A diary to be used by all... The Nightmare Diary

the Stuff Dreams are made of...
40

I suffer from anxiety. I stress a lot at my job and take these stresses home with me.

A very common nightmare for me is what I call a repetitive task nightmare. Basically all night I am doing the same thing over and over again and cannot seem to catch up or to perform satisfactorily. This nightmare parallels the activities at whatever job I am doing at that time (currently fast food). I don’t know how to define the other elements of these dreams, but they seem to cross over into the waking world and often I am not c asleep when these images plague me (but I am in bed, trying to sleep).

41

Weirdly enough, I never have real nightmares anymore since I was like… 10? I do see some weird shit in my dreams, but they never scare me, maybe becouse I see it more as a movie.

Recently i had a normal-weird dream, then all of a sudden I was somewhere else, there was some-one with me, don’t know who. There was this man that showed some kind of bloody wound that was coverd with some brown bandage. Then there was this old woman lie-ing in a bed, doing make-up on her eyes, really wanting to be pretty. She had long black eyelaches and black hair. Then see opened her eyes (I saw a close up like the movies) and they were full of yellow-white stuff, you couldn’t see her pupils or something. See said like: Oh my eyes.

Like in a ‘scary’ movie. Gore in movies never really frightens me so I didn’t find this scary. Kind of weird that’s all :content: Then I woke up.

I allso dreamt that I was in a big some sort of studeo with lots of (i think old and american) people. On a screem I saw a bull-arena (i was Sure it was a bull arena, I named my dream toro toro torture,lol sick. I may even have tought up While dreeming…becouse there wern’t any bulls around) Anyhow in the arena there was some sort of aztec fellow, i seem to see aztecs more in my dreams, he was on his knees. Some king-aztec said something to him. Smileing and challenging the other dude. The dude attacked the king-aztec dude with some really long wooden weapon thingy, it had no effect becouse the king-dude riped open the poor chap with something smal, a black knife with claws or something. Saw some blood splash the floor while the camera moved away. The people in de studeo were like “oehhh! ahhh!” lol

Not scary tough :content:

42

I just had this nightmare a few nights ago, so here it is:

It must’ve me and several other people: one guy teenager and one girl teenager, a little girl and her mom and dad, and some others–I’m not sure, but I know we were taking refuge in this two-story house set directly in front of a forest–literally just a few yards away. I know we had every light in the house on and zombies (like the ones from the Dawn of the Dead remake and 28 Days Later) were trying to break inside. It was dark out and the only light that could be seen outside was coming from the inside of the house and the porchlights. Anyway, I somehow ended up outside at the edge of the forest, but I was hidden between a fence overgrown with shrubs and a thick bush and oak tree. I could hear the zombies running up to the house and poundng on the windows and doors and see them running up to the porch–I counted about a dozen or more. I knew if I stayed where I was they’d eventually get me, but I was about ten yards away (which is far) from the front door of the house. I just jumped up and made a run for the door when I thought all was clear. I made a leap to the front porch, but stopped mid jump when I saw three or four zombies clawing the door and one turned around screaming in my face ready to grab me. I remember becoming semi-lucid and thinking this is just a dream (everytime I do that I just wake up), and I teleported (like Nightcrawler from X-Men) and woke up, but I was back in that little niche ten yards away from the house, but this time the little girl and her dad were with me, but one of them had been bitten or something and they were turning into one of them slowly, so I made another run and climbed a tree because logically a zombie can’t climb trees, but one started climbing after me really fast. He was screaming something like, “I’M YOUR SON!” and some guy in the house window was trying to get him away from me by telling him, “Come here son…” I just remember climbing as far and as fast as I could and thinking, “I can only go so far up this tree before he gets me…” Then I saw the top of the house roof several feet away–a good jump away from my reach–then I woke up…

It was a mixture of exhileration and fear…:eek:

43

This was what I would say was a weird, disturbing dream but not the type of nightmare that generally wakes me in a panic. And it’s weird because I had this dream the night before I found my dad dead IRL, not knowing he was already lying dead on his kitchen floor so when I thought about it later after the funeral, it kind of gave me a Keanu Reeves “whoa” type of moment that I had such a strange dream after my dad had just died but before I knew about his death:

I was in a room with other people (RL people) and some chunky gray stuff kept appearing in my mouth…I kept spitting it out but my mouth would just fill right back up and I would have to keep spitting it out. It wasn’t like I was throwing up from my stomach, it just kept materializing directly in my mouth…my mouth was just FULL of this chunky gray stuff, soooooo gross! (It kind of reminded me of the scene in The Sixth Sense where the dead girl’s ghost has Pine Sol puke dribbling from her mouth but in the dream there was more.)

My estranged sister and brother-in-law were in the room and I was annoyed and just wanted them to go away so my boyfriend, T, could take care of me. At some point someone (T?) said “is that blood?” like there was blood in the pseudo-barf but I didn’t see it.

Before I awoke I begged to noone and everyone to please make it stop (I’m thinking as I’m typing this, how did I speak with all that chunky stuff in my mouth, but that’s a dream for you) and why was it happening and then almost as if it happened because I subconsciously triggered it (if you think about it in a dream, it happens, so say the dream experts), I started gagging like I was going to throw up but I didn’t actually throw up.

And very nearly after that happened I awoke, as if that waking up was the answer to my begging “make it stop”.

Analysis: I doubt I psychically knew my dad was dead in my dream even though it’s an interesting coincidence, so I’m guessing the reason I had this gross dream was maybe because it symbolized my daily feelings of helplessness and lack of control due to the many stresses in my life.

I have others to share that involve waking up in a panic (true “nightmares”), but I’ll share some of them another time.

While we’re in this nightmare topic, does anyone else notice that most of your nightmares are in your very first sleep cycle? Most of my nightmares seem to be within 30 minutes to an hour after falling asleep. The one I posted here was after about 30 minutes so no wonder it was so weird because early dreams usually are.

44

o wow Hallstrom :eek: … I don’t think I’d ever be able to live with myself if I had that dream your sister had…

My one-time nightmare started in this random white, small-ish room and I’m with a childhood friend of mine and she wants to watch tv, but I have a better idea–let’s go to my vacation room! So I led her to the end of the room which folds open into a longer white room. A tropical potted tree stands next to a comfy grass-weave sofa and a big painting of the stuff they put on Hawaii postcards. We sit in the sofa and watch the painting come to life: waves crash into the shore, music plays while seagulls fly. Then I pull us off the couch and toward the painting. This time though a psychedelic dark purple, red, yellow substance folds in and I can feel something is wrong. I look to my friend and she smiles at me in a “I trust you” way. The swirly dark scene takes over and I find myself far awat from my friend. I zoom forward closer and closer and I see that she’s become a dark figure crucified almost by cockcroaches, ants, spiders, and beetles crawling all over and eating her. I reach out to help her but I’m pulled down onto my knees by an invisible force. I screech and cry, but I can’t do anything as my friend is taken over by the force. I cry myself awake.

Oh god, I hated this dream. Never went back to my vacation room again…

45

dont you just hate it when … you have got no one to tell your nightmares to?

This is what happened:

i fell asleep on the single seater earlier, so i ended up going to bed a little later than i wanted to, about 2 o’clock AM.

i was all looking forward to my bed, so i climbed in set my alarm, and wrapped myself up in the quilt coz its quite chilly last night.

i used to live with my dad. And although he’s gettin on, we really - got on. We had a little cosy cottage, a living room each, an oldie worldy style kitchen and a massive garden. We were more friends than anything, i miss them days.

We also had two dogs, Tuskan; an unbelievably intelligent German shephard who my dad has with him now and we also had Adam, an unbelievably beautiful loving golden retriever. Despite what they say about golden retrievers adam wasnt the brightest spark in the pack, he would chase his tail for hours and get so excited everytime he saw me, that he literally cried and flustered about; the maddest dog alive. But i love them both and miss them very much.

