I have dreams about my parents who are deceased and nightmares about a house I used to live in. I also wake up many times at night. I can’t get a good night’s sleep for almost a year. Is anyone in a similar situation? If so what helps you?
Never really dreamed about the 3 listed in the OP, but I do on many occasions have Nuclear Nightmares. I’ve been having them since I was 12. Each time they’re all different, but all have a common feature… they are very vivid, sound and feel very real. And are frightening as all hell. They include it all; warning sirens, mass panic, often times it includes an invasion by an enemy from the air, gun firing, ground shaking attributed to bomb blasts, and of course… the final bomb. Never dream it long enough to see the results of the final bomb though. Waking up from these usually feels like leaving an I-Max movie.
Anybody ever have these, and how common are they?
When I levitate or fly in dreams I am ECSTATIC. Sometimes I manufacture circumstances where I might fly, eg there’s a boat to be built so I build it from balsa the more easily to levitate it. Flying is the most fun possible while asleep.
Perhaps TMI…
The Bathroom dreams. Usually I dream them right before waking up and needing to go, or associated with concerns about my period starting unexpectedly or something. Basically, in the dream I need to use the toilet but either i can’t find one, or the only one available is a disgusting, overflowing mess of other people’s waste, or I realise that I just don’t have any tampons or pads or anything to wipe with, but I must, because I have to get back to whatever it was I stopped doing in order to go to the washroom (back to work, class, a test, a restaurant dinner, etc… always someone waiting for me). Occasionally, the dream will also mix a little with semi-wakefulness, and I wake up worried that I wet the bed (although I never do, and never had problems with that as a child).
I hate the bathroom dreams.
And of course, they’re so deeply embedded in pop culture that it encourages people to have them. This may also deal with the OP’s last question. But I’ve never had “the falling dream.”
When I was a kid and I slept in underwear and a t-shirt, I sometimes dreamed about showing up in public wearing underwear in a t-shirt. I ditched pajamas years ago, and now I sometimes have naked dreams. I think there’s a pretty obvious causal relationship happening there.
I have noticed that myself and all of my female friends have very intimate dreams relating specifically to people we know or very specific situations involving a few people and all of the men I know (my brother, my exboyfriends, my dad, etc) tend to have dreams that they are trying to save the world from evil or trying to prevent a war or something like that on a grand scale. Has anyone else ever noticed this?
I sometimes have dreams where it is so bright that it hurts to open my eyes. I try to force my eyelids open, but I can only get them just barely open enough to catch blurry glimpses of my surroundings.
Another dream I have is where I suddenly notice some very bizarre and quite prominent physical feature that I never noticed before, like a birdhouse on my nose. I then think about how strange it is that I never noticed this feature before and decide that it’s really pretty ugly but maybe I can get used to it.
MELATONIN! You can get it in any drugstore that has supplements; it’s a substance which is naturally occuring in your body, but is depleted by things like sleeping with the lights and/or television on, or waking up too soon in your sleep cycle. (melatonin is produced by the pineal gland during REM sleep, at the end of your sleep cycle, but you only produce it in the dark. melatonin is responsible for regulating your appetite and your sleep cycle, among other things; so once you get depleted, it gets harder to sleep, which means you don’t produce more of it, which makes it harder to sleep – and you get a viscious cycle.)
As far as I have ever heard, it is entirely harmless; I know from personal experience that it is very gentle, no hangover-type feelings at all; it does not create dependence because once you are sleeping well your body will start making its own again. It has also been found to help protect against some kinds of cancers, and it doesn’t even cost very much.
Good luck, and I hope this situation improves for you.
Since this is now IMHO and anecdotes are the norm…
When I have the naked dream, I’m always wearing a shirt that won’t stretch down far enough to cover my junk.
When I have the flying dream, I have to concentrate to empy my mind, and then I float up, but if I ever get distracted, I plummet to Earth.
When I have the falling dream, I always wake up upon hitting the sidewalk.
Melatonin… yeah. I heard about it, so I thought I’d try it. Took the smallest dosage I could find.
Slept through both of my alarm clocks without so much as a flinch. Had to call my boss at 8:30 and explain why I wasn’t there at 6.
Good stuff, I guess, but try it before a non-workday until you know how it’ll affect you.
I hate it when dreams mess with you.
My dad died from lung cancer in 1990. A few months ago, I had a dream about him.
In the dream, he was hanging out with the rest of the family… talking, cracking jokes, cooking. He got a phonecall and talked on the phone for a bit. Then he came into the living room and told us all that he had cancer. That he had only about a year to live.
I woke up thinking, “Whew! Just a dream. Dad’s fine.”
Then I remembered.
Thanks for answering me. I think I will try melatonin. I’ll let you know what happens. Pleasant dreams everyone!
I may not be normal in this, but melatonin gave me incredibly vivid dreams.
Unfortunately, about once a month I have a “war dream”. It’s usually refugees fleeing, or soldiers hiding out, and they’re always shot in terrible ways, in slow motion–as gory as possible. I always wake up feeling sick from those.
I’ve had flying dreams before, and they almost always require that I kick at the air. In reality, I’m kicking whoever else is in the bed. But I’m flying!
I’ve had the slowly-running-away-from-evil dream several times.
I’ve had sexual dreams as well, but every time I realize the act is about to occur, I wake up. Cranky. Dane Cook did a routine on this; everytime you have a nightmare, wake up, and go back to sleep, you end up back in the nightmare… but when you’re dreaming of being in bed with Cindy Crawford, and wake up? Do you end up back in bed with Cindy? Nah, you end up back in a nightmare!
