Nightmares

[Fazor]

edit: me being the...er..."savant" that my sig suggests I am, I forgot to post the link. Here ya go (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/science/23angi.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science).

There was a very interesting article on NYTimes (might require registration, but it's free) that I suggest anyone who's interested in dreams take a look at. I don't know how much of the information provided is new; I just found it to be a very good read.

But it made me think, how many of you are like me, in that you like nightmares?

There's certian ones I don't like; the most frequent being any dream that involves my teeth to start to break apart and fall out (ick!). But most others; even ones where I'm in immediate and mortal danger, I find to be fun. Sure, there's moments where your pulse rate gets goin and you're scared. But I love that feeling.

The last two paragraphs of the article also give a possible utility for these dreams:

Ordinary bad dreams rarely recapitulate unpleasant events from real life but instead cannibalize them for props and spare parts, and through that reinvention, Dr. Nielsen explained, the fears are defanged. “A bad dream that doesn’t lead to awakening is successful in dealing with intense emotion,” he said. “It’s disturbing, but there is some kind of resolution to the extent we don’t wake up.”

By this scenario, nightmares, in allowing you to escape prematurely, represent a failure of the “fear extinction” system. “Bad dreams are functional, nightmares dysfunctional,” he said.


Which I thought was pretty cool. Makes a lot of sense too.

[Paracelsus]

I do NOT find nightmares fun. Mine usually involve leaving home without crucial items of clothing, being lost with some variety of predator chasing me, or being eaten/bit by something.

Worst nightmare I ever had involved this dream about a distorted shadowy figure on horseback galloping towards me and reaching a three-fingered hand out to grab me (there was something repellent and odd about the horse too--can't remember what). This morphed into me standing in front of an intricately-carved box about the size of a steamer-trunk--which was slowly being opened by something horrible and nasty inside. This image, in turn, morphed into a vision of me standing in front of my classmates in my senior AP History class in high school; I was watching a black man (not an African or African-American man or really a man at all; this figure looked like a shadow that had come to life, peeled itself off the ground, and become 3-dimensional--man-shaped, but faceless, featureless). He/it was walking down each row of desks in the class and touching each student on the shoulder. Every time it touched a kid, the kid died. It was headed towards me and reaching its hand out to touch me when I woke up.

This is a creepy post, isn't it? :eek:

[tdvance]

my "nightmares" tend to be annoying more than anything, and when I wake up, it's like "whew, it's a dream, I DIDN'T do something stupid that I have to clean up for now".

I have the "teeth falling out" dream quite a bit--must be memories of childhood and baby teeth.

I have the "back in Chemistry class in high school, final exam is tomorrow, and I realize I hadn't attended a single class nor opened the textbook once" dream quite a bit (inexplicable, as I had no trouble with Chemistry).

[KaiYeves]

I've had quite a few truly horrible nightmares- being chased by a living statue with a sword, a tornado hitting my house, running from hypnotised minions, shrinking to the size of a big and being squished, twice bitten by a shark, and nearly drowned on several occasions.

[Trebuchet]

I'm pushing 60 and STILL have the one of not having attended class, not knowing where the class is, and so on. Very annoying. And if I do find the class I'm usually without some key article of clothing.

[Doodler]

Zombies. Its always the damned zombies that shake me out of a deep sleep.

Occassionally I'll have work related nightmares when I screw something up royally and I am awaiting the axe to fall on my head. That is often my "Sunday night" issue.

[Van Rijn]

But it made me think, how many of you are like me, in that you like nightmares?

There's certian ones I don't like; the most frequent being any dream that involves my teeth to start to break apart and fall out (ick!). But most others; even ones where I'm in immediate and mortal danger, I find to be fun. Sure, there's moments where your pulse rate gets goin and you're scared. But I love that feeling.


I don't often remember dreams these days. I can probably remember more of the dreams and nightmares from my childhood than today. These days, I might wake up from a nightmare, but usually by morning I've forgotten the subject, though I still remember that I had woken up.

