I almost never have them, but I had a doozy last night. I have been really sick and am on all kinds of weird meds, so I’m blaming them. I had a dream about bizzare supernatural stuff happening that I couldn’t control, and I woke up in a sweat and was afraid to go back to sleep.
Well, I don’t remember them very often. But I suspect that I have nightmares almost nightly, and so do you. My understanding is that most people dream every night, and in sleep studies where people are woken up while dreaming, most report bad dreams most of the time.
About once a week I get a really good, waking up in a trembling panic dream which borders on the hallucinatory. I had a great one last night where someone was going to perform an appendectomy on me without anaesthetic, the prelude to which was sewing my forearms together behind my back. I decided I didn’t want the surgery, and had to find a way to unpick the stitches on my arms before she got round to me. I think I used my teeth in the end.
After one of my operations I had night terrors for months. But I rarely have anything scary anymore. I had one about two weeks ago, but that was a rare one.
When I was little, I had the “wake up scared to go back to sleep” kind of nightmares fairly often, but now it hardly ever happens. I still have dreams filled with scary, gory disturbing things, but they’re actually entertaining now. Like watching a really weird movie.
When I do have nightmares now, they’re often work-related: being late for important events, not knowing where to go, getting told repeatedly how to do something and being completely unable to do it. This happened multiple times a night for about two weeks just before I left a job where the boss was getting his ass handed to him by the clients for his own bad decisions, and was then taking it out on everyone else. I’d wake up still thinking I was in the dream situation, and frequently got out of bed to go do whatever it was that I’d been assigned.
Once in a while, maybe every couple of months. Some, where I am lucid enough to know it’s a nightmare, but not awake enough to move my limbs and come to full consciousness. I hate those; it’s like being trapped between worlds.
I suspect I have way more nightmares than that though, ones I never remember come morning.
I have them when I am under a lot of stress. Often the nightmares involve me doing something incredibly self destructive, for example I have had nightmares that I held up a 7-11 and then in the dream I say to myself “what was I thinking? I’m going to lose my job and go to jail, what a bad idea!” Then I wake up and for a minute I still think I really did hold up a 7-11 and that I’m going to jail. Recenlty, I had a nightmare that my wife and I go divorced, but she is away on a business trip and I am under crazy pressure at work.
Maybe about 4-6 times a month?
Sometimes I’ll suddenly wake up with a sense of dread that I think must stem from bad dreams. Like, a couple of weeks ago, I woke up screaming. But I can’t remember why.
A couple of days before my period, I’ll get the weirdest, most intense dreams…usually nightmares.
For some reason, I frequently dream about forgotten bills or financial obligations. I’ll suddenly wake up and think, “Dammit! I forgot to pay my rent!” I’ve never forgotten to pay my rent, but apparently my subconscious mind is always worried that I will.
I woke up a few seconds after seeing a madman stab my grandfather and someone else I love (I don’t remember who), and he was heading toward me next. I saw him thrust the knife toward me, everything slowed WAYYY down like a modern action flick, and I woke up before the knife pierced me.
I was so angry at myself for not even trying to fight back. I vaguely remember trying to fall back asleep as fast as possible so I could get back in the dream and smash the knife wielding madman’s brains out. I don’t remember how the dream turned out, though, only the brief moment I was awake and trying to fall asleep agian.
At least three or four times a month. A lot of them aren’t wake up screaming sort of scary, but deeply upsetting only when I’ve woken up and sleepily think about them. Like a few days I went to bed anxious about the approaching ice storm - and I dreamed about cuddling my favorite cat. When I woke up I was really upset. The cat died almost three years ago, you see. I loved him lots, but being with him seemed like a terrible omen! Once I was entirely awake I convinced myself that I was in no way psychic, so the dream didn’t mean anything.
I forgot to mention that I almost never get nightmares. Maybe 5 or 6 in a year, and of those only 1 or 2 are deeply, persistently upsetting for more than a few moments after I wake up.
This particular nightmare came last night, I think partially because I was anxious about bringing my new puppy home the next day and having restless sleep.
It depends on what is going on. If I am stressed or whatever, obviously. Though normally they are of someone running after me or the floor falling through underneath me. Typically 1 every few months or so.
I can only remember having one nightmare in the past couple of years… I think it was this past winter. The subject of the dream was so jolting that I woke up and I think I sat up… I don’t remember because I went right back to bed afterwards.
I’m not a big dreamer, though. Wonder what I can do to have more…
I don’t have memorable nightmares very often unless I’ve been taking Benadryl. Other OTC cold/allergy meds do it to me too, but Benadryl is the worst. Very vivid, extremely bizarre and very scary nightmares. I’ve gotten to the point that I’d rather deal with the occasional bout of insomnia than suffer tainted sleep most of the time.
(Feel better soon!)
Standard, not-too-scary nightmares come about 2-3 times a month. Themes include the familiar “being chased and must hide,” “people have been replaced with zombies/podpeople and I can’t let them know I’m onto them,” “all my teeth are falling out,” etc. I’ll wake up, feel fine, and fall right back asleep.
Once in a while, though, maybe a half-dozen times a year, I’ll have a really unsettling nightmare that leaves me afraid to fall back asleep. One common theme is that something invisible and palpably evil has picked me up by my throat and is choking me. The first time I had a dream like this, I had to turn my light on and read until my alarm went off in the morning – I can’t explain why, but it left me terrified in a way that few other nightmares have.
Now I’m afraid that thinking about this will make me dream about it tonight. :smack:
I haven’t had one, that I can remember, in probably 20-25 years (I’m 36). I seem to be somewhat anomalous.
I don’t have many dreams (that I recall upon awakening) any more, and nightmares are uncommon. Daymares—gotta go to work, pay this bill, etc.—far more of a problem than they used to be.
I did have bad nightmares for awhile, when I was under big stress at a bad job. Talking in my sleep, sleepwalking…once I even picked up my ex and fluffed her booty like she was my pillow before returning to sleep.
I remember getting nightmares while sick when I was a child. I always got high fevers, so that probably explained it. I didn’t mind the nightmares as much as I did Big/Small Syndrome, this weird sensation that everything was at the same time both horrendously large and impossibly small. I think I’ll probably have that feeling right before I die.
In the last 35 years or so, I’ve only had a dozen or so nightmares that I could remember that weren’t induced by a medication. (Nicotine patches are nightmare factories.) I’m not scared of normal stuff, so my brain has to come up with some interesting symbolism to frighten me. Almost universally, my nightmares take place in my home (or my childhood home), but it looks nothing like my home. It has a different floor plan, different furniture, is in a different country sometimes–but it’s still my house. It’s like my brain is trapped in an Escher drawing.
Maybe two or three times a year, max. Even the insanely stressful year I’ve had, full of horrible “life events,” hasn’t really increased the frequency.
My soon-to-be-ex-wife has them pretty much every night, though.
I almost never remember my dreams. I think it’s becausse of the celexa that I take. Anyway, I have nightmares that I remember maybe once every 3-4 months?