# Describe your nightmare **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204 "2009-12-22T16:37:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/41 "2010-06-05T14:58:22Z")
Zombies, always zombies. About twice a month. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/42 "2010-06-06T08:06:02Z")
How about I just [link it](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11464465&postcount=49) instead? ---
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/43 "2010-06-06T13:16:11Z")
I have dreams about trying to get away from a man with a machine gun. I almost get away and he catches me. I keep trying to sneak away and he is around every corner. Finally think I have lost him and there he is again. I wake up all sweaty. ---
**Author:** ![Shy\_girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Shy\_girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shy_girl)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/44 "2018-02-07T09:59:42Z")
I’m scared to go back to sleep. I’m a teenage and it started with the news about how a boat missing. Then my younger sister went missing. I started to cry but I was determined to find her. I don’t remember much but before I woke up we found the boat and there was a homeless man in it and my younger sister was there but she had like an STI or something so I carried my baby sister to protect her? And then my younger sister tried to hug me because she was scared then it kinda shifted into a movie type thing so I put my baby sister down and I hugged her but she had an urge to scratched something so I started crying and I told her to use the sand as a substitute and she was crying saying her hands were burning and she’s scared and then I woke up crying. Can someone or anyone please explain it to me I’m scared to go back to sleep please ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/45 "2018-02-07T16:20:37Z")
> [@perfectparanoia](#): > > I have very realistic dreams in which I do not know that I am dreaming. Makes for really freaky nightmares. Me too! I not infrequently wake from a dream thinking I have committed a serious crime - murder, sex crime, talking in the theater - and wondering how I can face the consequences (or bury the evidence). It takes a couple of minutes to realize it was only a dream and I can relax. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2018, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/46 "2018-02-07T16:59:57Z")
When I’m going through rough life stuff I have a reoccurring dream (as in, practically every night until a matter IRL is resolved). In the dream I own a palatial mansion with lots of twisting halls and odd rooms. I live in a dowdier area of the house because there’s something “wrong” with the nicer areas. I need to get something in a room that is in the beautiful but haunted area of my mansion (I don’t know what this item is). The room is gorgeous, much like library reading rooms at Princeton/Harvard/Oxford. I desperately want to live in this room, but there’s something hideously evil in it. In the dream I go inside to get whatever it is I need and become paralyzed by the evil atmosphere. At this point I awake or the dream ends abruptly. It’s impossible to describe how terrifying this dream is, especially because there’s no face to the evil in this room. Often, if I wake from the dream, I get up and read or watch TV because I’m afraid I might have the dream again. As a kid I had a recurrent dream that I was eating the meat of my bicep with a fork. Yum! ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/47 "2018-02-08T01:13:13Z")
Tendrils. These things are like some macro-sized virus; bluish-grey foot-long french fry worms, undulating and rippling. The infection starts when you bump, touch, or walk barefoot on them…hiding in plain sight. The barbed proboscis punctures the skin and burrows in like lightning. I saw this happen to Terry “Jadzia Dax” Farrell: the pain is horrific. Imagine a knitting needle being pushed up through your heel into your calf in 1 1/2 seconds.:eek: Watching the face go from agony to numbness as these things spread inside her, consuming/converting muscle and viscera into new tendrils. You ever see those videos of the black worm crawling out of the cricket? Imagine that…but violently exploding out of every part of the body, chestburster style. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/48 "2018-02-08T05:11:38Z")
For many years (but not recently), I’ve had sleep paralysis episodes a lot. Comparing with all the stories I read about them, mine were nowhere nearly as severe. They never involved seeing or thinking there was another person in the room, but often involved me being attacked by a large, fuzzy, wild animal instead. When I was in my teens and early twenties, the feeling of being paralyzed scared the shite out of me, and I always tried to fight it because I was afraid it would be permanent. Sometimes I had dreams in which I felt I was held motionless by some invisible force field. I think these were nothing more than sleep paralysis episodes when I was already asleep. I eventually discovered two things about these episodes: (1) Nothing bad ever happened, so I stopped finding them frightening. (2) Quite the contrary, _immediately_ afterward I felt profoundly relaxed and limp from head to foot, mentally as well as physically. My mind was blank for several minutes before I even began thinking again. This feeling persisted for the rest on the night, and well into the following day. I began to actually look forward to sleep paralysis episodes because it felt so good afterward. Has anyone else with sleep paralysis had a similar reaction? ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/49 "2018-02-08T22:02:25Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > Tendrils. > > These things are like some macro-sized virus; bluish-grey foot-long french fry worms, undulating and rippling. > The infection starts when you bump, touch, or walk barefoot on them…hiding in plain sight. > The barbed proboscis punctures the skin and burrows in like lightning. > > I saw this happen to Terry “Jadzia Dax” Farrell: the pain is horrific. Imagine a knitting needle being pushed up through your heel into your calf in 1 1/2 seconds.:eek: > > Watching the face go from agony to numbness as these things spread inside her, consuming/converting muscle and viscera into new tendrils. > > You ever see those videos of the black worm crawling out of the cricket? Imagine that…but violently exploding out of every part of the body, chestburster style. Tendrils sound terrifying! ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/50 "2018-02-08T22:14:52Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > For many years (but not recently), I’ve had sleep paralysis episodes a lot. Comparing with all the stories I read about them, mine were nowhere nearly as severe. They never involved seeing or thinking there was another person in the room, but often involved me being attacked by a large, fuzzy, wild animal instead. > > When I was in my teens and early twenties, the feeling of being paralyzed scared the shite out of me, and I always tried to fight it because I was afraid it would be permanent. > > Sometimes I had dreams in which I felt I was held motionless by some invisible force field. I think these were nothing more than sleep paralysis episodes when I was already asleep. > > I eventually discovered two things about these episodes: > (1) Nothing bad ever happened, so I stopped finding them frightening. > (2) Quite the contrary, _immediately_ afterward I felt profoundly relaxed and limp from head to foot, mentally as well as physically. My mind was blank for several minutes before I even began thinking again. This feeling persisted for the rest on the night, and well into the following day. > > I began to actually look forward to sleep paralysis episodes because it felt so good afterward. > > Has anyone else with sleep paralysis had a similar reaction? I think when I’m dreaming I can’t run/escape/breathe it may be sleep paralysis. These dreams correlate with a kind of light sleep-waking dream state. I experience a similar relief when awaking. I love stupid, mindless, crappy paranormal TV shows. I frequently shout “IT’S SLEEP PARALYSIS!” at the TV when ghosts, shadow people, and demons appear in bedrooms at night. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/51 "2018-02-09T08:38:12Z")
I haven’t had one since I was ten years old. Literally. I simply do not have dreams that leave me feeling threatened or fearful. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/52 "2018-02-09T15:31:31Z")
When I was a kid I dreamed Ulrike Meinhof put a bomb in my house and teased me by saying “Tick tick tick.” That was one of the worst dreams I ever had and I have no clue where it came from. Decades later I had a hypnogogic hallucination where I saw the devil. He was about 10 feet tall, 3 feet wide, totally black, and had puny little horns. I said “In the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost, go to Hell” and he disappeared. I don’t know where that dream came from. I grew up in Christian fundamentalist territory but I’m not particularly religious. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/53 "2018-02-09T17:34:11Z")
I basically experienced [Carl Jung’s Maneater dream](http://jungcurrents.com/carl-jungs-first-dream-the-man-eater/) when I was 16, when my family & I were in West Germany, and I had a very bad case of jet lag… 100 miles north of where he did (in nearby Switzerland)… And 100 years later. [1978, in his bio’s he says he had it at age 4, born in 1874, so 1878. He also died 13 months before I was born…] Like him the thing [a huge erect penis in a cavern] totally freaked me out-I like him sensed that it was alive-and slowly breathing-and could have grabbed me whenever it wanted to. The only major difference is that nobody [his mom in his case] whispered anything about the abomination’s name in my ear. I started half-awake, terrified out of my mind, noticed my family was not in the hotel room (eating in the restaurant-at that point I had not slept in 2 days)-and tried to put on my jeans–hmm they don’t fit. Oh well here’s a convenient airline towel to cover my modesty… I lurched out of the room to the restaurant, only fully awaking when I found them–and only then noticing that I was wearing my younger sister’s jeans. At that point I didn’t care tho as I slowly steadied my shattered nerves. And no, I seriously doubt that there was any prior exposure to said anecdote–all I knew about Jung at that point was as a name dropped by Woody Allen in his comedies. Imagine my shock in college a decade later reading about it in one of his bio’s. Still remains vivid to this day. I can’t imagine experiencing the thing as a 4 year old kid. ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/54 "2018-02-09T21:58:25Z")
I had a dream once that I killed a man in self-defense, but I was convinced that I would be successfully prosecuted for murder. I spent the bulk of the dream preparing to miss my wife and son, and lamenting that I wouldn’t be part of their life any more. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2018, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/55 "2018-02-10T01:33:01Z")
Also, once when I was a kid I dreamed Stalin jumped into my bed and kissed me. Later that day my mother took me shopping and we got some shoes. The clerk said “I hope all of your dreams come true!”; I told her I dreamed Stalin had kissed me and my mother whisked me out of there before the clerk had time to react. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2018, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204/56 "2018-02-11T16:46:31Z")
I had this dream about ten of eleven and the memory has stuck with me over the decades. There is a race of aliens in flying saucers rather like the one in _The Day the Earth Stood Still_ who would snatch people and take them into the saucer. You were okay so long as you were within sight of another human but you never wanted to be alone. I’m riding home from school on my bike when I suddenly realize there’s no one else on the street. Terrified, I start pedaling as hard as I can when I look over my shoulder and see one of the saucers silently drawing closer. That’s when I woke up, gasping. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/describe-your-nightmare/522204.md?page=2)