So in my dream, i woke up on the couch in my living room in the cottage. I felt uneasy as I must have known I had fallen asleep with front door open and my dad was out.I feel slightly better when i realise my two dogs where asleep on the floor, loving me, being my best friends and protecting me! But there was also this third dog, an oddly ginger coloured pitbull, it wasnt asleep but it was laying calmly, head held proud just blatantly staring at me.

I dont know if you knew this, but animals can not play the “staring” game, no matter what animal, you will always be able to look it in the eye’s longer than it can you! This is something that fascinated me as a kid so i always experimented to see if i could prove it wrong, but i never could. Think about this for a minute lol, the irony is a little cryptic.

I stare at this pitbull, it stares back. I just lay there calmly (in appearance) and staring at this pitbull. As each moment passes i feel a greater sense of unease. The unease turns into fear as this realisation slowly sinks in; I am not going to beat this dog at this game!

The pitbull senses the fear and stands to all fours in a swift controlled movement. I look away!

The pitbull let out a sharp profound bark at the satisfaction of his victory. I look back at it and I felt unease, scared, out of control and mocked. The pitbull’s bark woke up Tuskan and Adam. They stand to attention and look at me, they see what im feeling and want to protect me. They both growl and bark at the intruder.

I felt relief, i thought that this dog would now be scared and leave. But instead he stands there silent, strong and proud. If dogs could smirk - im sure this pitbull would have been right now!

At this point i realised, and i even remember thinking to myself "This is one messed up dream.
I take complete control of the dream and decide im not going to be terrorised in my home in front of my own two friends. I stand up and slowly walk straight over to the dog, although filled with fear I was determined to get this dog out of my dream once and for all. I grabbed it by the collar, not thinking it could bite me! I began dragging it out of my living room, through the kitchen, through the hallway to the front door and into my garden, all the time with growling and snarling at my face. It resisted and although very strong, after a few minutes of struggling; I succeeded. From the garden i walked over to the gate and pushed this pitbull outside my garden closing the gate behind it.

I turned to walk back through my garden and into my house. As i turned I see both Tuskan and Adam, standing there right behind me looking relieved yet impressed. I felt satisfaction, truly chuffed that i could be so strong to protect myself and my two friends.

In an instant their proud and relieved looks turned to panic and fear, I slowly turn to look back towards the gate hoping to see it sat outside my garden. It wasnt, it was midflight in the air, half way over the gate lunging fearlessly at my face. I seen a quick glimpse of the teeth and then everything went black! :peek:

Complete nothingness, not even thoughts, just fear. After a few moments in this darkness i realise, I have woken up.

I turned on my bedside lamp, i lied there in absolute shock and then i burst into tears.

Your probably wondering why I have just told you all of this.

And all though you havent done anything, havent even read this yet, i feel much better for typing it out and trying to understand it.

I thought about it all day at work and then all evening, but then my friend jeeves told me about ld4all.

I read the whole site, then found myself reading in the forums.

Ive learned alot about lucid dreaming these past few evenings and im enthralled.

Im going to get a dream diary, but in the meanwhile let me share some of my thoughts. And i apologise that some of them are very deep and maybe a little cryptic.

Point #1
I became lucid in my dream because i realised “this is a dream”. In my case the reality check was the inability to “stare out a dog”. The whole concept of not being able to stare out an animal is ridiculous, nonsense i was filled with as a kid by my gran. So how can something i know is nonsense allow me to realise that im dreaming?

Point #2
If most people can not stay in the dreamworld if they dont remain calm when becoming lucid, then how did i reamin lucid even when petrified? Is there such a thing as a lucid nightmare?

Point #3
In this dream my senses were very abstract, i was able to sense what all the dogs were feeling. Both their and my feelings were amplified, the fear was horrific, the success was unbelievably sweet, the anger was viking’ like. Does this happen each time you become lucid?

Point #4
This dream makes me think about, how much i miss the dogs, everything i would do to have them back and the fact that its impossible. Failing to protect us from the third dog maybe represents that?

Point #5
Thanks LD4All, class website, info, people, stories, forum, i love it all! :tongue:

Im gonna become a regular here, nice to meet you all. Cant wait for your thoughts.

