To dream a little dream....

Sokar · Post by **Sokar** » 2004-02-18 05:18am

Ok, this is a request for some advice/help, Im mainly interested to see if anyone has the same difficulty that I do, namely what I've come to call hyper-realistic dreams.

For the last six months or so I've been reluctant, to down right afraid to go to sleep, due to this problem. The dreams are so intense, and so real that I awaken feeling drained(Usually accompanied my severe headaches that fade after a few hours) and as though I never bothered to sleep in the first place. They range from the benign to hellish nightmares, and during one , I can't wake up or exit the dream......I have normal dreams from time to time, but as of late these other experiences have been growing in frerquency and severity.

Has this ever happened to anyone here or to someone they know?
I know this all sounds ood, and I'm not digging for sympathy, I'd just like to know if I'm alone in these experiences, or if others have had the same problem.

Thanks
Sokar

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-02-18 07:21am

Lucid dreaming? I have those sometimes. I suffer mostly from nightmares, to the point where I have to self medicate to sleep, because as soon as I feel myself falling asleep, Most nights I'll shoot straight upright with an UNBELIEVABLE burst of energy (Fight or flight?) or, my whole body will convulse one time (Picture all limbs just kinda...kicking out) I know what you are going through, I think...as far as being drained upon waking...ask any insomniac what it feels like to go days without any appreciable REM sleep....fucking sucks.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2004-02-18 07:30am

I dont dream much and when I do dream they are usualy medicore regular dreamsn.

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2004-02-18 07:35am

That's not lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming involves being aware that you are dreaming while you are dreaming.

SecondStorm · Post by **SecondStorm** » 2004-02-18 07:51am

Ive tried not being able to wake from nightmares many times. It can be very frightening.
And ofc when a depression hits the dreams and nightmares comes.

But seriously 6 months ? Thats a long time. How are you holding up with work/school ?

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-02-18 07:59am

When I am having a nightmare, In order to stop it, I have to reach through my unconsious mind somehow (I don't know how I do it, I just do) and force my mouth to move for real..(ie. not in my dream) I have to say the word "Mom" when that happens, I hear a *pop* and snap awake, Albeit VERY groggy for a minute or two, It is a fight to not slip right back into sleep (thus continuing the nightmare), also, My limbs are effectively paralyzed for a few seconds...once I manage to get my wits about me, I usually pop out of bed, tossing my covers off....my nightmares are scary to me.

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2004-02-18 08:26am

You know what I hate? This just happened to me this morning. I was having a bad dream, so I tried to make myself wake up. I thought I woke up, so I went into the living room and opened the refridgerator. It was empty. I thought that was strange because we had just gone shopping. I started to get scared and I looked around. Everything else was gone. Someone had stolen everything. Then I woke up for real. I hate when your brain tricks you like that.

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2004-02-18 09:41am

Superman wrote:You know what I hate? This just happened to me this morning. I was having a bad dream, so I tried to make myself wake up. I thought I woke up, so I went into the living room and opened the refridgerator. It was empty. I thought that was strange because we had just gone shopping. I started to get scared and I looked around. Everything else was gone. Someone had stolen everything. Then I woke up for real. I hate when your brain tricks you like that.

yeah. Happened to me this morning. i actually dreamed I got out of bed, went to the bathroom, all my usual morning ritual stuff, then I realised I was still in bed.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2004-02-18 09:46am

Superman wrote:You know what I hate? This just happened to me this morning. I was having a bad dream, so I tried to make myself wake up. I thought I woke up, so I went into the living room and opened the refridgerator. It was empty. I thought that was strange because we had just gone shopping. I started to get scared and I looked around. Everything else was gone. Someone had stolen everything. Then I woke up for real. I hate when your brain tricks you like that.

Those suck.

I mean when I'm dreaming I want something a little more...imagnative then going through my daily rituals. I don't care if I turn into some form of animal who has a head of a chicken and the body of a flounder but my daily goings is not a dream, dammit!