I do occasionally have (and remember) dreams that are more adventure than nightmare, which might start out bad, but where I'm able to turn things around. I don't consider those nightmares in any real sense.

I don't like real nightmares at all.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

I've never had (or don't remember having) any type of conventional nightmare. I have however, experienced sleep paralysis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis) several times. In one event I remember waking up and being unable to feel nor move a part of my body, seeing this ghostly figure above the bed. The worst part about this condition is being utterly helpless to do anything but watch as events unfold.

That was few years ago. Now I find I'm having more and more dreamless sleeps.

[Noclevername]

I often had the running away from someone/something dreams, before I was on any medications. But I didn't dream that often (OK, didn't remember dreaming that often). Nowadays my dreams are much more frequent- almost every morning when I'm waking up, it seems, I drift in and out of sleep and weird dreams. And they are more jumbled and make less sense, but feel more real, than before.

[phaishazamkhan]

I dream a lot. I've logged 965 dreams since December 1999. Okay 47 of those were contributed dreams but that's neither here nor there. I'm hoping to have dream #1000 before 2008.
One thing I've been told by my significant other that some of my dreams are horrific and they are puzzled at the fact that I'd just label them as simple dreams rather than nightmares. One would assume my nightmares, surprisingly only(!) 54 in the past eight years, would be cause for alarm and fear to sleep. I chalk it up to desensitization and oneiric apathy.
Anyway most of my nightmares would involve the ocean wanting to drag me under and really stupid stuff that would be important in real life like "OH SHI~ I totalled the car and someone was turned to hamburger" whereupon I would force myself awake which always feels like I'm drowning and fighting to swim my way to the surface of waking life.
Yet things like zombies, bloodthirsty Galateids and tridactylus equestrians pale in comparison to being late for work or school which could happen in real life. Makes me wonder if it's a symptom of modern life where Dunsanian fantasy has lots its teeth (dreams about losing teeth are supposed to foretell wealth) where the banal waking world holds sway over the hearts of modern, practical humans.

[farmerjumperdon]

I've had quite a few truly horrible nightmares- being chased by a living statue with a sword, a tornado hitting my house, running from hypnotised minions, shrinking to the size of a big and being squished, twice bitten by a shark, and nearly drowned on several occasions.

Interesting. Have you ever nearly drowned, for real? I had 3 close calls, 2 as a kid and 1 as an adult - and I do not recall ever having a drowning nightmare. I wonder if people are more likely to have nightmares about things that have actually happened (or nearly happened) or things they have never experienced?

[Doodler]

(dreams about losing teeth are supposed to foretell wealth)

*waits for the check*

Had those, too. Losing them six or eight at a time. Of course, I had just suffered from a shattered tooth at the time, so its more likely they were associated with concerns related to that.

[farmerjumperdon]

I do NOT find nightmares fun. Mine usually involve leaving home without crucial items of clothing, being lost with some variety of predator chasing me, or being eaten/bit by something.

Worst nightmare I ever had involved this dream about a distorted shadowy figure on horseback galloping towards me and reaching a three-fingered hand out to grab me (there was something repellent and odd about the horse too--can't remember what). This morphed into me standing in front of an intricately-carved box about the size of a steamer-trunk--which was slowly being opened by something horrible and nasty inside. This image, in turn, morphed into a vision of me standing in front of my classmates in my senior AP History class in high school; I was watching a black man (not an African or African-American man or really a man at all; this figure looked like a shadow that had come to life, peeled itself off the ground, and become 3-dimensional--man-shaped, but faceless, featureless). He/it was walking down each row of desks in the class and touching each student on the shoulder. Every time it touched a kid, the kid died. It was headed towards me and reaching its hand out to touch me when I woke up.

