when there were a lot upheavals in the life i'd felt very 'safe' in, i did have 'apocalyptic' dreams, that if i related basic scenario--most would say were nightmares--but usually i said or did something that changed it if for no other reason than i felt i was 'taking action' against whatever. None of them, despite some involving extreme violence, were as disturbing as the seeing an older sister confined to locked room with 'barred' window in a baggy grey 'uniform' of some kind. (Found out within the week she'd had a 'breakdown' and was in VA Mental Ward.)
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Years ago I became fascinated by Astral Projection. I read many books on the subject. One of them offered an exercise to help initiate the process. It called for consciously looking at your hands during the dream state. I tried it for a while but never left my body....o_O.... One lasting thing did come of it though. It allowed me to realize during a dream that I was dreaming and like fewon mentioned I could change the direction of the dream. Not every dream but enough to notice. Many times during a disturbing dream I realize I am dreaming and wake up laughing.

I believe dreams may hold some kind of meaning to the person having them. After many years I have learned to recognize that certain types of dreams clue me in on things that are going on in my life that I may not be consciously aware of. On the other hand I do not think that anyone else can interpret my dreams for me. I had a dream when I was a child that lasted two nights in a row. It picked up on the second night at the exact point the dream ended on the first night. At the end of the dream on the second night there was a cast of characters...lol
 
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Verisure said:
Oh, how lucky you are! My wife claims she's never had one either. I wonder how that's even possible? She says that my problem is that I think too much. She's probably right.
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It's more likely about her confidence in her ability to find solutions to problems whether awake or in dreams. Often it is easier in dreams, one researcher found that people who lucid dream tend to have less fears in general, because they've built a belief in their ability to resolve things/problems by dealing with fears in their dreams.

Verisure said:
I think Halloween should be reformed into something more pleasant.
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Originally it was. Long ago it was the Celtic 'New Year'. While they did believe more spirits walked among us on that night, they were a people that felt only a thin veil separated our world and the world of 'spirits/fairies/elves/etc' all year round, could be communicated with and were perceivable by the 'fey' (one who sees beyond the veil) people among us. It is another holiday that was corrupted by more modern religions, but used to strike fear and promote allegiance/obedience to them.
 
Sassycakes said:
I have had the same scary dream at least 3 times. A small girl about 2 yrs old knocked on my door crying she was lost. I grabbed her hand and tried looking for where she lived. It was dark outside and no matter which way we went we got attacked by either a scary person or a creature. Then all of a sudden the little girl was gone. I was crying then creatures continued to attack me. Then I would wake up scared.
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How long between the times you dreamt that and when was the most recent time you've had it?
Give some thought to what was going on in your in life at the time, perhaps stirring up old very real feelings of being 'attacked'? You don't need to actually tell me, or us since everyone could read it if you respond here. But i highly recommend you think about these two questions.

i don't in general believe everyone in our dreams is just another symbolic us, but in this case it seems a possibility that child is younger you. The girl disappearing and the creatures still attacking you is a highly relevant detail. It could of course be as simple as just an expression of a feeling that when you try to help someone else you end up being a target.
 
oldpop said:
Years ago I became fascinated by Astral Projection. I read many books on the subject. One of them offered an exercise to help initiate the process. It called for consciously looking at your hands during the dream state. I tried it for a while but never left my body....o_O.... One lasting thing did come of it though. It allowed me to realize during a dream that I was dreaming and like fewon mentioned I could change the direction of the dream. Not every dream but enough to notice. Many times during a disturbing dream I realize I am dreaming and wake up laughing.

I believe dreams may hold some kind of meaning to the person having them. After many years I have learned to recognize that certain types of dreams clue me in on things that are going on in my life that I may not be consciously aware of. On the other hand I do not think that anyone else can interpret my dreams for me. I had a dream when I was a child that lasted two nights in a row. It picked up on the second night at the exact point the dream ended on the first night. At the end of the dream on the second night there was a cast of characters...lol
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Astral Projection: First aware of it happening when i was very ill but desperately needed to get up to make a phone call. Took me 7 times before i really woke up--i'd be moving thru the apt and some detail would be 'off' (wrong color curtains; door knob in wrong place) helped me realize my body still in bed asleep and i'd be right back in bed again, getting up.

Then i studied it, Robert Monroe's book was the one i read and things he said rang true with my experiences. When i learned to meditate and eventually to 'remote view' i found that easier, less intrusive and it 'felt' safer because primitive cultures that hold you should always wake someone gently/slowly not abruptly so if their spirit is 'out' it doesn't come back too quickly were right. Coming back into the body abruptly can result in feeling 'out of sorts' till next time you sleep--sort of like wearing your shoes on wrong feet.

