# Dreams & Nightmares



## Foxee (Nov 11, 2012)

Do you have reoccurring dreams? What are they about?

When you remember what you've dreamed is it more often a nightmare, a good dream, or about half and half?

Have you ever tried affecting or directing your dreams? (I have done this once to rid myself of a reoccurring nightmare) If you did, how did that work out?

Do you tend to dream about one type of subject matter (falling, scary basements, flying, etc.) more than any other?

What was your best dream and/or your worst?


Feel free to pick any or all questions to answer from the list if you would. I'd appreciate it!


----------



## Staff Deployment (Nov 12, 2012)

Foxee said:


> Do you have reoccurring dreams?



Not once.



Foxee said:


> When you remember what you've dreamed is it more often a nightmare, a good dream, or about half and half?



No nightmares, no good dreams. Usually a confusing mess of symbols and interactions that retroactively form a cohesive narrative.



Foxee said:


> Have you ever tried affecting or directing your dreams? (I have done this once to rid myself of a reoccurring nightmare) If you did, how did that work out?



I act the same in a dream as I do in real life, which might be part of the reason I can never consciously direct the action. It's more interesting that way, at least.



Foxee said:


> Do you tend to dream about one type of subject matter (falling, scary basements, flying, etc.) more than any other?



No.



Foxee said:


> What was your best dream?



Lemme check my journal.
Spent an entire night in a haunted mansion battling ghosts, monsters, and an ever-changing environment, armed only with the flashlight from my phone and this chick I'd never met. She was pretty handy with a foil.



Foxee said:


> What was your worst?



I don't know about worst, but there was a recent one where I woke up at 5 in the morning and scrawled out: "Tom Cruise's beady little eyes are freaking me out, oh god they're following me everywhere, oh god my bathroom is full of slow lorrises"

I only vaguely even remember writing that. Must have been a terrible dream.


----------



## Gumby (Nov 12, 2012)

I do have recurring dreams, usually about flying, finding myself back in an earlier time in my life, or being naked in public. I hate that last one!

My dreams are usually about half and half on the good to nightmare scale.

I have never tried to direct my dreams on purpose, though I have done so on a spur of the moment, at the instant I realized it was a dream and not real. It worked.

I tend to dream about interrelationships in my life, my personal family mostly, with some odd person here and there whom I knew in the past.

My worst dream that I can remember, was my dad dying, yet he could still talk to me from his casket. He told me that he wasn't really dead, only his body had died. Makes sense really, if you believe in an after life, but I woke up sobbing out loud from that one and so relieved to find it was a dream.


----------



## popsprocket (Nov 12, 2012)

Actually, I can't recall the last time I had a bad dream or anything close to a nightmare. I couldn't even tell you why I don't have them anymore. Although, I suppose that when I look back I never really suffered from nightmares terribly in the first place.

So my dreams are all good then, the ones that I remember at least (which is to say very few).

I tried to get into lucid dreaming about three years ago when I first heard about it. But I gave up after about five minutes when I couldn't make it work instantly and then promptly forgot to ever try again. Whenever I do try to change what is happening in my dreams I find that it kind of ruins everything because I'm suddenly aware that nothing that's going on is real. One of my most vivid dreams ever involved being able to fly and once my brain realised how cool that was, I wanted to push the limits and ended up plummeting to earth and not being able to get off the ground again.

As for consistency in what I dream about? No, not really. It's usually pretty mundane stuff with no common themes or elements that I can remember.

My best dream ever was a few years ago I got my car on the road (at the time I was busy restoring it and it was in a million pieces) and went on an awesome road trip with a few friends and a few people my brain made up. It was completely non-compelling, but simultaneously extremely fun. That dream put me in a good mood for days just because I had such a good time hanging out, driving around, taking nice photos... 

Oh man I'm lame


----------



## Deleted member 49710 (Nov 12, 2012)

I don't think I have recurring dreams (sometimes a sense of déjà vu that makes me wonder - maybe I had the same dream before but didn't remember). There are recurring themes and images, though. The thing where your teeth come out, I've had that happen several times. Frequently I'll dream about tripping and falling as I fall asleep, and jerk awake for a second as I try to catch myself. Sometimes, in my dream, out of nowhere I'll hear the doorbell ring and wake up instantly. This has happened four or five times now. I always think that it means something important has surfaced.

