Common Nightmares

[Achán hiNidráne]

Nightmares, you know I hate them. A couple of nights ago I had a real dozy: Something was forcing to look into open graves and seeing the decomposed corpses within. Of course, the skeletal remains would come out of the earth and start to pursue me. I woke up in a cold sweat, so terrified that I am unable to move or go back to sleep for a half hour.

While I get these "zombie" dreams from time-to-time, most of my nightmares are pretty much the basic types: Teeth rotting out of my mouth, missing a test in a class I didn't know I had to take, an inexplicable sensation of freefall. There are also some awful weird ones like the local board of education discovering that they made a "filing error" and forcing me to go back to the 2nd Grade...at age 30! Tornadoes also seem to be a common theme. I see the funnel cloud and witness the destruction, but I feel no wind. Everything is wrecked or tossed around, except me.

Sometimes, when I'm dreaming, I suddenly and irrational filled with a feeling of utter terror and I can't wake up to escape it. A variant of this dream is that something scares me, I dream that I wake up only to realize that I'm still asleep. The sensation of fear returns, and I dream I wake up again... and so on and so forth until I finally rouse myself.

Yes, yes, I know, dream interpretation is a load of woo woo. However, I am curious if there is any sort of psychological relevance to these dreams at all?

 

[El_Spectre]

Sure, sometimes dreams relate to our waking life... Sometimes I come up with solutions to problems at work in my sleep.

Of course, sometimes rabid mutant prarie dogs chase me in said dreams... Sometimes the brain just does weird stuff.

On the subject of dreams... I almost never (like once a month) remember any dreams. Am I alone in this weirdness?

 

[Orangutan]

Yes, yes, I know, dream interpretation is a load of woo woo. However, I am curious if there is any sort of psychological relevance to these dreams at all? [/B]

Don't these two sentences contradict each other? I assume when you say dream interpretation you must mean something other thatn psycological relevance? Like predicting the future or something, that would be woo.

I'm interested in the cause of my own dreams as I feel once you know you are worrying about something you can do stuff in your wakeing life to help aleveate those concerns. This, of course, makes me well qualified to analyse your dreams lol.

Most of the dreams you mention seem to indicate a lack of control over the situation you are in. I think this could stem from anything in you life, job, marriage growing up kids, ailing parents. I guess maybe you can think of something. The teeth dream is common and suppsedly comes from a worry that your looks might not last for ever. Of course it might come from a worry that you havent been to the dentist for years and you fear you teeth may fall out.

To be honest I think only you will be able to work out the meaning of your dreams as you are the only one who will know what you really think about. But knowing that there is probably a reson coming from your worries should help you.

PS my own recuring nightmare seems to be tidal waves. I had these long befure the recent events. Actually I havent had one since probably because I have seen what they really look like now. My subconcious will have to find a new fear of the unknown. Thanks for the tornado suggestion!

O


Edit for spelling, many more mistakes left I'm sure.

 

[Hutch]

On the subject of dreams... I almost never (like once a month) remember any dreams. Am I alone in this weirdness?

Nope, I'm the same kind of weird. Maybe a little more often than once a month, but most mornings I have no recollection of any dreams, unless I wake up during them.

One recurring nightmare is going over a cliff in a car, usually wakes me up, or the 'nameless terror' suddenly confronting me, both usually wake me up, but I haven't ;;;erk!..seen any...ack!!...side effects...urgh!!!...from them.

 

[Z]

Most people rarely remember their dreams. Considering how often during the night you dream, this isn't too surprising. Nor is it really surprising, being your brain has to leave room available for more important information. Dreams, lacking any real purpose or meaning, are quickly erased by the brain.

Practiced lucid dreamers tend to remember more of their dreams - especially the lucid ones - but tend, apparently, to dream less frequently... and get less rest while sleeping, it seems.

For my own part, my 'nightmares' - which are few and fleeting, since I tend to lucid-dream them right away - involve the skies being filled with crashing aircraft. Not me being ON a crashing plane, but there being literally dozens of military aircraft flying higgledy-piggledy about and crashing into the ground everywhere - often into crowds of people. (No, I have never been to an airshow)

The freefall dream is actually one of my favorites, and very difficult to induce deliberately. I've read somewhere, years ago, that dreams of falling are a mental response to some physical state, just as dreams of flying are supposed to represent the state of maximum viable relaxation of the body. But since I can fly in all my dreams, I tend to doubt that interpretation.

I used to have terrible dreams as a child, but fortunately, I can't remember any of them now.

 

[Just thinking]

Most people rarely remember their dreams.

I too rarely remember the composition of my dreams ... but sometimes an event will occur (during the day while I'm fully awake) that will remind me of something I dreamt about and thus will get me to recall my dream. Does this happen to anyone?