Often when people learn i know a some things about them (dreams) and about psychology they ask for help understanding their dreams. Sometimes they are disappointed because i rarely tell anyone other than myself what a dream must mean. Ask @OneEyedDiva, my mantra is that the dreamer is always the expert on what their dream means--but a knowledgeable and caring person can facilitate them making sense of puzzling ones.

i ask questions about the details of dream and how the person felt both in the dream and on waking about the dream 'story'. They are not always the same feeling, which in itself is important in deciphering meaning. i don't need the answers to my questions--the person needs the answers. If they push i'll offer possibilities, but those should be heard with the same inquisitive perspective of looking up set 'meanings' in 'Dream Books' or nowadays on websites. Get in tune with yourself and you'll know when any possibility suggested by a person, book or site 'rings true'.

There are archetypes and themes that are common but we each kind of build our own dream languages to a large extent.

Edit: Also we can learn to request dreams on some things and to filter or prioritize what kind of dreams are remembered on waking. i've revisited various dreams too. One i had in childhood, then at puberty and during my perimenopause. Another i woke up used the bathroom, returned to my bed thinking 'Hmmm, that didn't really answer my question' and right back into my dream and got a more clear answer.
 
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When I was a kid, living in Germany, I had a recurring nightmare every night. A huge, scary monster stood by my bed. Every night, I'd wake up screaming, but there was no sound coming out. I probably wasn't actually awake -- or I was so scared that my voice wouldn't work.

As an adult, I've had two nightmares (not recurring). One was about a car wreck and my kids were in the car with me. The other was that I'd slapped on of my sons in the face. The second one felt so real and horrified me, so I had to ask my son if it really happened or was a nightmare. It didn't happen IRL.

I know these above are nothing compared to the nightmares others have to endure, but they scared the heck out of me.

One of my sons told my daughter (they were all young children) that when a vampire visited her at night, she would know it was real because she wouldn't see her reflection in her standing mirror. Thank you so much, son. My daughter turned the standing mirror around so she couldn't see the mirror part, and had bad dreams for a long time.
 
feywon said:
Astral Projection: First aware of it happening when i was very ill but desperately needed to get up to make a phone call. Took me 7 times before i really woke up--i'd be moving thru the apt and some detail would be 'off' (wrong color curtains; door knob in wrong place) helped me realize my body still in bed asleep and i'd be right back in bed again, getting up.

Then i studied it, Robert Monroe's book was the one i read and things he said rang true with my experiences. When i learned to meditate and eventually to 'remote view' i found that easier, less intrusive and it 'felt' safer because primitive cultures that hold you should always wake someone gently/slowly not abruptly so if their spirit is 'out' it doesn't come back too quickly. Coming back into the body abruptly can result in feeling 'out of sorts' till next time you sleep--sort of like wearing your shoes on wrong feet.

Often when people learn i know a some things about them and about psychology they ask for help understanding their dreams. Sometimes they are disappointed because i rarely tell anyone other than myself what a dream must mean. Ask @OneEyedDiva, my mantra is that the dreamer is always the expert on what their dream means--but a knowledgeable and caring person can facilitate them making sense of puzzling ones.

i ask questions about the details of dream and how the person felt both in the dream and on waking about the dream 'story'. They are not always the same feeling, which in itself is important in deciphering meaning. i don't need the answers to my questions--the person needs the answers. If they push i'll offer possibilities, but those should be heard with the same inquisitive perspective of looking up set 'meanings' in 'Dream Books' or nowadays on websites. Get in tune with yourself and you'll know when any possibility suggested by a person, book or site 'rings true'.

There are archetypes and themes that are common but we each kind of build our own dream languages to a large extent.

Edit: Also we can learn to request dreams on some things and to filter or prioritize what kind of dreams are remembered on waking. i've revisited various dreams too. One i had in childhood, then at puberty and during my perimenopause. Another i woke up used the bathroom, returned to my bed thinking 'Hmmm, that didn't really answer my question' and right back into my dream and got a more clear answer.
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Many times I have had an issue especially a mechanical one. I will think about it a bit not really concentrate on it when I am going to sleep and wake up with a solution. Funny thing is I have no special talents in these types of things. They are just tools I have discovered from looking inward for answers.
 
Irwin said:
I have a few reoccurring nightmares. There's a couple that involve being back in the workplace and there are some where I'm back in school and I haven't studied for an exam, which is odd since I was always prepared during my time in college. Or I didn't have a project completed on time, or something to that effect. What it is in these nightmares is applying my current state of mind to how I was back in the '90s. I worked my ass off in college and got great grades, but I no longer have that motivation. I had to take a statistics class about 15 years ago and it was a pain in the butt. I didn't want to do it, but I needed it for the Master's program I was trying to get into. I got an 'A' in the class, but the last thing I wanted to do was study statistics for engineering.

My nightmares are so vivid that I wake up completely covered in sweat. And I get them regularly, so I keep a towel handy to dry off in bed. Sometimes I talk in my sleep. In one dream, I was fighting off penguins and kicking my leg out from under the covers. My wife said our dog thought I was playing with him. :ROFLMAO:
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Irwin, I didn't mean to click on "Like," I meant to click on "Reply." Your problem sounds like a serious sleep problem, and possibly a neurological one. I suggest that you ask your doctor to recommend a sleep specialist (yes, there are doctors who specialize in sleep ailments). You might have Restless Leg Syndrome or any one of a myriad of other sleep disorders. Many of them are responsive to just taking the right medication at bedtime.

