I have this nightmare that occurs once or twice a month:
Driving along a deserted road in what looks like rural Nebraska or something, very flat, very boring. Alone in the car, radio blasting, not a cloud in the sky. Suddenly, a massive thunderhead forms in the distance and moves fervently toward me. I turn in a different direction and speed along, hoping to escape the storm, but it, too, changes course to follow me.
By now I’m sweating bullets, fully aware of the possibility of becoming tornado fodder. The twister fully forms and moves closer as I continue faster. The Alaskan-sized funnel chews up trees, buildings, everything in its path. I can feel the ground shaking when it comes up behind me and … I wake up. Usually sweating and shaking.
I’m not afraid of storms, per se. As a matter of fact I usually stand out in the garage during a thunderstorm 'cause I think they’re cool. I never had an encounter with a tornado and I don’t live in a trailer park so, to me, this dream is completely irrational.
Would anyone care to analyze this or share their nightmare?
I have tornado nightmares, too. They usually involve me standing in my home or in my office watching the twisters until one heads straight for me. If I’m at work in the dream, I dive under a desk, or if I’m at home I huddle in a corner. The dream usually ends with the tornado hitting the house and blowing in the windows, then moving on. Sometimes there’s more than one tornado, or maybe I’m having more than one dream.
I don’t live in a tornado-vulnerable area, either (though I have always lived in manufactured homes; ie, trailers or tornado magnets). I wonder if it’s a stress dream or if it’s about fear of loss of control. When there’s a tornado bearing down on you, ain’t much you can do about it.
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
I used to live in an apartment house in Redondo Beach, CA. One night I dreamed I was looking out the bedroom window; instead of seeing the expected view of the next building, I was looking in someone’s cellar; just about the only thing I saw in the dark space was a skull on a concrete ledge. I croaked in a terrified, dry voice, “Oh god–take that thing out of here!!” I woke up with my heart pounding.
when i was very young, i had a recurring nightmare.Every night for months i would wake up crying.
the winged monkeys from the wizard of oz used to come and kidnap my mother.
they would lock her up and i would try to save her but i never could.
these dreams started when i was in kindergarten all day, and my mom took a second shift job all evening.
it doesn’t take a phd in psychology to figure out that dream.
I’m going in the front door of a house I used to live in – it’s dark, and I hear a wailing sound and there’s a vague cloud-like shape in the living room.
My first husband (who died several years ago) is going around to the back door of the house – and as I wake up, I’m trying to decide whether to warn him about the “thing” waiting for him, or just run and let it get him.
Hey, I have tornado dreams too. Mine are usually more along the them of being trapped and unable to escape as it approaches–in a car, a bus (once it was in a bus on a cliff), whatever. Even in dreams where I’ve been able to get to shelter, the powerless feeling of Not Knowing what would happen when the massive funnel struck–and it was certain it would–was terrifying.
I’ve actually done some reading up on this, and other, dreams. Conventional psychology/Freudian dream analysis suggests that dreams of this and similar natures are about stress–something large is looming in your life, and you feel powerless to it. It has incredible destructive power, and all you can do is brace and …wait…for it to make its inevitable strike. I know this analysis applies to me, not sure about you.
I just want those damned “I’m running late to work and nothing I do will get me there on time” dreams to stop.
I used to think the world was against me. Now I know better. Some of the smaller countries are neutral.
I have been in a tornado, but have never had nightmare about one.
I did have a nightmare that came on a semi-regular basis right after my son was born. In the dream I got up in the middle of the night for some reason to check on him and he was dead. I remember screaming and completely losing it in my dream. I would wake up in cold sweats and could not go back to sleep. That was without a doubt the worst reocurring (sp?) dream I’ve ever had.
-Jesus Saves
He passes to Mike Modano. THEY SCORE!!!
I think you guys with the recurring tornado nightmares have seen The Wizard of Oz one too many times. So, tell me, do you see flying monkeys in that dream, too?
“There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.”
~P.J. O’Rourke~
*melanietarrant: when i was very young, i had a recurring nightmare.Every night for months i would wake up crying.
the winged monkeys from the wizard of oz used to come and kidnap my mother.
they would lock her up and i would try to save her but i never could.
these dreams started when i was in kindergarten all day, and my mom took a second shift job all evening.
it doesn’t take a phd in psychology to figure out that dream. *
Your mother worked for the Wicked Witch of the West?
