Nightmares?

[Free Spirit]

What are nightmares? Are there simply things that we have experiences in life that we translate into what we fear... Do they exist to be a help in life when we are awake, to be more aware of fears which makes us maybe less afraid? If you say, "I don't fear anything", nightmares shall help you find it for you? "You don't call a dream a nightmare unless you fear it"....I wonder where do they come from? It's like hallucinations while your eyes are closed!
:blink:

[herr_Nosferatu]

What are nightmares?

A nightmare is a very distressing dream which usually forces at least partial awakening. The dreamer may feel any number of disturbing emotions in a nightmare, such as anger, guilt, sadness or depression, but the most common feelings are fear and anxiety. Nightmare themes may vary widely from person to person and from time to time for any one person. Probably the most common theme is being chased. Adults are commonly chased by an unknown male figure whereas children are commonly chased by an animal or some fantasy figure.


Are there simply things that we have experiences in life that we translate into what we fear... Do they exist to be a help in life when we are awake, to be more aware of fears which makes us maybe less afraid?

There are a number of possibilities. Some nightmares can be caused by certain drugs or medications, or by rapid withdrawal from them, or by physical conditions such as illness and fever. The nightmares of early childhood likely reflect the struggle to learn to deal with normal childhood fears and problems. Many people experience nightmares after they have suffered a traumatic event, such as surgery, the loss of a loved one, an assault or a severe accident. The nightmares of combat veterans fall into this category. The content of these nightmares is typically directly related to the traumatic event and the nightmares often occur over and over. Other people experience nightmares when they are undergoing stress in their waking lives, such as difficulty or change on the job or with a loved one, moving, pregnancy, financial concerns, etc. Finally, some people experience frequent nightmares that seem unrelated to their waking lives. These people tend to be more creative, sensitive, trusting and emotional than average.

[Kobbot 401]

In addition to what herr_Nosferatu said, some churches and native people belive that nightmares and dreams are images projected to the living from the otherside. Nightmares themselfs are usually concidered bad omans.

People who I have meet that have had recuring nightmares are more paranoid as to whats going on around them, they also have became insomniacs and are very quiet. These effects from nightmares have caused them to use alchohol and drugs to try and excape from the dreams, they have also addapted unusual traits such as constantly scribeling their pens on papers, or scrachting at their hands.

[Hate Is Art]

I have never had a nightmare, i'm more the weird dream type person, but I assume they are the same as dream just, bad, like taking acid really.

Dreams are brain activity which happens when your asleep, a bit like daydreaming, you know when you just blank out and imagine stuff, like that.
So they are far from being hallucinations on the inside of you eyelids :D

[che's long lost daughter]

I think nightmares and "ordinary" dreams work the same way. As in dreams, these are thoughts that we try to repress and store in our unconscious. They try to come out and appear on our sleep as dreams and yes, nightmare.

[DaCuBaN]

I smoke too much pot, meaning I never remember my dreams. On the plus side, I never have nightmares - presuming nightmares waken you as a requisite. However, to look at life itself is to analyse the biggest 'nightmare' of them all.

[Pedro Alonso Lopez]

I had a nightmare recently where I had to pull a pin out from my tooth, the pain was so bad I just had to pull it out even at the cost of a tooth.

Last night I dreamt of somebody stabbing me in the side, I woke up and my arm was jabbing into my side.

Crazy stuff.

[Hate Is Art]

I get dreams like, but they aren't really scary so they aren't nightmares, in one I pinched my mates arse and she got REAL angry headbutted me and broke my nose, later on she came to apologise for hurting me and gave me a hug, but she ended up hugging me to death.

Moral of the story, don't pinch girls bottoms.

I also had another dream where a tree ate my friend, it was sehr bizzaro.

[__ca va?]

Err.. sometimes I got really bad nightmares. I cand remember 3 very bad one: In the first one some kind of a dictature rose and soldiers came to our housse, took the residents to the courtyard and shot them. And I tried to hide somewhere in our flat but they came and found me. At this point I woke up.
An other time I dreamt that I was a Jew during WW2 and I was deported. Don't have to explain more, I guess.
The third one I dreamt that we were at war with Serbia and they bombed my city to the ground. And at the end we dropped an atomic bomb on Belgrade...
Quite weird dreams. I have many of them, but there are some which are not nightmares, only strange and without logic.
I think nightmares help us in getting over things

[Major. Rudiger]

i had some nightmares. Ant they were the fucked up types. Like one night mare i had and this one i had at least 4 times.