I’ve had most of the more common dreams mentioned, except for the flying dream. In my naked dreams, nobody seems to really notice that I’m naked, but I really have to poop, and I can’t find a private place to do it. I’ll be in a house with a gym sized bathroom with showerheads and toilets all over the place, and people are milling about like it’s an open house, and I’m just looking for a little privacy.
More commonly, though, in my dreams I’ll suddenly be unable to get my legs to work. Just when I really need to walk somewhere (like up to a podium in front of a lot of people), they’ll be stiff and I can’t move them. It’s not just that they won’t work, but that everybody can see that I can’t walk. It’s kinda like they’re asleep (heh), but I don’t fall down.) Or… I’ll be about to get in a fight with a guy that I know I could beat up, but my arms are like lead. I can barely move them. He doesn’t swing at me, but he’s always about to, and I just need to pummel this guy, but I can’t get my arms to work.
While sex dreams are pretty rare, I can now have them and climax without waking to a mess in my underwear (kinda like how I can actually piss in a dream without wetting the bed. I didn’t wet the bed much when I was in my early double-digits, but if I had a piss dream, I damn-sure wet the bed.) I guess I’m getting old.
Not only can you not get back into the good dream, but you woke up right as the dream was really about to get good.
I had a dream that my father walked in he looked loving and compassionate but he wouldn’t say anything. I said Dad say something please and I woke up. Soul Frost I know what you are going through about you’re Dad. My Dad passed away.
I bought Melatonin today. I will take it tonight. I had another dream that I had breast cancer in my left breast last night. I had a cancer scare about a year ago myself but my Mom really died from it. I really dread going to sleep. To sleep perchance to dream.
Thanks Wonder Woman. My dad’s been gone for 16 years now, and I like dreaming about him from time to time. It’s good to see the old boy again.
I’m sorry to hear about your folks, though. Hope the melatonin helps you get a little shut eye.
Speaking as one hardcore insomniac to another, there are professionals who can help you get better sleep. Whether you’re not sleeping well due to poor sleep habits, a chemical imbalance, unresolved grief, a lumpy mattress, restless legs, or whatever else, better sleep is to be had. It may never be great sleep, but it can be better. Often, remarkably better. Nothing in this world short of chronic pain or a devestating loss is more miserable than a lengthy span of sleep deprivation.
Best of luck to ya.
I totally have the teeth dreams, and I’ve had a few falling dreams too. Those usually involve me being stuck in my high school gym’s rafters and I can’t get a good grip on anything before I fall.
I also frequently have what I call Crime Dreams where I do things like rob banks and get into action movie style firefights, but they’re usually terrifying situations to be in dream wise, they’re not fun at all.
Re: flying dreams, one common thread I’ve noticed about my own flying dreams, and the dreams of my acquaintances, is the method of flying. None of us have wings, nor have we become birds or bats or other such creatures. Instead it’s as though our chests fill with air, like full sails, and we just sort of lift right up into the air.
I rarely remember my dreams, only the bizarre or traumatic ones, so I don’t know if I only have bizarre and traumatic dreams, or if those are the only ones my psyche finds worth remembering. Last night, I dreamed that I gave birth to twins; the first was born perfect, but the second’s skin began to blister and burn. I was so horrified that I fled, and a nurse had to hold and console me. The doctors told me my second baby would live, but he would always be disfigured, and I was heartbroken. I couldn’t help but think how beautiful my first baby was, and how deformed my second was, and I hated myself for not loving them equally. Other women have told me they sometimes dream about having babies or caring for babies, even if they’ve never been mothers. I wonder if men have dreams like that, too?
I almost never remember my dreams, either, unless they are traumatic. I occasionally have a dream in which a loved one dies, for instance. These dreams are so realistic that I will wake up crying, thinking it is true. Similarly, I sometimes dream that my husband has left me – he is always very cruel to me in these dreams, saying hateful things. Again, I wake up crying and surprised to find him there in bed with me. I’m glad these dreams are rare!
I have never had any of the 3 dreams in the OP. Nor have I ever had a flying or falling dream. I sometimes jerk awake with a falling sensation, but that isn’t a dream per se – just the sensation. And I have dreamed a couple of times that my teeth had broken – that I had ground them so hard they splintered and broke. Weird.
My mother has very elaborate ‘story dreams’ that she usually remembers. And both my dad and husband (both Navy veterans) occasionally have a version of the 'unprepared dream. My dad dreams that he is standing outside a ship, knowing he needs to check aboard, but in civilian clothes, with a beard and long hair and no seabag. And my husband dreams that he is speaking to the detailer who tells him he has due to report that day to a new command, and he doesn’t have his uniforms, and his hair’s too long and so on.
Yeah, I get the “naked in public” dream now and then. The funny thing is, it never seems so much horrifyingly embarrassing as it does distinctly uncomfortable. I seem to find myself thinking, “if I just keep walking casually, maybe nobody will notice!” :smack:
I’ve never had #2 or #3 as mentioned by the OP, but I think that near the start of almost every academic quarter I’ve ever had in college so far, I have a nightmare in which I’ve just inadvertently blown off all my classes on the first day. I usually wake up in a panic, only to realize that the term hasn’t started yet.
I also seem to have alien invasion-type dreams a lot. Usually, I’ll be doing something very normal in the dream (taking a walk, reading a book, etc.), and then I’ll look up and see some immense monolith in the sky. This is almost immediately followed by frightening occurrences, such as planes crashing for no apparent reason, things exploding, or random and totally mundane things that are somehow rendered horrifying, like grocery stores.