This is a creepy post, isn't it? :eek:

I read somewhere that it is good for you to be scared. Not all the time of course, but to have that rush occasionally is energizing. I think it also puts things in perspective. Fretting about life's silly little details is seen in a whole different light after having survived something truly significant.

Can't remember where, but not long ago I read a piece of advice that encouraged people to do something at least a little scary every day. It's all relative of course. For many people just taking a different route to work might be all they can handle for starters.

Keeps the blood flowing sweetly and the mind focused on what's REALLY important. Makes you a better driver too.

[Ilya]

One type of dream I have very often (not sure if it qualifies as a nightmare) is being back in high scholl, or in college, or in military basic training -- with a twist: not the way I actually was back then, but as my today's 41 year old self. Each time I have to struggle with questions "Why am I here?" and "How am I supposed to support my family?"

Unrelated, but this morning I had a nightmare of my son drowning. The alarm rang as I was giving him CPR.

[Michael Noonan]

Wow what a category. Some unexplained dreams and a few of the 'falling dream' when I was younger. Actually threw myself out of bed on occasion.

I tried visualising (not asleep) the falling dream some months ago and got to the sensation of dropping. The cat had curled up behind me and whether I moved or it didn't like my dream I am not sure but it let out a sharp meow and bolted.

Since I was young if I was coming out of sleep I would lay still and try to hold the dream and see if I could interact with it. You sort of remember more of it but that still doesn't exactly explain what you see.

[Spock Jenkins]

I don't have much in the way of memorable dreams. I've been told that everyone dreams every night whether they remember it or not - but I just don't remember them. I also don't recall many dreams that truely frightened me or that I felt like I had to wake up from.

It just so happens I did have a dream the other night that was kind of fun. I was playing in a shallow narrow river with my kids. It was a tidal bore. We were able to watch the tide role in on a one or two foot high crest down the river. I've only seen pictures of this phenomena and don't live near an ocean - so I'm not sure what prompted it - but it was pretty cool. I recall the dream being fun and not really wanting to wake up.

I still recall two dreams from a long time ago. I was three or four years old. The first was a dream of seeing a knight in rusty armor walking up the basement stairs of the house we lived in at the time. The other was of our family being forced to park the car in the street because our driveway was overrun with those giant amusement park animals. Now I know of them as people in Mickey Mouse or other character costumes. At the time I wasn't very comfortable with them.

[Fazor]

Interesting. Have you ever nearly drowned, for real? I had 3 close calls, 2 as a kid and 1 as an adult - and I do not recall ever having a drowning nightmare. I wonder if people are more likely to have nightmares about things that have actually happened (or nearly happened) or things they have never experienced?

Firstly, is there any way you haven't nearly maimed or killed yourself Farmer? :) Starting to think your handle should be Survivorjumperdon.

Anyway, according to the article, nightmares seem to be more of a combination of your various fears, rather than a particular fear outright. And their purpose may be to give you a chance to survive said fear, so that in the future you're less...well, fearful of them (in your woken state). Therefore, I wouldn't find it that suprising that you wouldn't have nightmares about something you've already conqured multiple times.

[Noclevername]

I've been having a lot more semi-lucid dreams lately, where I start to wake up, realize (in a fuzzy half-aware way) that I'm dreaming, and start changing or controlling some of the details of the dream. Doesn't always last, sometime things drift right back to strangeness, but it happens fairly frequently- sometimes one or two times a week.

[korjik]

I dont normally remember my dreams. Dont have nightmares very often. maybe once or twice a year I will wake due to a nightmare, but thats about it.

I do occasionally have a dream that takes bits and pieces from my life and juggles them together. Those tend to be the ones that wake me up. I think that I dream too realistically, and my brain starts trying to match up the dream with my memories, and then starts running into continuity errors. This ends up with me waking up thinking 'thats not right....'