I was on a beach and ill look around and ill see an island. (this place looked like a place where a went to go camping.) then ill be walking or osmething. Then ill see some lego and these were huge. So i put my hand on it and then it crushed my hand. BAM i awake and screaming. But this is when i was like 5 to 10 years old.

And i had some cool war dreams where i was the platoon leader and ill be the hero and ill be getting shot at and killing alot of nazis, then ill get capctured and before they kill me ill wake up.

OH this one is fucked up
i was watching Neon genuesis for the whole day and i start dreaming that i was in that series but in my city so i fought with some monster but it turned out my moseter broke or died. So then i had to run away from theis mosnters and they well always find me. But i done this same dream like 3 times in one night.

[Hate Is Art]

All my friends say that at the moment they are about to die in there dreams they wake up? Anyone know why?

It never happens to me though?

[Major. Rudiger]

I think they have the fear of death in them. That somehting is troubling them inside. That is my guess.

[FatFreeMilk]

Last night I dreamt of somebody stabbing me in the side, I woke up and my arm was jabbing into my side.
Yeah that's crazy when your body gets caught up in your dreams.


All my friends say that at the moment they are about to die in there dreams they wake up? Anyone know why?
Yeah, that happens to me too. I always wake up right before I hit the ground. Everybody says that if you die in your dreams, you have a heart attack and die in real life. I don't know if there's any proof of that though.

Some people say you can learn a lot about yourself from analyzing what goes on in your dreams. Like if you have a dream where you go to school with no pants somehow that will symbolize your insecure about other people or something like that. I guess that makes sense though. Even the dreams that don't seem to make any sense are trying to tell you something. If you really want to know what, you can get those cards that explain the meaning of certain symbols. Maybe they sell them at Target?

Dreams are like metaphors or metonomys you could say.

[DaCuBaN]

Everybody says that if you die in your dreams, you have a heart attack and die in real life. I don't know if there's any proof of that though.


Well, yes. It's a bit difficult to prove really...


Some people say you can learn a lot about yourself from analyzing what goes on in your dreams. Like if you have a dream where you go to school with no pants somehow that will symbolize your insecure about other people or something like that

I think it might have been Freuyd who coined that idea, although I'm probably well of track. Certainly I could see some correlation there: Of the friends I have who do and don't have a 'grip', the vast majority who do are the kind who analyse their environment - and what are dreams if not the environment of the sub-conscious?

[Free Spirit]

All my friends say that at the moment they are about to die in there dreams they wake up? Anyone know why?

Maybe it's because we only dream what we have experienced but in a different way so that we don't find much of recognition in it...I have died in few dreams...Once Death stabbed me with a sward and all it did was smiled at me while I screamed. Begging the men that stood next to me for help, put they just stood there with a cold and grey flash in there cruel eyes...And I wasn't bleeding, like I was empty and there I woke up...
Another dream I was in an immense and cold room, the walls were all in white and the only thing that changed their colours was the light from the small windows, turning them into grey, and from grey to black... And there were people in there, all sharing the same fear. I knew them but never seen them in my "live"...we were all waiting to die...But the strange thing is that I dreamt this two times, like a movie after a commercial it continued...I guess the 3rd one won't come even if it's a tempting thing for someone's curiosity to see how the other side "could" be...
How come it happens that same dreams come up? Or that they continue... like there is a clock running "over there", and you know "their" time when you dream?
:ph34r:

[commiecrusader]

there are several theories as to the cause of dreams and nightmares.

1)Cant Remember What This Is Called Theory: they are the brain's way of removing useless information from the brain e.g. destroying redundant connections between neurons. perhaps by having nightmares it is trying to destroy our fears? maybe recurring nightmares are the brain trying to destroy the same information. however this theory can't account for why we can sometimes remember our dreams, why remember something created from useless information? also why delete information when our brains have a vast capacity that we will never fill?

2)Random Firing Theory: it is suggested that the firing of the neurons in the brain are completely random, but that the brain doesn't know this and thinks they are information coming from the eyes and ears and so tries to compile these, resulting in strange often completely stupid dreams. however this theory can't account for recurring dreams. it is however supported by studies done on cats brains during sleep.

3)Also Cant Remember What This Is Called Theory: it is suggested that dreams are just the brain trying to process and categorise information received throughout the day. this is backed up by the fact that many of the neurons firing in the brain are the same ones as you used during the day. however it does not account for recurring dreams etc. why this would create nightmares though i dont know unless you had a reeeeeeal bad day.

4)Problem Solving Theory: dreams possibly help us solve problems. this is supported that by the fact that in studies people who dream lots e.g. have lots of REM sleep can solve problems better than those deprived of REM sleep. also supported by the fact that a larger proportion of our sleep is REM sleep if we are learning new information. accounts for recurring dreams as unsolved problems. nightmares could be trying to overcome our fears thereby solving the problem of being afraid of something.