Course my fave of those was an ongoing one of that sort but I open a door and there's Death to kill me, again, and again...until well I actually woke up and was a little freaked to open the closet.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-02-18 11:16am

meh. dreams tend not to bother me too terribly much except on rare occasions. one time i was sleep walking, and had somehow walked into someone else's room completely unknowingly (i was going to job corps at the time, if anyone knows what that is.), and then later woke up in my own bed, not knowing if what i'd done was real or just a dream. much to my embarrassment i'd found out i actually was sleepwalking the next morning.

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2004-02-18 08:49pm

Have you been going through a lot of stress recently? As far as I can tell with my dreams (which are normally very weird) most of them reflect (in a greatly distorted fashion, like from a hall of funhouse mirrors) the main things on my mind, the biggest worries and concerns and people that I think about most.

For instance, recently I've had this recurring theme-dream where the night before a big test that is really worrying me, a random unnamed professor tries to contact me, saying that even though I'm dreaming right now, he's going to try to tell me something I need to know for the test that will make it really easy and will help me make a good grade. Call it last-last minute cramming. But then, something will happen to prevent him from telling me exactly what it is. The first time, we were in a classroom and he told me to try to concentrate on what he was writing on the chalkboard, but I couldn't read it and was telling him that this is a dream and I can't see it, and he tried to explain it but I couldn't hear...and then I woke up. Second time, I dreamed that I was at my computer and he IMed me, saying the same "I know this is a dream but let me try again" but all the text turned pale yellow and vanished and I couldn't read it.

Next time, since I always realize I'm dreaming in these things, I think I'll just say, "Screw it," and go flying like I do with my other lucid dreams.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2004-02-18 09:04pm

You know what's fucked up? Having a dream, waking up, going to bed, having another dream, waking up from it, then waking up from it again and realizing the entire previous sequence of events was one giant dream.

Sokar · Post by **Sokar** » 2004-02-19 03:41am

Thanks all for your input.

Yes , I've been under a fair amount of stress mainly due to some relationship difficulties, but I wouldn't characterize it as major.....I don't know what to make of it really, but I do think I'm going to talk to my doctor and see about getting a referal to a sleep specialist, its really wearing me out , plus working lots of evenings while doing school during the day has been hard as well, but rent waits for no mere mortal.....

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-02-19 05:05am

InnerBrat wrote:
Superman wrote:You know what I hate? This just happened to me this morning. I was having a bad dream, so I tried to make myself wake up. I thought I woke up, so I went into the living room and opened the refridgerator. It was empty. I thought that was strange because we had just gone shopping. I started to get scared and I looked around. Everything else was gone. Someone had stolen everything. Then I woke up for real. I hate when your brain tricks you like that.
yeah. Happened to me this morning. i actually dreamed I got out of bed, went to the bathroom, all my usual morning ritual stuff, then I realised I was still in bed.

Getting up once per morning sucks enough, I'm glad I don't do it twice

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2004-02-19 11:06pm

I haven't had a decent nightmare in 15 years or so. Once I was like lying down and there was this really ugly alien chomping and there was blood everywhere, and I'm all "what are you doing?" and he's all "I'm eating your arm", so I turn and I don't have an arm, just a stump, so I'm all "okay", then I'm all "hey have you played Silent Storm?" and he's all "hrmppflgmp... sorry, can't speak with my mouth full" and I'm all "hey, when I level up my skills don't go up, what's up with that?" and he's all like "can you pass the salt please"...

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2004-02-19 11:08pm

In one dream, fairly realistic, somebody cut off my throat and I started bleeding, and I clutch my throat, and everybody's looking for a doctor, and after like five minutes of bleeding and panicking I realize, this is going to take forever, so I just get up and start doing the regular stuff I do everyday, go to work etc while I'm splattering blood everywhere.

Thag · Post by **Thag** » 2004-02-20 12:05am

I had a stretch in jr. high where I'd have a variation of the falling dream. Only problem was, I'd wake up when I hit the ground, not before. The thing that scared the shit out of me was that in the process of falling, I'd lift myself up and then when I hit ground in the dream, I'd somehow slam myself hard back into the bed (going as far as knocking stuff over once or twice). This happened multiple times, and got the adrenaline pumping each time.

