Bad dreams

Haych

Every now and again I have bad dreams, I'm sure most people do. 

Last night I had a particularly awful dream, literally the wake up suddenly in a cold sweat and out of breath type.

But I've never been able to understand nightmares and bad dreams.  Isn't it the mental equivalent of stabbing yourself in the leg with a pencil and then wondering why?  I mean, the mind that's experiencing the dream, and all the horrible emotions and fear etc, is the same mind that's creating the dream.

What gives, do I hate myself that much that I have to terrorise myself in my sleep?

It's a deep topic and not one that is answerable really but as the remnants of the horror of the dream stay with me throughout the day I just thought I'd vent.

randella

Have you thought that maybe you actually *were* running through your old school with no clothes on, and just forgot?

randella

On a serious note, caffeine and stress make mine more vivid and consequentially worse.

Haych

randella said:

Have you thought that maybe you actually *were* running through your old school with no clothes on, and just forgot?

Haha, I have that one quite regularly, I consider that a nice dream now

menamestom

Not sure, but I get sleep paralysis quite a bit which mixes dream world with semi conscoius and that's quite disturbing.

A week or so ago, it must have happened about 20 times in one night, that stayed with me for a few days.

There's nothing more disturbing than being shattered but knowing falling asleep will have you trying to scream your way back out of your own sleep* so you are not trapped in the upside-down.

*In practise, this doesn't happen.  My wife hears my weak groans and slaps my head, which wakes me up.  The cycle then starts again.

Haych

menamestom said:

Not sure, but I get sleep paralysis quite a bit which mixes dream world with semi conscoius and that's quite disturbing.

A week or so ago, it must have happened about 20 times in one night, that stayed with me for a few days.

There's nothing more disturbing than being shattered but knowing falling asleep will have you trying to scream your way back out of your own sleep* so you are not trapped in the upside-down.

*In practise, this doesn't happen.  My wife hears my weak groans and slaps my head, which wakes me up.  The cycle then starts again.

That sounds quite horrific. I feel for you mate. 

Sleep is obviously important for us humans* and being in a state like that must be awful. 

* other carbon based life forms may also require periods of sleep. 

jdgm

I get bad dreams if I am too hot - this can be as little as one or 2 degrees.

Early this morning I had a vivid music-related dream. I was at an open-mic type of thing and got called up to play with the ex-singer of my band. We were doing something resembling "Before You Accuse Me" but he froze and couldn't remember the words, so I took over on guitar and started making free-jazz type noise (I wish I could make my guitar make noises like that in real life),  at the end of which I picked up a spoon from the table (typical dream stuff, where did the table come from?) and started banging it on the strings.  As I was putting the guitar away a lady came up to me and gave me something round, wrapped up in paper, saying 'this is for you', then left....I unwrapped it and it was a rotten apple! I went up to the singer who was in tears by then and said  - blaming him - 'hey W----, look what I just got given, it's a pity you can't bloody sing'.

I woke up and was quite amazed at my brain's resourcefulness. Weird. A premonition perhaps?

Cirrus

I don't tend to get scary/ bad dreams that much these days.

That said, at the beginning of April my wife went through something fairly traumatic, and she could have died. I had a couple of visually vivid bad dreams after that, the wake-up-with-a-start kind, and I understand the symbolism of the dreams - that it was my subconscious mind dealing with the aftermath of the person I love most being in pain and danger.

Dreams are basically our brain defragging itself AFAIC - sorting through memories, concepts, emotions etc, and the resulting mess of connections causes a subjective experience. Good or bad dream, I think that principle applies.

57Deluxe

Eratic dreams are always related to anxiety issues. It is the brain's way to test out scenarios to see if you would cope - a bit like that Tic-Tac-Toe routine in Wargames...

lasermonkey

For some reason, sleeping on your left side tends to result in more vivid dreams or nightmares. I've also noticed that I'm more prone to acid reflux/indigestion if I sleep turned to the left, so I wonder whether there's a connection.