Lately a few bad dreams involving knives. I don't know why.

I'm more likely to wake up in the middle of a nightmare, so I remember those more often. I've never directed a dream or recognized that I was in one enough to try. No bests or worsts. Sometimes I'm able to construct a story around one, or fit it into a story, and I like that a lot.


----------



## alanmt (Nov 12, 2012)

I have recurring nightmares that are not identical, but have the same themes - in one, I am surrounded by Indiana Jones amounts of poisonous snakes; in another, I am hiking and gradually become aware that I am in grizzly country and there is an ecologically unrealistic number of vicious and hungry bears in the vicinity, like a family group of same every 100-200 yards.  These only occur once every few years or so.  When Sophia was in the womb, I had two different but closely identical dreams that she was carried off as an infant by a cougar.

I have learned with some success to redirect my dreams, but usually after they have half-woken me up. If they completely wake me up, I just distract myself mentally until the scare has worn off, and go back to bed.

The cougar/baby Sophia dreams were definitely the worst. In one of the early snake dreams (late teens, maybe), I was bitten, could feel the poison pouring through my veins, and then started to fall, my vision darkening. I knew that when I hit the ground I would be dead. When I hit the ground in my dream, I sat up in bed swiftly, perfectly awake, and sweating profusely. Very alarming at the time, but in retrospect, it seems kinda cool. My best dream was a very vivid, exactingly plotted MacGuyver-type adventure where I was in the midst of a sociopolitical revolution in some third world country and against all odds and with the narrowest of escapes, engaged in an extended course of saving civilians and fighting governmental troops.

Oh and by the way - after reading this thread yesterday and thinking about it, part of my dream last night about a friend visiting morphed into a hike in the woods with husband and Sophia where, sure enough, a grizzly appeared.  Thanks, foxee!  :grey:


----------



## Sam (Nov 12, 2012)

Foxee said:


> Do you have reoccurring dreams? What are they about?



Yes. Anything and everything. 



> When you remember what you've dreamed is it more often a nightmare, a good dream, or about half and half?



Usually good. 



> Have you ever tried affecting or directing your dreams? (I have done this once to rid myself of a reoccurring nightmare) If you did, how did that work out?



Yes. It's called 'lucid dreaming' and I'm learning how to do it. A strong lucid dreamer can control every dream from start to finish, but it requires you to (a) realise you're dreaming, and (b) not awaken because of this realisation. Of the few lucid dreams I've had, I've flown across the world, landed atop skyscrapers in one leap, and walked through a wall of fire without incurring a single mark. 



> Do you tend to dream about one type of subject matter (falling, scary basements, flying, etc.) more than any other?



My vivid dreams - or semi-lucid - are usually diverse. Everything from being on the lam, to running the 100 metres in 9.4 seconds. 



> What was your best dream and/or your worst?



My best ever dream was when I got my PhD. Imagine my agony when I realised it wasn't real. 


Feel free to pick any or all questions to answer from the list if you would. I'd appreciate it! [/QUOTE]


----------



## Kevin (Nov 12, 2012)

Worst dream? I don't know if it's my worst, but it was pretty bad. I was on some battlefield, pre-firearm type warfare. I guess the battle was over. I was on a grassy hill. There were bodies, some smoke, discarded banners... I began to realise that I was dead. I thought it was strange because I was still aware and walking, also, my chest hurt. Evidentally I'd been run through and it hurt. I woke up and it continued to hurt. I struggled to take a full breath and begged my grandparents to take me to the doctor. 
After about forty minutes it went away by itself.


----------



## dolphinlee (Nov 12, 2012)

Foxee said:


> Do you have reoccurring dreams? What are they about?


No 


> When you remember what you've dreamed is it more often a nightmare, a good dream, or about half and half?



I must dream but I rarely remember. About twice a year I wake from a nightmare in absolute terror 



> Have you ever tried affecting or directing your dreams? (I have done this once to rid myself of a reoccurring nightmare) If you did, how did that work out?




No. I am too terrified to think straight let alone logically.



> Do you tend to dream about one type of subject matter (falling, scary basements, flying, etc.) more than any other?