5)Psychodynamic Theory: Freud's psychodynamic theory suggests dreams are merely metaphors for our repressed thoughts. he believed some of our desires such as lust, and death, are too frightful to be in our conscious mind and are therefore repressed into the subconscious. however in dreams these come out in the form of metaphors, e.g. a candlestick may often symbolize a penis as can a gun etc (this is according to Freud not me btw lol). obviously this explains the feelings experienced whilst having a nightmare. however there is little scientific evidence to support this, and whilst it may have made sense for there to be such 'dirty' thoughts in the repressive 18th century Austrian society he lived in, in modern society there are few subjects so taboo as to be repressed in such a way (it would seem anyway)

hope this was helpful. something to think about. pick a theory you like, or combine them or whatever, no current theory on dreams accounts for everything.

[Kobbot 401]

Originally posted by che's long lost [email protected] 1 2004, 08:13 AM
I think nightmares and "ordinary" dreams work the same way. As in dreams, these are thoughts that we try to repress and store in our unconscious. They try to come out and appear on our sleep as dreams and yes, nightmare.
Yes and no, Nightmares are the thoughts that have been represed such as with people who have seen a murder or have suffered from rape or incest. They dont want to deal with the thoughts so they repress them into there subconsions where they come out in dearms. the Ordinary dream is the thoughts that are in your head that you do not take notice of, they can be about people that you have never really gotten to know, or just places that you went that wernt unordinary. People who suffer from consistante nightmares or more likely to develop multipul personalitys, and other abnormal mental health problems.

[BOZG]

Last night I dreamt of somebody stabbing me in the side, I woke up and my arm was jabbing into my side.

I often get dreams like that and weirder. I had one strange one where I was being shot at (long story) and as soon ast the bullet was fired, a plug in my house exploded and sounded like a gunshot.



All my friends say that at the moment they are about to die in there dreams they wake up? Anyone know why?

Possibly because for many people it's an incredibly disturbing thought. I did hear a theory that when such dreams happen, the heart skips a beat and that's what causes you to wake up.

[Kobbot 401]

There is an old wives tail that when your die in your sleep, you die in the real world. They used that theory in the Matrix movies. People when they get older dont fear the reaper, could that be why so meny die in their sleep?

[che's long lost daughter]

Originally posted by The Arcadian [email protected] 2 2004, 09:35 AM
All my friends say that at the moment they are about to die in there dreams they wake up? Anyone know why?

It never happens to me though?
Maybe that is a thing we call here as "bangungot". This is where a person is dreaming and he feelis like he is dying because he can't wake up even when he is trying to. He knows he is already awake but his body isn't waking upn so that makes him feel he is dying. Then after some minutes, he is able to wake up and it feels like he almost died. That happens to me often.

[antipopdude]

I have dreamt that i was dying, but only once i have died in the dream while sleeping... luckily i was dead for about only 5 mins before waking up sweaty, not cappable of falling asleep again, just sitting there thinking about death. That was really disturbing. I use to dream that i get choked, and when i wake up ive got my face burried in my pillow lol, and once i dreamt that i got pieces of glass stuck in my head, and i could feel the pain.. that really sucked.

[che's long lost daughter]

Just recently, i had this dream that I had a big fight with my big brother and in that dream I was crying. Suddenly, I woke up and there were actually tears in my eyes.

[Ligeia]

There are other ways of seeing or explainig nightmares,not only the scientific,psycological way.
In some cultures and so today,there are persons who believe to forsee some events and things that could happen in future.Some believe to have the gift of forseeing,predicting.For example this view exists still ín Latin America.And if it is a nightmare ,it just means that something bad will happen,so you have to interpret the things and even if you know what will happen you cant avoid that.
I,myself,am from a family where this believe exists.

[stefan]

Or others cultures think its a transition to a next stage in life.

[choekiewoekie]

I do believe in the gift of forseeing and predicting. But i dont believe each single nightmare has a meaning. Sometimes they are a sign, but i dont believe in interpretating them one by one. I, for instance, have nightmares every single night. As long as i can remember. I do have the gift to give my dreams away, or share a dream. So my boyfriend tried to have my dreams, so i could get a good nights sleep. He almost couldn't take it, it was that bad.
I know for sure it has a meaning, but until last months i did not have the courage to do something about it. Now i am trying to find a good haptonomist to get it of my back.

Is here someone else with experience with nightmares every night? I don't know others with the same 'problem'....