I've had some crazy nightmares, including a couple where the xenomorph from Alien was chasing me, one where I died (that was very strange!) and one recurring dream where I was the new guitarist for Siouxsie And The Banshees (which is probably scary enough in real life) and I'm just about to go onstage and I realise that I can't remember any of the songs. Those ones have been real, "wake up in a cold sweat" type nightmares!

littlegreenman

Precipices, dripping water, seriously large institutional buildings and losing my shoes whilst carrying a duvet are my fairly regular odd dreams. I probably understand the first 3 but the shoes and duvet ones always freak me out!

skunkwerx

Just human man. 

thing

I always find a big lump of Stilton and a glass of red wine just before going to bed give me some odd but superb surreal dreams. The nice thing is i know I'm dreaming so can either choose to stay in the weirder ones or if they are a bit boring I can wake myself up, do a reset as it were then go looking for more weirdness. It helps also to think about what you want to dream about and hold an image in your head as you're dropping off, in fact sometimes there's no juncture as it were between being awake and dreaming, the nodding off bit sometimes gets bypassed. Stilton and dreaming were made for each other.

Bridgehouse

@thing is right - cheese choice can flavour your dreams wildly.

Jarlsberg gives me the horniest dreams I’ve ever had. 

Haych

I sometimes have very weird dreams where I come across a book, a sign or some other piece of text. By this time I know I’m dreaming and I test myself as to whether I can read the text in my dream. 

Often I'm amazed I can and because I can I keep reading. I then wake up laughing, literally, in amazement that I could read the text in my dream, only to find that if I actually was reading I have no recollection of what the writing was about. 

The other odd odd dreams I have are when I dream I have woken up, but in fact I’m still dreaming. I’m convinced I’m awake and that everything I’m seeing is real. Obviously it’s not and it’s all very surreal but the fact that I’m “awake” in my dream and think I’m fully conscious with my eyes open I see some strange things. 

Then I wake up for real and get the “bugger, it was just a dream” feeling. 

LuttiS

Only one dream has stayed with me all my life from when I was younger...

I was in a large  kennel at the end of a grass running track on a warm sunny day. There were other kids In there too and all of our late 80's early 90's parents were lined up along the side.. like some sort of sick sports day. 
Us kids had to run to the end of the track (it wasn't far.. but we were small) 
Unfortunately there was a catch in what could only be described as a terrifying beast looking not unlike a pink moomin crossed with a friendly hippo. 

Everytime someone made a run for it the giant hippomoominapotamus (that was pink) would simply bend over the back of the kennel and grab said child and put them back in the kennel. When I ran I was put back in the kennel and planks of wood were put over the entrance, bugs bunny style.. i.e. done in 2 seconds, no nails, just hammered and randomly placed. Could still get out though. 

This dream has stuck with me all my life... To this day I still fucking hate the moomins and I can't look a hippopotamus in the eye. 

thing

Haych said:

The other odd odd dreams I have are when I dream I have woken up, but in fact I’m still dreaming. I’m convinced I’m awake and that everything I’m seeing is real. Obviously it’s not and it’s all very surreal but the fact that I’m “awake” in my dream and think I’m fully conscious with my eyes open I see some strange things. 

Then I wake up for real and get the “bugger, it was just a dream” feeling. 

I have that one but mine is very mundane. I dream the alarm has gone off and I go through the usual motions of shower, get dressed etc but feel very good, buzzing with energy. Then I wake up and realise I'm really awake 'cos everything is creaking and i feel like shit.

The only other recurrent dream I remember is from when I was very young and i used to dream of a high note and a low note racing each other round a running track. The low note actually made a kind of low rumbling sound and was a bit dark and threatening and the high note was kind of elfin and dancy with a kind of chimy ring to it like a glockenspiel high note.The high note always used to win. Mind you, dont try and keep a dream diary, it usually fills with garbage pretty quickly.

I love this quote from Bertrand Russell

“William James describes a man who got the experience from laughing-gas; whenever he was under its influence, he knew the secret of the universe, but when he came to, he had forgotten it. At last, with immense effort, he wrote down the secret before the vision had faded. When completely recovered, he rushed to see what he had written. It was: "A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.”