[KaiYeves]

Interesting. Have you ever nearly drowned, for real? I had 3 close calls, 2 as a kid and 1 as an adult - and I do not recall ever having a drowning nightmare.
No. I love the water, can free-dive for up to half a minute and am a diver, but I always have enough air in real life.
Chased. By yeti or moldy mummies.
Once I had a dream that I was dreaming, then woke up in school when a teacher asked me a question and could only say "Sorry, teacher, I was asleep." I never actually fall asleep in class, so it was doubly embarassing. Everybody laughed and pointed. I ran out into the hallway, which is on the fourth floor. I leaned on a handrail near the stairway to regain some composure, when the handrail gave way. I was falling down, into the stairway, backwards. About a second before impact, I woke up.

[Van Rijn]

I do remember one drowning dream. I was going underwater, couldn't swim, but I finally realized I could breathe underwater (though it seemed awfully uncomfortable). Problem solved! Still, I soon woke up, and it turned out I had the blanket over my head . . . .

[publius]

If you want to have some fun, look up dream interpretation. There is a pyschological idea that many time dreams are your subconscious trying to tell you something. However, rather than being straightfoward, it uses a highly symbolic and metaphorical type of imagery. There is a notion that this is just the way the subconscious thinks as opposed to the more rational conscious mind. The language of intuition, maybe. I've heard the left brain/right brain thing used to describe this.

That part of your mind may notice something, put 2 and 2 together, but in a way very different from the rational mind. And that comes out in a surreal symbolic fashion via dreams.

For example, there's the "naked in public" dream that is common. I've had those. Your're going along, and then you realize you're stark naked in a crowd.

That could be about a fear of revealing one's true self. You may be putting on an act, trying to be something you really aren't for public consumption in some fashion and your subconscious doesn't like that. You may think others might not like the real you, and that dream is a manifestation of that fear.

Another common dream is being chased by someone or animal or monster. You subconscious could be trying to tell you there is something you need to confront. You are running away from something you need to deal with, head on, but are afraid.

This can be fascinating.

-Richard

[Noclevername]

If you want to have some fun, look up dream interpretation.

Just be selective, I once got a book on dream interpretation that turned out to be some woo-woo about how you can use dreams to "predict the future".:rolleyes: But even with the psychological books, keep in mind that everyone's mind is different, and not everything has a fixed meaning. Memory works by association, and your own unique experiences may associate meanings to a particular image that don't apply to anyone else.

[Whirlpool]

My nightmares are mostly seeing my family die , and I'm trying to save them , but in the dream , I just can't however effort I exerted , juts seeing them dying and fading away in my eyes...

<sigh>

[Neverfly]

I had a horrifying nightmare last night.

Fortunately, I awoke, just before the mirror was turned to face me...

Whew.. Close call...

[Fazor]

My nightmares are mostly seeing my family die , and I'm trying to save them , but in the dream , I just can't however effort I exerted , juts seeing them dying and fading away in my eyes...
<sigh>

Those are the only nightmares I have that I don't like. I never really use to have them; I don't dream about my family that much. But now that I have a significant other, ocasionally I'll dream that she's in some danger, and not being able to do anything to save her is the worst feeling. Fortunately I don't have those that often.

More often, I'm the one in mortal danger, and it's some violent physical struggle. Sometimes I'm in war (I'm a veterin of the Civil War, WWII, and also bravely fought the alien menace). Sometimes it's a criminal I'm trying to apprehend. Sometimes it's someone just trying to kill me. Sometimes I'll shoot them and they won't be phased; most of the time I won't be able to pull the trigger (physically, not mentally). Or I'll be running but I can't go anywhere, like I'm waist deep in molasses. But no matter how real they feel, part of me always knows it's okay if I die (because it's just a dream, tho I don't always know that I'm dreaming).