If you got this far. Thanks for reading :wink:

Ps. I know its a bit of an essay for a first post. I promise I will go over to the big “hi im…” thread and introduce myself! :smile: [/list]

46

:wave: alphageezer - welcome to LD4all :grin:

it probably worked because your subconscious believed it… so when it happened you started to think it was a dream?

I believe it is the real excitement of realising you are dreaming that wakes you up and not dream produced emotions :eh:
the more lucid you are … the more you will be able to defuse a nightmare situation.

lucid dreams come in all shapes and sizes … the only common factor is that you know that you are dreaming

47

Hey, when did this topic get stickied? woot :slight_smile: I feel important XD

48

My worst nightmare was a night terror. In the dream, I awoke to find a clone of myself standing over top of me at the foot of my bed, holding a gun to me. I jumped out of bed, ran towards the door which had a large mirror on it. In the mirror, I saw another me with a gun in his hand as well. I ran from the two clones and locked myself in my bathroom, and awoke to find my parents trying to get me to let them in, as I had barricaded myself into the bathroom, shoving my weight against the door and shaking.

49

oooh man! I had a good laugh reading through these posts! Come on! A zombie calling you “son” as he tries to eat you! Hilarious! Sorry people I just find these dreams funny (not all of them) and I’m sure for you it was scary as hell. :grin:

50

Well, I haven’t had a nightmare in years! I actually wish I could have one sometime soon. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not crazy, just a little bored by my normal dreams :tongue:

The most recent nightmare I had for 4-5 years ago. It was all dark, ran along a path in a scary forest. It was a swamp both to the left and the right. I was running without shoes. Zombies was following me. I did something I do alot with dreams containing water: I jumper out! It was hard to swim. My arms were all sticky and it was hard to move.
It was a small island in front of me, I eventually climbed on it…Just find out that there’s zombies everywhere!
I got so scared that I fell into the swamp again, where the zombies had gone after me. They dragged me down and ate me alive.

Not so very pleasant for me :neutral:

51

I had this nightmare about 5 years ago… I was in a old house with a spiral staircase, everything in the house was painted in black, and the pitcures on the wall were spining around slowly. I walked outside into the woods, and there was a old lady hanging in a tree, she kept saying some word over, and over… It was her last word, I remmber her eyes were black. This dream scared me so bad I didnt sleep the rest of the night, it was probley my scariest to date.

52

My boyfriend, T, was having such a bad nightmare the other night that it woke me up out of my own dream. He was making jibberish “speaking in tongues” noises and sounded petrified. I couldn’t let him suffer like that so I woke him up and asked what he was dreaming about and he said he was glad I woke him because in his dream he was possessed by a ghost and the ghost made him kill me by strangling me three times. (We have a great relationship if anyone’s wondering and he watched one of those Scream movies before bed.)

Then he asked me what the noises he made in his sleep sounded like and I tried to imitate the garbled speech as best I could and he said, “Yeah, that was it, that was the voice of the devil.” Nice huh? I’ve never been freaked out by someone else’s bad dream before but I guess there’s a first time for everything!

53

I had a nightmare just recently where I was being attacked by Sirius Black and his two vicious little demon dogs (well actually only one of them was little): an ebil (yes with a ‘b’) Pomeranian and a Rottweiler (or was it a Doberman :uh: ). Either way, he wasn’t letting me get past him and my friend ran away and left me :grrr:…I woke up eventually.