All the nightmares I remember are about failing in some way. 
Failing to keep my mother alive
Failing my finals
Failing to escape from horrific situations



> What was your best dream and/or your worst?



Worst nightmare. It took place in the future in a city with skyscrapers like New York. I needed to get away from it (whatever it was). No matter how fast I moved up into the air, down through the ground to the subway, along corridors I knew that IT was coming and would find me.

I wish I was like my friend. She has the most amazing multi-sensory dreams. They follow the same pattern she is out on a date, the meal is wonderful, they go back to her place and end up in bed. The HE is usually a different actor or character from a film or TV series. This woman has slept with hundreds of men and never been unfaithful once. She looks forward to going to bed and she is asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow. She is 62, married with two grown up children.


----------



## Foxee (Nov 12, 2012)

Thank you for the responses, everyone! I don't have time for individual replies at the moment but I do want you to know I appreciate each one.

Sorry about setting off grizzly nightmares, alan. Time to shoot bears in your dreams, I guess. That's a particularly bad one, too, geez!


----------



## Cornelius Crowe (Nov 13, 2012)

I don't have recurring dreams and my dreams tend to be neither good nor bad, just a medley of disconnected events - sort of like cerebral channel-surfing.

I had nightmares much more frequently as a child, but I don't think I've had many as an adult - I certainly don't recall having any in the last ten years or so, at least.  I don't have happy dreams that I don't want to wake up from nearly as often as I used to, either.  I think that as I get older my dreams are becoming far more literal and far less interesting.


----------



## Towerguy (Nov 13, 2012)

lots of dreams about winning the lottery - but ...

still workin'


----------



## Ryanne (Nov 26, 2012)

*Recurring dreams - *hell yeah. It's totally ridiculous, but it freaks me out. All I ever remember from it is a girl at a picnic table with a red apple, a rocket ship headed to obliterate Earth, and the fact that my family constructed it. Um. Not really sure what to do with it.

*Affect or direct -* people always say they can make themselves dream something. Sounds awesome, but I've never been able to to do it. I think once I was thinking about something a lot and dreamed about it, but it didn't happen again. And once I dreamed I could fly, woke up, went right back to sleep, and continued the dream. Other than that, never happened.

*Themed dreams - *not at all. I have the most random dreams EVER. When I was little I dreamt I was a queen clothed in dark purple who saved the unicorns and brought them through a war or something. A few weeks ago I dreamt I witnessed a murder while at swim team in a hospital and was chased all over the place by the perpetrators, then was saved by a man with really long stretchy legs who carried me down a dirt road. Another time I was a bat who saved my church who lived in cars with giant pillows. And they never make any sense. Ever. They're about something, but in the dream I know they exist. They just are. Or they are and my mind is like REALLY? and some other part of my head is like YEAH BECAUSE [INSERT REASON THAT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL]. Like, you're eating vegetables? Yeah, cus that cow is pink. Seriously, that's how it is. 
Come to think of it, I do have nightmares about some things. Either I miss my bus, show up at a public place naked, or start falling.


----------



## DuKane (Nov 27, 2012)

Two dreams spring to mind, about five years ago I dreamt what basically, after some heavy editing, became my first book. The dream lasted on and off for a few months, extending the story in each subsequent dream. I ended up with the story of an old man recounting his life and as I've barely used 5% of the dream for my first book, I still have a lot to go!


The other that I clearly remember, despite it being many moons ago back in the black and white era, began with me riding a racing bike down a narrow country lane. I would get progressively faster, then, with no visible change in environment, would find myself working harder and harder, slowing all the time as though I were climbing a steep hill. Then suddenly I'd be increasing speed again as though I was traveling downhill. I'd pedaled harder getting faster and faster then no road, as though I'd ridden straight off the edge of a cliff and began falling. I had this dream so many times as a child that eventually I began to enjoy the falling sensation and it no longer was a nightmare. Also I swear that I levitated myself during the dream because whenever I woke my bed would still be bouncing as though I'd just dropped onto it.


