Share your nightmares.

@Brokendoll31 - What scary thing are you trying to get away from in real life?

I'm not sure I guess I'm running away from my problems my depression my troubles in school

@Brokendoll31 - When you are ready, how do you think you can face these things so that they can stop chasing you at night?

I need to face my problems instead of running away from them

@Brokendoll31 - I noticed you said it is always very dark in your nightmares. Sometimes darkness in a dream can mean something that you don't understand. So, maybe you can start to face your problems by trying to understand them. Is there someone you can talk it through with, maybe get a different perspective? What do you think?

Used to have reoccurring nightmare of me and an old friend getting reunited- then shot at, attacked, kidnapped. It was usually kind of gore-y, and for the longest time I couldn't sleep without being pretty scared of my own headspace. It was even worse when it would be bad for me to reach out to her for comfort. No chill, brain. No chill.

That's awful! Typically, when you see someone in your dream..people claim it means you're thinking about the character traits they embody. What happens to the person may reflect what you feel about those traits in yourself. I dunno though. I don't like things as simplistic as that. If it makes sense though, it makes sense!

It's almost funny you say that- it definitely does make sense. And in some ways, it's too simple and too complex? Depends on your stand point, I guess. But I adored this girl, and up until recently (these nightmares were awhile ago, a month maybe) I never thought anything bad of her. Maybe my mind was telling me what I should have already known.

I've been horribly stressed at work lately, working 10-12 hours a day and then having nightmares about work at night. I can't seem to find down time away from work even when I'm sleeping. It's horrible!

@yzzil - That is tough indeed. What do you then dream when you have nightmares about work? Do you have something to help you transition from work back to home and leisure time?

@Chiaroscuro1, I have no good way to transition from work to home other than the 45 minute drive home where I listen to music or practice breathing. I'm working on new skills to help with the stress and anxiety but they don't always help. Thanks for asking!! 😊

i don't dream much but when i do it's always a nightmare.

i look around and see nothing but darkness. i start to walk forward then bump into a wall then sudenly i'm taped in a box that keeps shriking, closing in on me. i scream then i see myself falling into nothingness.i land on something soft, my half brothers bed. i try to get up but i'm tied to the bed. he slowly walk to me the gets on top of me. i scream "STOP STOP, NO PLEASE NOT AGAIN!" trying to get away. he looks pissed so he leaves for a minute but comes back with a knife. i close my eyes saying "let this not be real, god let this not be real". i don't feel anything so i open my eyes and i see i'm in the ocean.i open my mouth but begin to choke. i try to swim up but something is holding me.i stop fighting and let go. i think "please god.." but i hear a voice saying "don't call to god now"

then i wake up

so i that's just one reason why i hate sleep

@FallenAngel1000 - This sounds really dark. It's no wonder you don't want to sleep. Do you see any parallels with real life? Why would the voice say "Don't call to god now"?

i don't know but one time when the pain was too much i said "i hate you God!"

@FallenAngel1000 - Do you mean you feel guilty now and like you can't speak to God?

i don't know but i keep having that nightmare every night and it's driving me crazy

@FallenAngel1000 - Maybe you can try to talk to God and see what happens, see how you feel. Maybe it will address some of the issues you have in the dream. If there are other reasons why you think you keep having this dream, maybe you can talk to someone about it? Do you have a therapist? Or a listener? What do you think?

@Chiaroscuro1 i don't know but i'll try

@FallenAngel1000 - If talking to God in your head seems too weird, how about writing a letter to God? Just write everything you would want to say if you believe in God or the universe or whomever. Write yourself empty and see what happens. Maybe you can even start your letter with "I hate you God..."

@- Chiaroscuro1- thxi'll try

When I was little, I would dream about falling from high places, I still can't stand Escalators, but now my nightmares are more about suspense and the unknown. I usually am running from some known or unknown assailant. Last time I remember seeing the person or thing, I was being chased by David Bowie as his character from Labyrinth. That one's pretty funny when you think about it, but you real nightmare sufferers have my deep sympathy.

@writecolorread - Is there any situation in your life now where you fear the unknown?

I do worry about what I'll do about a job and after college.

@writecolorread - Yes, and these are things you can't really get away from hey? I believe many people are experiencing the same fears. How do you think you can begin to tackle these issues?

I suppose that I would begin by looking for jobs now, before I graduate. A load off my mind is that I won't graduate under a mountain of debt.