I have running late for work dreams, too. Usually I’m at home getting ready for work, and it seems like time is flying by too fast. I look at the clock at it’s 8:00 already. I think, “Well, I’m going to be a little late.” Suddenly it’s 9:00 or 10:00 or 11:00 and I still haven’t taken my shower or gotten dressed when it dawns on me, “I haven’t called in and said I’m coming in late! They probably think I’m a no call, no show!” But things keep happening to distract me, too, like my mom or husband keeps stopping me to talk, and when I look at the clock again 2 more hours have gone by and I’m still not dressed and I still haven’t called.
Of course, in reality I have had lateness problems in the pas5 and was threatened with firing once. I think my subconscience can’t grasp the fact that I’m passed my probation period and not only would I have to show up late, but nude, drunk, and carrying a gun before they’d fire me. (Working for the state has its advantages.)
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
I have never had a recurring nightmare.
But I did have one that I still remember to this day.
In the dream I was in a gunfight and my guns kept jamming and misfiring.
The dream was enough to wake me up and make me get the guns out and start cleaning them in the middle of the night.
I discovered that the pistol that I kept under my pillow had been fired by my son while Ayesha and I had been out of the house that day.
Son was about 12 years old at the time,knew about the gun and had been taught gun safety at the firing range.
It is safe to say that by the time I got thru with him that he has never touched any of the guns without permission since.
The only damage done besides a hole in a window was to sons ego.
Peace
t lion
" I Wonder What Happens When I push THIS Button? "
Ok, usually swapping nightmares is inviting others into brain sludge, but since you asked, besides the usual naked-in-public or show up for exam in a course you forgot you registered for…
I’ve had this one as long as I can remember. I’m walking along the outside of a typical suburban ranch house (I could diagram the layout) and start getting stupid-scared. Something awful has happened inside, the awfulness is still around and no one is nearby to help.
I go inside and “the awfulness” envelops. I’ve always wakened up before indentifying the threat, but the house itself and the feeling of absolute terror always remains.
I suspect a lot of it goes back to my suburban childhood, when a playmate’s mother shot the oldest son and then herself with a shotgun. It was pretty traumatic, though foggy from a childhood perspective. I don’t think so, though, because I was back inside that house and it is nothing like what’s in my dream.
My version of the “tornado” dreams is that I’m standing on the beach and a mountainous, Extinction Level Event tidal wave is bearing down on me.
Not quite on the Nightmare level, but some really annoying dreams are:
-Dreaming about your job.
-Dreaming you’ve screwed up/ forgotten something, like “I left a pizza in the oven before going to bed!”. (When you really didn’t I mean)
-Dreaming you’re finally about to make it with that special someone, and something always goes wrong!
I’ve had those dreams where you’re running in “slow motion”, only I don’t dream that I’m trapped in quicksand or anything; it’s just “Why the heck can’t I get my legs in gear?”
I occasionally dream that I’ve painlessly pulled my body to pieces, like you would a doll. “Darn, I just plucked my eyes out and now I’ll be blind for the rest of my life. That was pretty stupid of me wasn’t it?”
Back in the 80s when fears of nuclear war were being hyped ad nauseum like “The Day After”, I had some nuclear nightmares. Never had before or since.
As a kid, I had a lot of nightmares about brains after watching too many Frankenstein movies.
I’ve never had any recurring nightmares (or happy dreams, for that matter), but some of my dreams have been real corkers.
I’ve mentioned the fact that I’m a birthmother on this board before. The worst nightmare I ever had occurred the day I came home from the hospital, after my daughter was born and I had given her to her adoptive parents.
I was in a huge, luxurious hotel I was in the swimming pool, and everywhere I looked, there were little babies. They were sitting on the edge of the pool, on the balconies, just everywhere. I started pulling them into the pool with me, knowing full well that they couldn’t swim, and they’d die. At one point, just for a second, my mother was there, and she handed a baby to me, and I dunked that one too.
I’m positive that that dream was due to my fear of having made the wrong decision for my baby. This dream happened eleven years ago, though, and thanks to the fact that we have an open adoption, I know that my decision was right, and my daughter is fine.
The weird part of that dream was my mom showing up. But I figured that part out too, two months after I had the dream. As it turns out, my mom had given up a baby for adoption, too, in 1966. Although I had never been told about it until the day my sister and I were reunited, something deep in my psyche must have known.
A dream I used tohave as a kid that scared the shit out of me was being in a dark area with a nasa type console with a big handle sicking out of it.Some one would pull the handle down and a box with my old lady neighbor’s head on it would start moving.Areally big box.The handle would be pushed forward but she would not stop.I would wake up and be unable to sleep after that.