Or how about this ... while dreaming you know you're dreaming and can think yourself into doing impossible things.

 

[Phaycops]

I just had a weird dream. For a while, I've been seeing this guy around who looks a LOT like my first high school boyfriend. It's not him, but similar enough to freak me out a little. Anyway, in my dream, it turned out it WAS my high school sweetheart, and he was MAD that I didn't recognize him, and he confronted me in the street. Weird.

I used to have night terrors when I was little. I still worry that I'll have another one. Boy was that scary. Yuck.

 

[Checkmite]

As an adult I've had nightmares before, but none of them really stand out, except for this one that I had twice, and then never again since. I've never had a free-fall dream. I've never had a dream where I've been able to fly (unless you count the one where I was driving down the highway in my Lumina, which rotated and began to climb just like a 172 as I pulled back on the steering wheel). I've "awakened from a dream only to later find out I was actually still dreaming" before a few times. It's weird, but not scary.

I've never done this "lucid dreaming" crap - sounds like something that would be very fun at first but get old quickly. In all of my dreams, I'm a normal guy - just sometimes with possessions or situations that don't make sense, like finding abandoned treasure chests in a storm drain, or having the aforementioned Cessna Lumina.

The night terrors were not cool at all when I was little.

 

[Z]

I too rarely remember the composition of my dreams ... but sometimes an event will occur (during the day while I'm fully awake) that will remind me of something I dreamt about and thus will get me to recall my dream. Does this happen to anyone?

Or how about this ... while dreaming you know you're dreaming and can think yourself into doing impossible things.

Lucid dreaming and dream control. Yep - I do it regularly. Too regularly, in fact - as JK mentions, it does get boring pretty fast.

It seems the normal limits imposed by the real world don't apply when you're dreaming (of course, since there is no real world to force you to behave). Which is why I can get lucky in the dream, be rich, and have people respect my political opinions.

 

[asthmatic camel]

I have squillions of weird dreams, but then, I would, I'm off my rocker.

A recent one... I was batting for the school cricket team, everything apparently normal, when the mowing stripes on the pitch started to groove to funky Indian music.

A multi-armed Shiva proceeded to bowl a fast-paced barrage of tricky leg spinners. Every ball bowled depicted the head of a famous artist or scientist.

I managed to defend my wicket until Shiva bowled a Dali which stuck to my bat and melted it.

<Note to self...keep taking the tablets>

 

[Number Six]

How about the dream where finals are coming up and you haven't been to class since early in the semester? Or there was a class that you meant to drop in mid-semester but you forgot and now you have to go and take the final? I've had those kinds of dreams more times than I can count.

 

[El_Spectre]

How about the dream where finals are coming up and you haven't been to class since early in the semester? Or there was a class that you meant to drop in mid-semester but you forgot and now you have to go and take the final? I've had those kinds of dreams more times than I can count.

I have that one about once a year.

I graduated college in 2000.

Damn school

 

[Achán hiNidráne]

Re: Re: Common Nightmares

Don't these two sentences contradict each other? I assume when you say dream interpretation you must mean something other thatn psycological relevance? Like predicting the future or something, that would be woo.

Good point. I've heard confilcting things about the relevance of dreams so I guess I'm looking to sort the woo from the fact.

 

[Jeff Corey]

I must have the most boring dreams here. No nightmares since I was a newspaper deliverer, where somehow I learned to say -this is a dream - and throw a rock at the dog.
Mostly the dreams I remenber now are quest things where the object of the quest is undefined, but we have to do the quest anyway.

 

[Kaon]

I used to have terrible dreams as a child, but fortunately, I can't remember any of them now.

I don't remember much about my childhood, but I do in fact remember some of my nightmares, at least vaguely. Here's a selection, for your amusement

There was a period when I was terrified of volcanoes, really terrified. During that period I remember having a dream where the lava was coming towards me, but it was dark red, almost burgundy-like. Anyway, there was a window in the lavaflow, and inside someone was actually driving the lava, I think. Never really got that one...

Another, classic, was when I came running in to a room where one of my parents were, but they always had their backs to me, and when they turned around they were always horrible monsters.

In another classic I'm walking along a dark street in a surburb-like scenario. As I'm walking past one dark driveway after another, I suddenly pass one from which emerges some sort of vicious dog. Of course it attacks me and I wake up.

I also remember having dreams where I personified thunder! It was a character which in many was resembled a bowling pin! Don't ask me why, back then I'd never even bowled before...

As for the later years, a couple of uncomfortable events stand out.