@writecolorread - I'm also happy for you that you don't have that debt. That is a big positive. How do you feel about starting to look for jobs now? Please feel free to tell us how it goes with the job hunting or to share more of your dreams.

I had a dream last night that my boyfriend and I were taking a shower together. (In real life we have never seen each other naked and he is working on overcoming a porn addiction so I do worry about myself compared to the other woman he has seen.) He was looking me up and down and telling me how much he likes my body and I just felt so uncomfortable because I am so self-conscious. All I could think of was the hair on my nipples and the hair in my private area and if I should have shaved and also how fat I am compared to others and how big my stomach is. It made me really upset today because I am still feeling bad about the way I look.

@SP873 - Maybe the dream is highlighting that while your boyfriend is working on overcoming a porn addiction, you can work on how you feel about your own body. Maybe you can talk to someone about it. I realise it will probably take some time, but I really wish you a very positive body image, feeling comfortable in your own skin, enjoying your body just as it is.

Thank you! I will work on that. Your response was very helpful to me.

@SP873 - I'm so glad to hear that. Don't get discouraged if you feel your progress is very slow in the beginning. Every step counts. To me the fact that you are even willing to think about it is a very positive step forwards. If it will be okay with you, I'd like to send you a hug. I'm wrapping my arms around you and giving you a tight hug. And hear this words while I am hugging you: "It's going to be okay, it really is".

Thank you :)

I have nightmares every night. Very vivid, i actually get confused on whether I'm awake or not. Most of my nightmares are very dark and I'm either trapped somewhere, like a girls home or school, or I'm running away from someone/something, sometimes on horseback. I don't understand. And sometimes i dream of cheating on my bf! Wtf

Thank you for sharing @Jazzyboo !

@Jazzyboo - The cheating on your bf can simply mean that you are aware of his shortcomings (which we all have) and that you realise you can find some of the things you need in other relationships. For example, if you like cooking, but he hates it, you can still share your love of cooking with your family or friends. It doesn't mean you are cheating or untrustworthy. I hope that will give you some peace of mind.

I also wonder if there are situations in your life where you feel trapped or that you want to get away from. Can you think of something like that?

i kind of love this idea of folks helping each other work through nightmares

@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn You're more than welcome to share you own! :D

@astm your* own, oops.

@astm

next time I have one I will!

i also think there are row kind of dreams and the second kind is more likely to be experienced as a nightmare or anxiety dream.

i can say more about this "theory" if anyone is interested.

@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn Sure! Go ahead!

@astm

ok, well this is kind of a mishmash of some research i've picked up second hand, my own experiences, and a lot of thinking about it over the years.

So there seem to be two kinds of dream, and you can loosely think of them as backward-looking for forward-looking.

Backward-looking dreams are how the brain takes all the memories created during the day and figures out where to "file" them in the existing mental array. They can measure and show this sort of dreaming in rats learning mazes (the same parts of the brain light up while they're dreaming that lit up when they were solving the maze), and babies, who spend most of their time having totally new experiences that have to be added to the pile.

Forward-looking dreams probably evolved later and have more to do with anticipating and planning out how to cope wth possible problems in the future. These dreams are fundamentally about survival and leverage our brilliant minds to "game out" various risky and potentially harmful scenarios in the future to be prepared.

Both types of dreams are experienced as narratives, like stories or movies, mainly because that's how our brain always handles the incoming sensations and the thoughts stimulated by them.

But at night with senses shut off the stimuli are minimal and the theatre of the mind can be much more random and jump around a lot more. Those dreams of cross-refrencing recent experiences can lead to dreams where you are in a hallway in one building but then you're kind of in a sort of similar hallway in an entirely different building from a different part of your life, because your brain was making that association and then the dreaming point of view you made up some story to try to make sense of the flow of images and idas.

The forward-looking dreams are the ones that can be experienced as nightmares. This is "when lion comes I will climb the tree" or "if the bad guy has a gun I'll hid behind a car like I've seen on TV" or "my bugaboo is back and reminding me that I have unfinished business with my own fears."

The best thing about this way of looking at it is to realize the nightmares can sometimes be scary like a horror movie because they are vivid or they go too far or they get stuck in your head, but deep down they are your mind's way of trying to plan ahead and manage scary things so that you survive and continue to grow.