Moominpapa

LuttiS said:

This dream has stuck with me all my life... To this day I still fucking hate the moomins and I can't look a hippopotamus in the eye. 

Dude, that's the pink side of the family - weird fuckers; we hate them too.

thermionic

I have a couple of recurring themes. I get the naked one, where I’m at work with no clothes. Initially it seems like a good idea, but I slowly become aware that everybody else thinks it’s very wrong. Nobody says anything though, but gradually I realise it was a really bad idea going to work with no clothes on. Then it becomes a long, drawn-out test of endurance as I wait until I can pop home and get some clothes. That bit lasts for ages and stresses me out so much I wake up.

The other one is pulling wheelies on my bike. I cycle a lot, but haven’t really pulled a wheelie since I had a Raleigh Tomahawk when I was nine. In my dreams I’m riding through the city, or with the cycling club, I pull on the bars and shift my weight back - bingo. I can ride around on my back wheel, effortlessly for minutes at a time. Everybody is impressed  by my skillz.

Haych

I have another recurring dream from time to time, it’s not a nightmare but it’s not lovely either. 

I’ve sold the house and moved to an apartment block in a city somewhere. I’m stood in the corridor of whatever floor my small apartment is on. It’s very hotel-like with doors on either side of the long corridor. 

I get to my door and open it but instead of a doorframe there’s a long and very low tunnel like passage, about ten feet long and only about 18 inches in height. It’s the only way in and out of the apartment.  Sometimes when I have the dream the passage gets smaller the further I go into it.  

My family are already inside the apartment and are beckoning me to come in. I get down on my hands and knees and try to snipper-crawl through the tunnel. As soon as I’m in the tunnel I get claustrophobic and feel trapped and I can’t go on and can’t turn back.

It’s at this point I wake up, usually in a bit of a panicked relief.

I’m sure it has some profound meaning connected to what’s happening in my life but I’m sure I’ll never know what.   

I have the naked dreams too. However, in mine I feel quite normal and unphased by it. I’m usually doing something mundane like in a meeting at work stark bollock naked and just getting on with it. 

I’m aware that other people are treating me differently like there’s something wrong with me but I still feel ok about being in the buff. Towards the end of the dream it’s somehow suggested that I need to put clothes on but it’s always for the sake of the other people in my dream and not to save myself from embarrassment. 

For the record I’m not, never have been and never will be a naturist, or whatever you call em. 

skunkwerx

Haych said:

I have another recurring dream from time to time, it’s not a nightmare but it’s not lovely either. 

I’ve sold the house and moved to an apartment block in a city somewhere. I’m stood in the corridor of whatever floor my small apartment is on. It’s very hotel-like with doors on either side of the long corridor. 

I get to my door and open it but instead of a doorframe there’s a long and very low tunnel like passage, about ten feet long and only about 18 inches in height. It’s the only way in and out of the apartment.  Sometimes when I have the dream the passage gets smaller the further I go into it.  

My family are already inside the apartment and are beckoning me to come in. I get down on my hands and knees and try to snipper-crawl through the tunnel. As soon as I’m in the tunnel I get claustrophobic and feel trapped and I can’t go on and can’t turn back.

It’s at this point I wake up, usually in a bit of a panicked relief.

I’m sure it has some profound meaning connected to what’s happening in my life but I’m sure I’ll never know what.   

I have the naked dreams too. However, in mine I feel quite normal and unphased by it. I’m usually doing something mundane like in a meeting at work stark bollock naked and just getting on with it. 

I’m aware that other people are treating me differently like there’s something wrong with me but I still feel ok about being in the buff. Towards the end of the dream it’s somehow suggested that I need to put clothes on but it’s always for the sake of the other people in my dream and not to save myself from embarrassment. 

For the record I’m not, never have been and never will be a naturist, or whatever you call em. 

Sounds like something a nudist would say...