How many of you don't have problems with nightmares?

[Numbers]

It's very rare that I don't have at least one nightmare a night. Very often i'll wake up just feeling bad and not really remember the dream, but other times I do remember the nightmare.

For some reason it usually involves a giant wave. I've probably had 100+ dreams that have involved a giant killer wave of some sort.

My dreams are also very fractured and bizarre. Maybe symbolic, but I don't really "get" them if they are.

 

[edcoaching]

I only have nightmares when I'm running a fever. Most of my dreams are adventures worthy of Indiana Jones...minus the snakes

 

[Wade Wilson]

I haven't had a nightmare in quite awhile, but one thing is for sure: they always involve false waking (which is really the nightmare part for me). It can happen upwards of three times in one scenario.

 

[GZA]

I havn't had a nightmare since I was 14 or so, and even when I was younger I never had many.

 

[mortabunt]

I don't usually have nightmares, but I always end up having to kill something. I occaisionally get night terrors even thoug I'm 16. It's why I don't sleep on my back. Most of my dreams are about supressed romantic passions. It's torture for me to see so many pretty chicks going arround and knowing that I can't do anything because I am too wierd. *Resists impulse to strangle passionately kissing couple*.

 

[placebo]

Lucky you to not have nightmares!

I usually say I have nightmares in reference to the hypnagogic hallucinations I have sometimes when I'm falling asleep. This usually occurs when I'm badly sleep deprived and stressed. They're often visual hallucinations, sometimes auditory and tactile, and accompanied by a feeling of terror. I often have visuals that keep heading towards scary things, that I cannot mentally control or change, things like facial disfigurement, weird entities, gore, etc. as well my body is paralyzed as if it's fallen asleep before my mind has. Once in a while it feels like my soul is being sucked out of my body. Those last some minutes, and I dunno if their technically nightmares, but they're definitely the scariest experiences I get.

Sometimes I have dreams that are unpleasant, (dreams as in not the period when I'm falling asleep) but there's not that same feeling of fear. Such as if I'm having a dream where I'm killing people or I'm caught in a natural disaster or some nasty place--I may feel some discomfort, but I am not filled with the same degree of terror, mostly just discomfort.

I think it's partially due to having terrible sleep hygeine. If I have school or work I will guaranteed not have enough sleep-- average 3-5 hours. If I don't have to wake up early, I often sleep a lot later, varying from 2-7 a.m. in the morning and wake up usually in the early afternoon.

There are periods where I have lots of normal pleasant dreams too though. I think it's all relative to the amount of stress and sleep I'm getting at the time.

 

[Mort Belfry]

I loooooooooooooooove nightmares.

 

[Polaris]

Like placebo, I occasionally see frightening hypnagogic images as I'm falling to sleep. The worst one was a skull hovering in the air and chomping its jaws. I almost never have nightmares, though. Thank goodness.

 

[Fluffywolf]

I had nightmares when I was young. (Saw the movie Critters when I was 6 years old, that's pretty much asking for it. )

I haven't had any for many years now though. I've had many extremely good (not the wet kind) of dreams though.

One in particular, I was staying in another country with some classmates on the same room and I was laughning early in the morning (out loud) when they realized I was laughning in my sleep they woke me up and I woke up with like the biggest ever smile on my face with no memory whatsoever why I was laughning. I was like "What the!".

 

[lane777]

I'm often hunted in my dreams, someone or something is trying to kill me/eat me. I play a lot of Left 4 Dead though, so I suppose it's self inflicted.

 

[spirilis]

I only get nightmares when I've had alcohol the previous day/evening or when I'm running a fever. Otherwise they're ... happy-to-neutral in origin, those I remember anyhow.

 

[tibby]

It has come to my attention lately that I see fairly lot of nightmares. Apparently I also make noises (moan?) in my sleep, I don't know if they're connected though. I like seeing dreams though, they can a useful source of inspiration.

My nightmares are usually about death or being chased. I've had dreams where I've killed people, where people I know have died, where something more powerful/faster chases me, where someone close to me has died and tried to come back as dead, where someone close to me has been given the death sentence... It's the anxious and realistic vibe that disgusts me.

 

[cascadeco]

I can't remember the last nightmare I had. I had one when I was a very young child, and maybe another in my teens, but that's about it.

Even my 'scary' dreams aren't scary. Like, when I'm getting chased by evil people, or there are a dozen tornadoes coming down on the city....it's like I have confidence I'll be ok, or something. Kind of like watching a movie, or I'm living a weird dangerous life or something so there's a bit of a thrill in it...will I escape? will they catch me? - so maybe I recognize it's a dream all along. I have some great maneuvers in dreams when it comes to running and flying and hiding and stuff! And with the exception of one time, I always wake up before anything bad happens. The one time something bad did happen - I think I was killed - I don't remember waking up being afraid or thinking of it as a nightmare. More a.."Huh. That's never happened". I don't know...weird.

 

[ajblaise]

Nightmares are thrilling and are well worth the anxiety once you wake up and get to analyze them.

 

[Nonsensical]

I don't really get any nightmares where I'm petrified.

I have really deap and symbolic dreams. Confusing, depressing, mysterious, crazy.

Last night I dreamt that I was at the airport getting on a plane. It was departing from the airport, and the destination was nowhere; representing that'd we'd fly into oblivion.

It was symbolic of something potentially dangerous, and it worries me.

I have a lot of dreams that forshadow events, and that can be kind of like a nightmare.

 

[Alpha Prime]

I don't have nightmares, and I rarely dream.

 

[Tiltyred]

I have PTSD. I take Ambien, so I don't have nightmares. If I don't take it, and occasionally even when I do, I dream a man is trying to kill me. I always wake up just at the point where I'm about to lose the struggle against him. The terror is intense.

 

[A Schnitzel]

I have an INFJ friend who always tells me about her weird dreams.

I don't get it, but they're amusing.

 

[Synarch]

I have PTSD. I take Ambien, so I don't have nightmares. If I don't take it, and occasionally even when I do, I dream a man is trying to kill me. I always wake up just at the point where I'm about to lose the struggle against him. The terror is intense.

Have you ever tried enjoying the terror?

 

[Synarch]

After I brought my father home from the hospital after his accident I had repeated dreams where he would come to me bleeding and wet like a soggy zombie, clearly suffering. I would dream that I had to kill him to end his suffering.

Then I would wake up and my eyes would be wet with tears. But, interestingly, I never felt upset when I awoke although I would be during the dream. I am good at recognizing that dreams are often emotional processing while you sleep, so I do not generally imbue them with cosmic significance and view them more as a response to subconscious stressors.