As I got older I came to recognize the more bizarre dreams were dreams, tigers living in the cupboard under the stairs, my mum become a gangster were two I remember that were so bizarre that I'd tell myself that this was a dream and too wake up, which I normally did. I've noticed lately that if I go to sleep thinking of some part of a story I'm working on, then quite often I'll dream the next part, or at least the potential next part. Cue x-files music.


----------



## Foxee (Nov 27, 2012)

Cornelius Crowe said:


> I think that as I get older my dreams are becoming far more literal and far less interesting.


I remember so few dreams anymore but I think I have the same pattern happening. 


Towerguy said:


> lots of dreams about winning the lottery - but ...
> 
> still workin'


Hold onto the dream, Towerguy! ...and you might want to buy a ticket.


Ryanne said:


> All I ever remember from it is a girl at a picnic table with a red apple, a rocket ship headed to obliterate Earth, and the fact that my family constructed it. Um. Not really sure what to do with it.


Pen, paper, computer, come on! Write this into a story! I'd read it.



DuKane said:


> Two dreams spring to mind, about five years ago I dreamt what basically, after some heavy editing, became my first book. The dream lasted on and off for a few months, extending the story in each subsequent dream. I ended up with the story of an old man recounting his life and as I've barely used 5% of the dream for my first book, I still have a lot to go!


That is a pretty rich dream if it's given you that much material. Fantastic.


> Also I swear that I levitated myself during the dream because whenever I woke my bed would still be bouncing as though I'd just dropped onto it.


I had that exact same thing happen to me but my dream wasn't a good one. When I was thrown down (by a demon, believe it or not) I woke up with my bed bouncing like that as though I had actually just been thrown onto it. Still freaks me out to remember it.

Thank you for your insights, Cornelius, Towerguy, Ryanne, and DuKane. Just reading the similarities and differences in everyone's dreaming helps a lot. I appreciate your posts!


----------



## writerman (Nov 28, 2012)

Foxee said:


> Do you have reoccurring dreams?



I rarely dream. Dreams stopped more or less when I started writing.



Foxee said:


> When you remember what you've dreamed is it more often a nightmare, a good dream, or about half and half?


Usually they are just very weird dreams when I'm trying to do something but am being stopped.



Foxee said:


> Have you ever tried affecting or directing your dreams?


When I know I'm dreaming I'll try an affect the dream. I always fail.



Foxee said:


> Do you tend to dream about one type of subject matter


My dreams usually  involve interactions with other people. Conversations usually or we'll be trying to do something together. It'll invariably be people I know.



Foxee said:


> What was your best dream and/or your worst?


Worst dream is the old axe murderer one. No matter how many times I run away he catches me. I wake up before the decisive blow!
Best dream. Any that dont involve being chased. Usually I'm a famous writer


----------



## Foxee (Nov 28, 2012)

writerman said:


> I rarely dream. Dreams stopped more or less when I started writing.


Now that's an interesting insight. Perhaps dreaming was jammed by the circuits of imagination? (A fanciful thought)

Thanks!


----------



## writerman (Nov 30, 2012)

Foxee said:


> Now that's an interesting insight. Perhaps dreaming was jammed by the circuits of imagination? (A fanciful thought)
> 
> Thanks!


Could be. That's what I tend to think because these days whenever I do dream its usually about something that's been on my mind earlier that day. My dreams totally lack imagination now.


----------



## Foxee (Nov 30, 2012)

Writerman, usually that's the case here, too, though sometimes I'm gaining some strange and interesting thoughts juuuust as I wake up. The trick is remembering them because I tend to either immediately fall back asleep or get up and forget to write them down. The last time this happened, though, (yesterday) I managed to hang onto the idea until I got the computer on and Write or Die open...then I just used that idea as a 15 minute freewriting prompt. Another story idea for the file!


----------



## writerman (Dec 3, 2012)

Nice one Foxee. Some of those ideas we get upon waking can be gone forever if we don't write them down can't they? There's that finite time before the fuse reaches the end and the thoughts detonate. Glad you were able to write something down. Do you keep a pen and pad by the bedside? I've done some sleep research as part of a book I wrote and found that what worked for me was telling myself, before I slept, that i would remember the dream and wake up as it ended, giving me the chance to write it down if I'm not too lazy!


