I had a really weird dream last night, the details of which I don’t remember, but it was something about being in a kind of a creepy apartment with lots of weird noises, and I had to take a shower, but it was okay because I could lock the door.
Despite the Psycho overtones, though, it wasn’t a nightmare, just a weird dream.
Which got me thinking this morning, I honestly don’t remember the last time I had a full-tilt “omigod let me wake up” nightmare. I had them sometimes when I was a kid, but I just don’t have nightmares. Do most adults? (I was going to say “do most normal adults,” but I decided to ask y’all instead. :p)
I haven’t had a nightmare since I was a kid, and it was a recurring dream that usually sent me running up and down the hallway screaming in my sleep. I do have a lot of very odd dreams, and about half of those are uncomfortable or bad dreams, but no nightmares.
I have nightmares pretty often. A recurring one I have is that I have been sentenced to death the next day but none of my friends or family are trying to help me.
Another one I remember is my boyfriend locking me into our apartment while it was on fire, just because his ex was walking past and he didn’t want her to see that I was living with him. :eek:
Oh, yes. They’re usually triggered by emotional stress. The worst was when I was teaching in Dallas. I used to have dreams that I’d been put in charge of a class of 75 kids, all of them with discipline issues. And the classroom was divided in half by an accordian wall, with the kids on one side and me on the other. I couldn’t see them, but I could hear them, and all the shouting in the world wouldn’t get through to them. And if they didn’t all pass the standardized tests, I would be in Big Trouble.
One dream, I get so mad, I yelled that I quit, and the vice principal told me that was fine, but she’d discovered that I’d never passed eighth grade, so I had to start classes there that day.
I have a lot of nightmares. Average about 4 a week. Some weeks I won’t have any, but then I make up for it with three or four in one night. I talk, cry, groan and occasionally scream when asleep as a result, and my long suffering husband often has to wake me up.
I very rarely had them as a child, they came out of nowhere when I was about 18. Stress does seem to increase the number of irritating dreams (the kind where you’re looking for something and can’t find it, or trying to do something and find yourself frustrated at every turn) but the actual nightmares seem pretty consistent.
Common themes for me are:
-My teeth are falling out
-A loved one dying
-Trying to escape from a violent situation by running and hiding
-People breaking in to the house as I sleep
-Creepy crawlies on/under my skin
-Being responsible for a small child and desperately trying to save their life
-Finding mutilated bodies, or watching unspeakable violence against someone else
Very very rarely. In 05 after I had a very difficult operation I had night terrors regularly - several times a week. I would call out in my sleep and wake up terrified. But I didn’t remember my dreams.
Now I might have a bad dream once a year, but probably even less than that. My dog woke me up from a bad dream a few months ago by jumping on the bed and licking my face. I must have been calling out or moaning in my sleep.
Absolutely, although I have more sleep paralasys episodes than outright nightmares. The episodes tend to leave me with a nice general feeling of dread that can last a while, depending on how quickly I can fall back asleep. Usually once I’m fully awake I can dismiss them, but every so often my brain comes up with something so freaky I can’t let it go (like the time I was looking in the actual bedroom mirror and started seeing objects in it I knew weren’t in the room).
I have nightmares quite often, and they’re usually about my own death. Its not pretty. I wish I could do what my husband can do: he’ll be in the middle of a particularly scary dream, then realize the carpet belongs in another building, and wake up. My dreams are horrible right until the end.
I have dreams of being stabbed in the back or side almost every month right before I start my period. I have the plane crash dream about twice a month, and various dreams where I can’t find my daughters.
But worse than the nightmares are the dreams of my mother (who passed away over fifteen years ago), where we’re together and everything is fine, usually a mundane, hanging out at the house experience. Before I wake up though I realize it’s just a dream and I become so distraught that my mom isn’t really alive I wake up sobbing.
I have nightmares. Worse yet, I have sleep paralysis, in which I KNOW I am dreaming and cannot wake up. Being much more aware of what this is I know better how to deal with it now and can go along for the ride a bit. But sometimes I just have ordinary nightmares, too.
If I close my eyes for too long, somebody is going to get wacked, mutilated, violated, or destroyed. There will likely be some tragic property loss as well. It has been that way since I was a child and is very stressful. I do think it affects your waking outlook on life after a while. I get sleep paralysis as well so that makes things worse.
These days, it seems like most of my dreams are nightmares, or at the very least unsettling or stressful. When I can remember any details when I wake up, other than a general feeling of being freaked out and tasting metal, it often involves someone being after me for some reason or another. And then we have the old standbys as mentioned upthread, like all my teeth shattering.
I have all kinds of nightmares ranging from teeth falling out to getting shot to being chased by some kind of giant monster. I have been having them about once a week for as long as I can remember. I almost always remember them. I even remember a recurring nightmare I used to have when I was 4 or 5 where my sisters took the wrong fork in a cave and I had to traverse a monster filled path to save them…
I have nightmares on average about 4 to 5 times a week. I’m usually trying to escape from someone trying to hurt me or I’m begging people for help and they won’t do anything.
I have dreams that my lovely bride has died, but then that kind of makes sense since she has almost died three times in the past few years.
I also sometimes dream about my father and when I realize that he is dead I wake up and that makes me quite unhappy.
Outside of that, though, I enjoy my dreams. I learned lucid dreaming a few years ago, and when I am in the right state of mind I can have an entire adventure right there in my bed. (OK, ok, but THIS time I was asleep for the 'adventure… you guys are perverts).