Whoever said/says you cannot die in dreams or else you'll die in real life was wrong. I've died in dreams many times. But those dreams never have me wake up with my pulse racing; and honestly, most of the time they're kinda fun. I mean, how often in real life do you get to have a life-or-death struggle that has no consequences? :)

[Delvo]

If you want to have some fun, look up dream interpretation. There is a pyschological idea that many time dreams are your subconscious trying to tell you something. However, rather than being straightfoward, it uses a highly symbolic and metaphorical type of imagery. There is a notion that this is just the way the subconscious thinks as opposed to the more rational conscious mind.What would a dream interpreter say about a lack of dreams? That the conscious and subconscious minds are too in tune to need intermediary stuff? That the subconscious is particularly rational (at least compared to normal human subconscious irrationality)? That there's too much analyzing and not enough feeling going on?

This explanation of dreams reminds me of an interesting little game (which can only be played once unless you completely forget the results of the first time) which involved imagining a scene and adding one object at a time to it and describing each object. Each time, you're only instructed on what thing to add to the picture by one word, a noun. Its specific physical characteristics, location in the scene, and activity are made up by you the instant you hear the word, without you even realizing you're doing it. Each object represents a particular part of how you see yourself and the people and things around you. The details that each individual comes up with illustrate those subconscious personality traits to whoever is there. (I haven't said what the scene is or what the objects are because I'm considering creating a thread in which we actually do this game here online.)

[Whirlpool]

Well yeah Fazor.

I don't like that dream too. Maybe because I have a boy who means so much to me that I'll do anything to provide for him , and even gave my life in times of danger.
That I bring it to my subconcious brain when I sleep.

It's hard living alone , being a single parent.

We only depend on each other. And since he's still young and can't protect himself yet , he's depending on me and I should be strong.

[Fazor]

Well yeah Fazor.
I don't like that dream too. Maybe because I have a boy who means so much to me that I'll do anything to provide for him , and even gave my life in times of danger.
That I bring it to my subconcious brain when I sleep.
It's hard living alone , being a single parent.
We only depend on each other. And since he's still young and can't protect himself yet , he's depending on me and I should be strong.

Well, if what the article linked in the OP is correct, that makes a lot of sense (I forgot to post the warning that it's from the NYTimes, so probably requires a registration).

Anyway, if the point of nightmares is to let our consious deal with our fears and try to work through them, it makes sense that one of our greatest fears is that we can't protect those we feel responsable for [edit: I should really finish my thought before hitting the "post" button], and that failing to do so would be a very common nightmare.

[KaiYeves]

My nightmares are mostly seeing my family die , and I'm trying to save them , but in the dream , I just can't however effort I exerted , juts seeing them dying and fading away in my eyes...
I had a dream that I was playing with my family at a park by a lake in our town. All of a sudden, a Nessie-surgeon's-photo-type-monster came out of the lake and grabbed my little brother in it's mouth. I ran after it, but I wasn't fast enough. It disapeared into the water before I even got close to the shore. I didn't even see air bubbles when I got there.
"No, no! Not Orv., no! Take me, too! Take meeeee!" I woke up crying.

[Gemini]

In one I had,I was exploring a hotel with some friends. When we reached a certain portion of the hotel, I noticedthe floor would move slightly (we were fairly high up). Next proceeded to to a balconly on the side of the hotel. I looked over to where the balony met the side of the building, it was offset slightly, the offset increasing until it slid of off about a foot. Suddenly, I hear explosions and notice the building is falling. Shortly, the whole balcony cracks off backwards and me with it. As I fell, I realized a very important fact, I was asleep and having a bad dream.

