Lots but I don’t mind anymore. I’ve always had vivid dreams, good and bad, and I’ve sort of gotten used to being semi-awake through them. These days, when I have a nightmare, I can either turn the dream so I’m a superhero or something or just wake myself up normally. I never get scared or worked up about it any more. My semi-conscious response is to pretty much change the channel. I guess my subconscious can’t surprise me any more.
Wow, I never in a million years would have guessed that not having nightmares was so unusual.
Only once in the last 10 years or even more (a few months back, details escape me now, other than it was more creepy and unsettling than horrifying). As I’ve said in other dream threads, I tend to dream of rather boring and pointless minutiae (tho less so nowadays than before-hell I’d take a blood-drooling zombie trying to rip my head off over endless wanderings in an only slightly warped doppelganger universe, but such is (dream) life for me).
I had a couple of recurring ones as a kid ( being at threat of being physically crushed seemed to figure prominently, go figure ), but they gradually petered out by puberty. I had a couple as a teen, then not much since then, certainly none in a decade or two.
But I should note I am defining nightmares more or less as per wikipedia: * A nightmare is a dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the sleeper, typically fear and/or horror. The dream may contain situation(s) of danger, discomfort, or psychological or physical distress. Sufferers are usually woken in a state of distress, and might be unable to go back to sleep for a prolonged period.*
I sometimes have fairly vivid dreams. And these occasionally are slightly disturbing or dreams where I am frustrated or having difficulty/failing at something. Not often, but occasionally. But I don’t consider them genuine nightmares, because not only are they not your classic adrenaline-generating terror dreams, I am generally not that perturbed at all during or after.
I voted “Yes, but not often.” I had a conversation with one of my sisters about this. She said she had these horrible nightmares frequently, and when I asked her to describe them to me, she described the kind of dreams I have all the time, too, but don’t consider nightmares – the “I forgot I signed up for this class” dream, the “I need to use the telephone but it’s all screwed up” dream.
I said, “Those aren’t nightmares! They’re not scary, just frustrating.” She’d never thought about it that way.
I occasionally have dreams where the situation sends me into heart-pounding panic. Rarer still are the kind where I’m panicked but I can’t run, can’t scream, etc.
I suppose it depends on the definition of a nightmare. I rarely have the “getting chased by monsters” nightmare. I often have the beginnings of claustrophobic dreams where I’m subjected to ever smaller spaces but I learned that this was related to problems breathing so I know to wake myself up. If I didn’t wake up it would trigger an anxiety attack of sorts.
Twickster, I just got your play on words. Very creative.
I have them nightly.
Just last night I was pulling the company trailer with a giant firetuck and the brakes were out and the trailer was scraping against a bunch of ice houses and my boss said the brakes were fine but I looked down and there was only one pedal like a golf cart and I was on that fucker with both feet and I had to turn the sirens on because I could not stop and I was freaked cuz I had a sack of pot in my pocket.
But the other night I had this woven-front-door-mat that was like a swimming kickboard but it flew up in the sky as I held onto it and I’d fly waay the fuck up into the sky, like scary high, and I could not control the fucker worth a shit, and it kept diving into this swap and I was afraid someone would see I’d had this fucker.
Uh … which one? 
Yeah, I have frustration dreams all the time – well, not all the time, but periodically, and they don’t bother me at all: they usually just indicate that I’m in the middle of something IRL that I need to take a look at.
For those who do have nightmares regularly – esp. the “several times a week” folks – do you ever think about doing something about them? Talking to a counselor or something? I can’t imagine going to sleep every night with the expectation that I’d have a horrifying, uncontrollable experience in the next few hours.
I never ever had nightmares, actually I never even had dreams, but since I started taking medication for my depression, Im having dreams, two weeks ago I had my first nightmare
Talk about what? I’m a fairly introspective person, so it’s not like there are some deep-seated issues that are coming out in my dreams that talking would resolve. And even though they’re stressful, parts of them are still exciting or interesting. I’ve thought about getting prescription sleep medication, but, eh, effort. Maybe one of these days.
I go through spells when I have nightmares all the time, then spells where I have none. It might have to do with me being bipolar; perhaps my cycling has something to do with it. But I probably average one nightmare a week. Sometimes I’ll have two or three a week, sometimes none for two or three weeks.