One night I was dreaming that a nuclear weapon exploded, and just as it detontated I awoke with a jerk. I did not, however, notice the jerk, only that the bad was shaking. So, combining the shaking bed with the impression that a nuclear weapon had just detonated, I was for a few seconds (seemingly longer) expecting to be incinerated in a massive nuclear fireball... That was really eerie...

Anotherone that seemed very odd, I had only a few nights ago. Earlier I had been with a couple of friends at a cheese-and-wine-thing. It was an arrangement by The Norwegian Society of Chartered Technical and Scientific Professionals (Tekna) which I just happen to be a member of. Free wine, cheese and crackers (what more do you really need), and I had about three, not very big, glasses of wine. Afterwards we went on down to the Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics where my friends are students (I'm a physics student myself) and watched Star Wars, ate free candy, potatoe chips and popcorn, I managed to jot down some electroweak unification on a blackboard and sing along to this one, all while dodging dancing astrophysicsists. Anyway, at some point after this I dreamt that I had been drinking some wine, and I was, by some unclear reason, forced to drive a car. That wasn't particularly scary, but it was really, really uncomfortable, especially not knowing what it was that forced me into driving. That, again, was eerie.

And last, but not least, my all time favourite, although it's been awhile since last. Not even in my dreams do women want to be intimate with me! So, there you have! The end is near! Repent your sins, and pay your rent! The Lord is coming, and he's coming fast (so look for that holy shooting star).

Alrighty then. It's getting way to late here, I'm tired and a wisdom tooth is trying to break free. Well, hopefully the pictures on my wall of gorgeous Halle Berry can lull me into sweet dreams of...oh...never mind...



Note: As a scientist I reserve the right to be eccentric. Just so you don't go around thinking I'm a normal person who's crazy. And, did I mention I was tired...

 

[SezMe]

How about the dream where finals are coming up and you haven't been to class since early in the semester? Or there was a class that you meant to drop in mid-semester but you forgot and now you have to go and take the final? I've had those kinds of dreams more times than I can count.

My version of this is wandering around campus naked trying to find the testing room. I've talked to other people who have been through orals and some have had very similar nightmares.

Oh, and El_Spectre, I had this same recurring dream for DECADES after leaving school. Yuck.

 

[El_Spectre]

My version of this is wandering around campus naked trying to find the testing room. I've talked to other people who have been through orals and some have had very similar nightmares.

Oh, and El_Spectre, I had this same recurring dream for DECADES after leaving school. Yuck.

Oy.

The one that gets me is where I think I graduate in 2 weeks and somehow managed to miss a class (inevitably something stupid like Freshman aquatic wicker), forcing me to stay longer. I wake up and am in a foul mood all day

 

[Red Siegfried]

I don't have nightmares anymore, haven't in years, if by nightmares you mean terrifying dreams. I most often have unsettling dreams, mainly during times of my life that I feel out of control or anxious. My dreams tend to reflect my general mood that day.

Dreams where the geography keeps changing and you get lost, not being able to find your class or your locker or remember your combo, being naked in public, all those happen to me when I'm feeling out of sorts or depressed and uncertain.

The last really terrifying dreams I had were a long time ago but they were almost always about ... guess who ... bigfoot. I am certain bigfoot is not real, but dreams aren't always rational.

But then again I've also had dreams about hunting or finding bigfoot and not being afraid at all.

Most of my truly terrifying nightmares occurred before I learned to lucid dream at will and to do regular reality checks. The reality checks would typically cause me to question reality anytime anything strange happened ... including monsters trying to get me in dreams. Then once you realize it's just a dream it's much more interesting.

I also used to have a nightmare about being trapped in some kind of factory where a huge explosion takes place. The factory starts burning and I am trapped inside. Strange thing about that, and it's completely coincidence, is that during three episodes of this recurring dream I found myself waking up after having fell out of bed. But I've had the dream many times without falling out of bed too.

Another kind of anxiety dream I have fairly often (when I have anxiety dreams) is getting in a car accident. Sometimes I push the brake so hard that I grab onto the sides of the car, pull it up like a pair of pants, and push my feet out the floor and skid to a stop or jump or run around obstacles. Weird.

I haven't had a falling dream since I was 10.

But I still regularly having flying, skating, jumping or gliding dreams ... those are cool. Even had a dream I had a jet pack once.

 

[B.S]

Every morning (well its morning somewhere) when I wake up I remember one or more dreams very clearly, very vividly. Some are good , some are nightmares, some are just irritatingly monotonous junk. Every once in a while (twice this week actually) they are an amazing adventure worthy of a movie script. Its lots of fun, but I guess it means I'm not getting a very good sleep. ( I really hate the ones where I'm back at work again but can't find my locker, man I hate that).

 

[Soapy Sam]

The thing with not having learned anything all year and going to an exam?

For some of us , this was not a dream.

I used to fall asleep, screaming.