54

I had some weird dream, that I’m not sure if I can call it a nightmare. It did have the feeling of impeding danger…

I was with my mother in some room with wooden walls, like if it was some of those old country-side houses, except the walls weren’t painted. It was filled with stuff I don’t remember well, but I believe there were some toys and other trinkets. On the wall in front of us there was a door and a window, but instead of having a sky or anything else outside, there was plain darkness. Nothingness would be a way to explain it. So my DC mother explained there was this bad guy who wanted to kill us/send us to Hell or something like that, and we had to protect ourselves. So a weird, kinda round window wooden arch appeared in the nothingness and started growing. Meanwhile my mother was telling me we had to use some machine that was in the room to clone some Star Wars toys to protect us. She said we wouldn’t manage to get full speed, but since it’d manage to get it to spin at one million (I don’t remember if it was kilometers per hour, or meters or miles or whatever). After that, I looked at the window again and could see the floating window-thingie slowly transform into Rodin’s Gates of Hell***. Now I sort of knew that the bad guy wanted to open the doors and suck us in, and we’d have to manage to do it before he could kill us. Then mom was like “Don’t worry, I’ll help you.” At that exact moment she wakes me up IRL…

*** https://rodin-web.org/a_pix/Major_Coll/Phil_GatesOfHell.jpg

55

I had a really scary nightmare almost a month ago. You all know that the devil can show up from your imagination in many forms whell in the very begining of my dream all i could see was fire evrywhere and before i could react i herd the devils laught. At that moment i felt like my sole was being pored over with ice cubes .

I woke up feling draind and my hands were shaking. Ihad cold sweat on my forehead and my heart was beating really fast.

56

I had to babysit for Cruella de Ville :scared:

57

I have two nightmares that I can remember. They’re not so scary now, but I was shaking like hell when I woke up from them.

The first one is a reccuring dream. I am in my house. It is dark because none of the light switches work, they only produce dim, creepy light. Everything, the walls, the ceiling, the floor, the whole world seems to be shaded dark purple. I realize that this statue that always scared me when I was a little kid has come alive and is running through the house. I am on the second floor, and I try to run away, but it feels like I’m running through jelly. I’m not paralysed, and my feet arent stuck to the ground, but I can only move in slow motion. I try to run down the stairs, and as I leave the first step I realize I am not running down them but I am running straight forward in midair, as if there is an invisible piece of floor going out from the top step. Then I wake up.

The other one happened only once. I was with a bunch of characters from a cartoon show I used to watch. It was cool, but I couldn’t shake a feeling that there was something wrong. I am running down a hill of dirt, the sky is dark and there is a huge billboard in front of me. It has an ad on it, nothing weird about that. But when I get closer, the picture on it changes. It changes to a picture of a tree, but the tree has something carved in the side. I look. The carved image is the most terrifying face that I have ever seen in my life. I scream. Then I wake up. Throughout the rest of the day, that face was stuck in my head, haunting me. I can’t remember what it looks like now, or why it scared me so much, but it scared me.

There was another time a couple days ago. I didn’t have a nightmare, in fact I can’t even remember my dream that night. But when I woke up, I had a phrase stuck in my head. I couldn’t stop thinking of the lyrics to the Pink Floyd song “One Of These Days.” That may not sound freaky to you, but the lyrics to the song happen to be one sentence “one of these days I’m gonna cut you into little pieces.” I hadn’t listened to the song recently, but I like to put the radio on a classic rock station when I go to sleep so maybe the song played while I was sleeping and got stuck in my subconcious. Either way, it was weird.

58

I can’t imagine having anything like sureal’s nightmare though.

59

Other “weird-dream-that’s-not-quite-a-nightmare” I once had involved me being in a weird hallway that seemed suspiciously like a place I knew from school. I was a long long hallway with checkered floor, and the walls in the dream were white and pretty much like jkman’s, everything was dark-blue/purple-ish colored, as if there was a dark blue light on everything. (The white walls seemed blue-ish because of the weird light). There were no windows, but the light was all over, like some sort of weird night-vision thing.

On the walls of the long hallway (I couldn’t see it’s end) were some weird sliding doors. I kept walking through the hallway, and finally came across a pair of open doors (one on each side of the hallway) (Still couldn’t see the end). I couldn’t/didn’t see what was outside, but it was odd as some weird distorced musical instrument things entered floating slowly and wiggling, crossing from a door to the other. (Looked like some sax sort of stuff, a big violin/guitar thing, pretty much like a surreal painting). The things floated across the hallway in front of me, and in the end nothing was scary at all, but it felt weeeeeeeeeeeird when I woke up.