----------



## Foxee (Dec 3, 2012)

That's a good idea, writerman! Yes, I usually do keep pen and paper by my bedside but usually one child or another finds them and then I don't have them there anymore. Or I get up, write something down, and trek off with them, forgetting to return them later.

I'm remembering more of my dreams now that my son has nightmares so some of my sleep is shattered so much that I keep waking up in the middle of my dreams. By then I'm too annoyed to remember, though, and I just want to go back to sleep. Seriously, if he manages to make it to 18 years old it might be a minor miracle.


----------



## writerman (Dec 4, 2012)

I learned a lot from dream research. And one of the things I learned was this fabulous mechanism we have for forgetting dreams if we go through the sleep cycle. Most people remember nightmares simply because they are so scary they wake up and disturb the cycle.  
So maybe I am dreaming and just don't remember!
Come to think of it, I had a phase where I kept a dream journal. Those are great for looking at trends in your dreams. Shame about your son's nightmares. Are these a nightly occurrence?


----------



## Foxee (Dec 4, 2012)

Thankfully, no, they aren't. Though on the nights when he's scared he just stays scared awake or asleep (I was exactly the same way so I understand) and it's usually just perfect timing...just when I'm starting to fall asleep he'll wake me back up. I remember being stark white-eyeballed with terror all night, totally unable to sleep for fear of the nightmares, scared of getting out of bed because of the snakes I was sure I saw on the floor, scared of my mom being annoyed, scared of things that might come in through the dark curtainless windows.

Yeah, it's all pretty familiar. Still no fun being mom, though.


----------



## writerman (Dec 5, 2012)

I'm sure it is no fun at all. It's twofold really; the torment your son must be going through and the effect it has on your own sleep patterns. I'm guessing that there's not much can be done about it. 

By the way, does he have nightmares about what he is scared of, i.e. snakes, or is it about just generally nasty things happening? Seems he has a fertile imagination. You might have another writer on you hands.


----------



## Foxee (Dec 5, 2012)

writerman said:


> I'm sure it is no fun at all. It's twofold really; the torment your son must be going through and the effect it has on your own sleep patterns. I'm guessing that there's not much can be done about it.
> 
> By the way, does he have nightmares about what he is scared of, i.e. snakes, or is it about just generally nasty things happening? Seems he has a fertile imagination. You might have another writer on you hands.


I don't think the nightmares have anything to do with the other fears except that he's afraid of them coming true, too. Sometimes this is when having a fertile imagination is really no fun at all. One thing I'm sure of, though, this kid has just about limitless potential. (yes, that may be motherly pride speaking but I do believe it)


----------



## WriterJohnB (Dec 5, 2012)

As long as I can remember, I've had dreams of drowning. But it's not a nightmare; I'm enjoying the peace and tranquillity of being dead. It sort of worries me that this dream might be prophetic, because I spend a lot of time in the ocean, in one way or another.
Twice, my drowning almost became a fact. First time, I forgot I had an open wound on my leg and went into the surf. Something (almost surely a bull shark) slammed into me just below the hip, paralyzing me from the waist down. I was pulled from the water, but my hip still hurts, a couple of years later. The other time, I swam across a channel to a sand bar where I have clammed for years, only to find that a hurricane had washed away the sand bar. Swimming back, the current got me and I swam until I was completely exhausted. I was sure I was a goner, but then my toes found the bottom. I managed to "bounce" to shallower water.

I can often control my dreams and it's enjoyable when that happens.

JohnB


----------



## Foxee (Dec 5, 2012)

Whew, John, the near-drowning stories are scary. Odd that you don't find the dreams to be so, but I suppose if you did that might ruin the pleasure of the ocean. Very glad you're still amongst us!


----------



## writerman (Dec 5, 2012)

It does make sense that John's dreams don't really scare him. That could be very debilitating. As for your son Foxee, i feel exactly  the same about mine, so we have one thing in common.

My son used to get nightmares, come to think of it. I didn't sweat them much, saw them as a phase. Thankfully they were.

You wrote _The Noise Machine_? Will give it a read


----------



## Foxee (Dec 5, 2012)

I'm hoping that they're a phase.

Thank you!


----------



## writerman (Dec 5, 2012)

Goin gto bed now. will read it before I turn in. What else have you written?


----------