I've never had nightmares, but have experienced some of the other sleep problems, which are more common than we think. One prescription took care of all of it, I take one little pill at bedtime and have never had the slightest recurrence.

Ask your doctor about it.
 
oldpop said:
Many times I have had an issue especially a mechanical one. I will think about it a bit not really concentrate on it when I am going to sleep and wake up with a solution. Funny thing is I have no special talents in these types of things. They are just tools I have discovered from looking inward for answers.
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Me, i had so many experiences (especially when puberty hit--the spontaneous astral travel, the precognitive dream about my sister) that i started researching just to have a better understanding of what i was experiencing. There were a ton of sensationalized type books about it but only a few more rationally presented ones. (JB Rhine for one, Monroe on OOBEs, Cayce on several things).

Thanks to early training from my Dad i already had clue in how to spot suspect sources for info. Overly sensational descriptors is one, telling you how to feel about the info is another. Taught my kids to analyze sources too.
 
Lewkat said:
I've had some bad dreams I'd consider nightmares, but no one else would. Did have a real one as a kid after seeing a movie about the wolfman. My mother never allowed me to see another horror movie and to this day, I haven't.
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I took my 2 boys to see Werewolf of London when they were a bit too young for the unexpected realism (they were 5 and 7). I usually checked movies out before letting my kids see them, but I hadn't done that with this one. They partially hid behind their jackets during the really scary scenes and cringed in their seats, and I felt really bad. But today, they're both hardcore fans of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and some horror films, and they tell me they actually liked that flick a lot (in retrospect). Still, always a good idea to check movies out for scariness, sexual content and etc before taking kids to see them.
 
Sunny said:
Irwin, I didn't mean to click on "Like," I meant to click on "Reply." Your problem sounds like a serious sleep problem, and possibly a neurological one. I suggest that you ask your doctor to recommend a sleep specialist (yes, there are doctors who specialize in sleep ailments). You might have Restless Leg Syndrome or any one of a myriad of other sleep disorders. Many of them are responsive to just taking the right medication at bedtime.

I've never had nightmares, but have experienced some of the other sleep problems, which are more common than we think. One prescription took care of all of it, I take one little pill at bedtime and have never had the slightest recurrence.

Ask your doctor about it.
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No. My nightmares are the most exciting part of my life right now. :ROFLMAO:

I have extremely vivid dreams because of the medication I'm on, and it's a typical side effect. I repeat though, I don't have a problem with it. I like it.
 
feywon said:
It's more likely about her confidence in her ability to find solutions to problems whether awake or in dreams.
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You don't know my wife. She has neither confidence nor the ability to solve the simplest problem. She knows that and sees how well I solve complicated problems by thinking the alternates through thoroughly. It is the fact that I do put in so much mental effort into the daily highs and lows that keeps my brain working overtime even in my sleep, according to her. "Thinking too much" as she says.
feywon said:
Originally it was. Long ago it was the Celtic 'New Year'. While they did believe more spirits walked among us on that night, they were a people that felt only a thin veil separated our world and the world of 'spirits/fairies/elves/etc' all year round, could be communicated with and were perceivable by the 'fey' (one who sees beyond the veil) people among us. It is another holiday that was corrupted by more modern religions, but used to strike fear and promote allegiance/obedience to them.
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You are a feywon(e) for sure. Are the ones responsible for corrupting the Celtic 'New Year' (Holloween) the same ones who have us scurrying in and out of department stores in December? Damn them!
 
Irwin said:
No. My nightmares are the most exciting part of my life right now. :ROFLMAO:

I have extremely vivid dreams because of the medication I'm on, and it's a typical side effect. I repeat though, I don't have a problem with it. I like it.
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Paisley horses perched in trees?
 
Verisure said:
Oh, how lucky you are! My wife claims she's never had one either. I wonder how that's even possible? She says that my problem is that I think too much. She's probably right.
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He, he, Verisure! I once had a girlfriend who told me that I think too much. I got rid of her because thinking a lot is one of my big attributes and I am not planning to stop thinking. My brain is really important to me. If you had a brother-in-law like mine who had dementia and his wife who had Alzheminer's, then you'll probably understand why keeping my brain nice and sharp is important to me. I have visited these relatives in a care home and let me tell you, YOU DON'T WANT TO END UP THERE WITH THOSE FOLKS!
 
Packerjohn said:
He, he, Verisure! I once had a girlfriend who told me that I think too much. I got rid of her because thinking a lot is one of my big attributes and I am not planning to stop thinking. My brain is really important to me. If you had a brother-in-law like mine who had dementia and his wife who had Alzheminer's, then you'll probably understand why keeping my brain nice and sharp is important to me. I have visited these relatives in a care home and let me tell you, YOU DON'T WANT TO END UP THERE WITH THOSE FOLKS!
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We should consider ourselves fortunate to have the ability to think "too much".
 
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