AnimeJet · Post by **AnimeJet** » 2004-02-20 12:11am

Next time you dream, try looking at your hands, apparently thats supposed to let you control the dream. However, if you try, chances are your mind will create a catastrophe to keep you from looking at them.
I've had a few dreams that cause me to jump up in the middle of the night, too scared to open my eyes. One involved a bloody dismembered body coming out of a faucet.. >_<

EmperorChrostas the Cruel · Post by **EmperorChrostas the Cruel** » 2004-02-20 12:57am

Sounds like you are ready for some Gestalt therapy roleplaying.
When you dream, you are getting a random signal through your brain.
Your brain, unlike a TV set, cannot render a "picture" based on nothing. A TV can give you "ant wars", or static, but your brain CAN'T. Not won't, but CAN'T. Your brain MUST find order, even if it makes it up, like looking at clouds.
That which is on your mind when you slip into sleep, is the "seed", that your mind constructs the order around, like dust and snow.
Every part of your dream, be it figure or background, represents a point of view of one of what I call, "The Board of Directors." Every part of you has a director, and a certain number of "votes." Majority rule. Real world example.
Example:
You are dressed up in a Tuxedo, and at a wedding with a full bladder. Some Directors want to piss right here, right now, fuck the downsides. The majority, however, want you to wait until your fly is open in front of that urinal. Still, there are two sides or more to every desicion you make, and a vote takes place on an ongoing basis. You are NEVER 100% sue of ANYTHING, but when 99.9% of the other Directors thinks the .1% is stupic/loony, then that director can only let his point be known via dreams.
Every Director gets a voice, even if only when you dream. The ones who ONLY get to talk when you are asleep talk the loudest when you ARE asleep.

Try this. Write down in detail, as much as you can about the main characters in this dream, and what they say and do. Take note of the surroundings
Now the fun. Roleplay.
Example. In a small dream, I was following a stream down a hillside, jumping from rock to rock, when one of the rocks partly collapsed under my feet.
From this, the players are, Me, following the stream. The stream. The rocks.
Playact in the present tense.
Now I am a stream. I am cool, and made of water. Now I am meandering . I am going downhill slowly.
Now I am a rock. I am strong, and solid. I do not move. I am being stepped on, and cracking under the pressure.
Subconsious revelations: I feel I am going downhill slowly, and can't stop. I am going without direction, (meandering) I feel I am cracking under the weight, and I feel I am being stepped on.(at work, and I did, and I was)
Insights about your head from dreams. This was a real world example, done by me, back in '80.

You see how this would work?
By playacting out as "A rock," or "stream", you can "trick" yourself into saying what is on one of the "Directors" agenda. Since it isn't "you" saying these things, you can blurt them out.

Remember, if you have nightmares about things hurting you, to "BE" these things, as they are in fact metaphores or alogories about how you REALY view the world, but are too "Nice, civilised, polite, or good" to allow yourself to realize you feel that way.

Say you have a short nightmare, about Freddy Krueger slashing you in a dark house. You, Freddy, and the house are all roles to be "Played" out, if you wish some insight as to your plight.

Very often, after confronting something about yourself, you will find that, although the problem was too "big/scary/whatever to confront when you burried it in the first place, it isn't that scary in the light of day. That and you have no real choice about confronting yourself, as you can never escape from your own mind and remane sane.

That you are having nightmares is proof that whatever opinion, desire,view, belief, or memory is conflicting you. It WON'T get better by itself, unless the problem you are unwilling to allow yourself to be aware of cures itself.
Like someone you hate and wish to kill (but don't wish to acknowledge because it upsets your view of yourself.) dies without help.

I found many skeletons in my closit this way. Most having to do with a truly sick toxic relative, that at the time, (being a child) WAS beyond my ability to deal with.

You see, there are 3 ways to use denial as a defence.
1. There is no problem. (the elephant in the living room)
2. It's not realy that BAD of a problem. (when I am activly directing my awareness somewhere else.)
3. There is nothing that can be done, so I must live with the situation. (and direct my awareness away fro the problem as much as practical.
Think of it this way. You have the chance the explore a new place, have some fun, and stop you bad dreams in one step. Will you take it?

Comosicus · Post by **Comosicus** » 2004-02-20 07:26pm

Nice analysys. Something to remeber first time I have a nightmare. Although I don't remeber having one that could wake me up.