[closetgeek]

Usually, the first few teeth are fun to pull out, then I realize that I have no teeth. Horrifying nightmares involving monsters and zombies or fighting to stay alive are, IMHO, invigorating and I enjoy retelling them. Natural disaster dreams like enormous waves hitting my house or tornado dreams always seem the most real to me. In the tornado dreams I always find myself saying, "It's really happening this time, I am not dreaming!" with joy. Then, to my dismay, I wake up and I really was dreaming. There was a time when we were in a severe weather watch. My husband called me outside and there really was a funnel cloud forming in the clouds directly over us. It fizzled but that wasn't a dream. The most horrifying nightmare I ever had was when I was about ten, an invasion of Snakemen (See the movie Dreamscape), had killed everyone around me and surrounded me in the street. The sun was so bright, I couldn't keep my eyes open and everytime I tried to stand up and run, I would get dizzy, spin, and fall again. I awoke when they had gotten within arms length but never forgot that dream.
The two types of dreams I hate are; when you are trying to defend yourself but it feels like you are trying to punch someone through water. The other is when I can't save my kids from something. One in particular, I dreamt that my 6 yr old daughter broke away from me in a garage parkinglot and a guy backing out of his spot ran over her head. It was horrifying and I woke up shaking and crying but it served a good purpose. I don't believe in psychic dreams or anything, it just made me more alert because it stayed with me for so long. A while after that, we were in a parkinglot and that daughter, excited to get to her birthday party, bolted out the door and almost ran right into the car that was backing out. It was a close enough scare that I pulled her down in a tackle. The guy even got out of his car a little shooken up and telling me he was sorry he didn't see her. I certainly didn't fault him for it and assured that she was down because of me. Whoa I am shaking now just talking about it.

edit: me being the...er..."savant" that my sig suggests I am, I forgot to post the link. Here ya go (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/science/23angi.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science).

There was a very interesting article on NYTimes (might require registration, but it's free) that I suggest anyone who's interested in dreams take a look at. I don't know how much of the information provided is new; I just found it to be a very good read.

But it made me think, how many of you are like me, in that you like nightmares?

There's certian ones I don't like; the most frequent being any dream that involves my teeth to start to break apart and fall out (ick!). But most others; even ones where I'm in immediate and mortal danger, I find to be fun. Sure, there's moments where your pulse rate gets goin and you're scared. But I love that feeling.

The last two paragraphs of the article also give a possible utility for these dreams:



Which I thought was pretty cool. Makes a lot of sense too.

[Fazor]

I'm the same way with regards to natural disaster dreams (almost always tornados). I think they're soo cool. It's because I want to see one in person--which is a little twisted because I really don't want all the property damage and possible injury/loss of life that accompany them; and I certainly don't want *my* house blown down or damaged...but I'd still love to see one.

[The Supreme Canuck]

I hear you. I've always wanted to swing a seat on a hurricane research airplane.

[KaiYeves]

I had a dream where I thought it was a tornado at first, and Dream Me was thinking "Cool!"
Then it started glowing and turned out to be invaders from another dimension and I thought "Not cool."
And I ran like heck.

[closetgeek]

lol wanting to see a twister is twisted?
I really want to see one in full bloom as well. Here is a burn I will never forget. We had spent the day at the beach, jetskiing and BBQing. My husband was in the car in front of me, towing the jetskis. The day was called off early due to nasty weather rolling in. When we got to the first gas station, he jumped out of the truck and ran to me yelling, "did you see it? did you see it?" As it turned out, while we were driving along the coast, with the storms just to our right had formed a water spout. All I had to do was look right and I missed it. It was way offshore but according to my husband and cousin, unmistakably a waterspout

I'm the same way with regards to natural disaster dreams (almost always tornados). I think they're soo cool. It's because I want to see one in person--which is a little twisted because I really don't want all the property damage and possible injury/loss of life that accompany them; and I certainly don't want *my* house blown down or damaged...but I'd still love to see one.

[triplebird]

One type of dream I have very often (not sure if it qualifies as a nightmare) is being back in high school, or in college, or in military basic training -- with a twist: not the way I actually was back then, but as my today's 41 year old self....

I've had similar dreams--not really nightmares either, in a lot of ways fun--with me back in elementary school but as my current 24-year-old self. In the dreams I never seem to be out of place, nor does anyone else see me as out of place despite the fact I'm clearly older and bigger than all my classmates...