Nightmares about... nothing.

the Stuff Dreams are made of...
1

For the past several years, about once or twice a month I used to have a kind of night-terror that was usually regarding being watched, or approached by someone or something in my room. It was a strong sense of someone being there.

but recently, it’s changed. it’s happened twice now in a week or two, where i have these same night terrors except they… have nothing in them. There isn’t any presence, or any reason at all, but my mind is extremely fearful, and it’s difficult to sleep. there are no demons, monsters, or even people present anywhere at all. in fact the only presences are sometimes other normal people that I think are just that. normal and trusting. last night i was trying to get help from some people with a nightmare that i was having in that moment. they were asking me how i usually try to handle it, and they said something else that i don’t remember…

but the overall point is… why? Why am i full of fear over absolutely nothing that I can find.

2

After having a bunch of dreams that felt nightmaric but had no “scary” content in them, I realised that it is the feeling that constitutes how scary something is. For me it turned out the nightmares were about being trapped in inescapable places. I think you need to look at them and search to find out what is scaring you so much. Sometimes it’s just a little thing: like that there is nothing in them.

3

I have read somewhere that night terrors without a nightmare do not happen during REM phase. They are about the deep essence of the feeling without the context.
They could have been caused by some kind of stress, anxiety IRL or a bad sleeping position.

It’s possible that the classical movie scene of someone having a nightmare shaking and moving uncontrollably is actually a depiction of night-terrors.

[citation needed]
I could not find the original reference unfortunately.
Other references: 1 and 2.

From the second:

4

Tg, people who experience night terrors do not have any recall, and usually do not wake consciously. When they wake they often don’t remember having woken or remember their crying/yelling. As someone who has previously experienced this I can say that what Loah experienced was part of a nightmare, as she has recall.

5

What I have read about it that the “victim” usually doesn’t recall. But they could recall waking up and wake up for real. When they do, it’s not something visual or an actual experience, only the feeling and they are scared and confused having no idea why.

I may be mistaken but this is from my first linked reference.

6

what would you really define as a night terror then. no difference other than no recall?

if you didn’t have any recall ever, then how do they know what victims actually experience? i don’t know if what i have are night-terrors or not, but ive been told by a doctor that they are. the only difference is that i am not wildly shaken when i wake up, so my recall is not gone.

ive noticed that with recall, if you wake up without being disturbed, or have to divert your attention to something, it’s good. but if you wake up in pain, fright, or some other thing that occupies your emotions or thoughts, your recall is numb.

i’m scared only while im asleep, and in that line between being awake and asleep, but as soon as i tick past that line into waking, it all suddenly vanishes. even though i have a continued paranoia. so it may just be the case that normally a night terror is fearing enough that people lose track of what they were just dreaming about according to what i said about recall. but someone who doesn’t retain that fright could still recall that night-terror.

nightmares or night-terrors that wake me up don’t have any lingering effects.

[color=#01A9DB]#Lumessence
This could heavily be the case due to my dissociative issue I have in life. As soon as I’m awake, I become detached, and worries such as this don’t truly bother me. I’m never frightened, and very rarely startled in life due to this.

If what was said above is true, then that prevents me from losing that recall - of what I just experienced. Therefore, I can remember all the details of what just happened.

My recall of these occurrences is near perfection. I can recall all the details of every part of the experience, no less than a lucid dream.[/color]

7

Since I was around 22 I started having false awakenings were there was a presence in the room, the presence always felt malevolent and it would cause a great sense of fear during the bad dream.

In the past few years this presence is rarely in them, but the fear always is. I personally put this down to association, it’s become so ingrained in my subconscious to be fearful during a false awakening that feeling fear has become second nature.

Perhaps Pavlov had been running experiments in my head while I sleep, but it has left a mental scar in my subconscious. While I don’t know if these class as night terrors, or how they would present to a natural lucid dreamer in regards to recall, but for me, I really do feel it is an associated emotional reaction.

8

well this just happened again. but this time i noticed something new.
firstly, something that’s ALWAYS been there, is that a lot of the time this nightmare has a consistency of being 1 to 2 people coming to my door.
as for what it feels like, i think it might be the same as what eogillig said. it might just be a FA. But I’m in my room, and it’s dark. i’m usually lying in bed, and I just know that someone is coming towards my room. I watch the door, and sure enough, about 10 seconds later, someone opens the door, and looks into the room at me from the door, as if they are checking to see if I’m asleep. it’s always dark, and I can’t make out the details, but I always know who it is. usually it’s my father. the rare second person is usually my mother.

now here’s the thing. firstly i havn’t seen my father for 10 years. and i was too young to really know him (i don’t even really remember what he looks like). secondly, the the other person that is supposedly my mother isn’t my real mother either. she’s not the person i live with.

but that’s the normal thing that has always been happening. they weren’t present in the last two times i’ve had in the last week though. but the new pattern i noticed, is that my bed seems to be covered in small rocks. like gravel, and no blankets. i’m just lying in a bed of gravel. it doesn’t hurt or anything, but it really is just covered in it. this gravel has never happened before.

i don’t really understand why this happens or why it’s not some demon or monsters, but just people. it’s not ALWAYS my “parents”, but it very very commonly is.