How often do you have nightmares?

There's some interesting research on this web site: The Quantitative Study of Dreams that seems to indicate that most people dream quite a lot, although they don't necessarily recall the dreams.

How often do we dream, and when? Most people over the age of 10 dream at least 4 to 6 times per night during a stage of sleep called REM... REM periods vary in length from 5 to 10 minutes for the first REM period of the night to as long as 30-34 minutes later in the night. It thus seems likely that dreams can be a half hour or more in length.

There is also evidence that we can dream in non-REM sleep in the hour or two before waking up, when the brain has become more activated than it was earlier in the night. That's why we said that we dream "at least" 4 to 6 times per night.

It seems likely that all of us forget 95-99% of our dreams for the very ordinary reason that we sleep right through them and aren't paying attention to remembering anything. One dream researcher suggests that it's similar to when you are doing something that doesn't take much concentration, such as driving on an open road, so you are not paying attention to what you are doing.

The article goes on to discuss other factors that might influence dreaming and recall, including chemical imbalances, personality factors, etc.

It sounds like your sleep patterns were interrupted (by bed bugs, oh MY!) and this probably impacted the recall of your dreams. One way to help get back on a regular sleep schedule -- assuming you want to -- is to set your alarm for the same time each morning, and drink in some bright, natural light for a half hour upon waking. Good luck.

reply to post by Spacebound

Well, at least you can check those things now too if you watch the video, you'll be able to spot them on anything with the help of the vid.

reply to post by OneisOne


Sorry to hear about you ill health at the moment, Nightmares pointing to health problems is certainly something to think about.

Medication can definitely have all sorts of effects on your dreams, I remember being prescribed dihydrocodine tables once and they gave me the most wonderful dreams where I was on a kind of alien beach and I could literally feel the sand under my feet and the sun on my face and the whole thing felt so real that when I woke up I couldn't believe it hadn't happened

I had another quite extreme nightmare last night after posting on this thread I was shaving and then I started to shave my own face off and didn't stop until my face was gone

Not too often, but when I do, they are intense... I mean really intense. Horror movie style carnage (think the ring but 5 times more messed up), cancer diagnoses, operation going haywire, getting a life sentence in federal prison and then living it out for a week.

My nightmares don't last a few hours or minutes either, they seem to last for days. They are often so long I find myself living the life I had in the nightmare the following day. It's like my brain has adjusted to a new place I moved to. For example, I will find myself going to the phone book to call this one person up and chat again, only to realize this person never existed... When I figure that out I am like WHAT THE ****!? It's like I was 100% sure that person existed and I have this long drawn out memory of years of relationship. It's just like going to call your girlfriend and realize you don't actually have a girlfriend. It's trippy.

Originally posted by davespanners
reply to post by OneisOne

 

Sorry to hear about you ill health at the moment, Nightmares pointing to health problems is certainly something to think about.

Medication can definitely have all sorts of effects on your dreams, I remember being prescribed dihydrocodine tables once and they gave me the most wonderful dreams where I was on a kind of alien beach and I could literally feel the sand under my feet and the sun on my face and the whole thing felt so real that when I woke up I couldn't believe it hadn't happened

I had another quite extreme nightmare last night after posting on this thread I was shaving and then I started to shave my own face off and didn't stop until my face was gone

Where CAN I get some of the dihydrocodine? LOL JK. Anyway yeah I think that it will end when her body is adjusted. I remember being on ambien gave me wierd extremely vivid dreams.

Hmmmm I also had my first nightmare in over twenty years last night after posting to this thread, I dreamt I was suddenly in a group of people who were Zombies and Then I asked 'wait how did I get here?' the question was all I needed to go lucid so I did A Glenda move and waved my hand like she would and changed them all to normal people again. Then I awakened. Weird.

reply to post by Spacebound


Op I cant really remember dreaming, to be truthfull these days. I go to sleep and wake up.
Try working out befor bed then your body will be tired from all the work out and you will go to sleep. Do about 80 sit ups if your a femal in sets of 10 and mabey 50 stomach crunches. Those will tire you out and you will be excited to get some rest. Now if you work out and try it and still dont get tired you may have to look into other ways to relax at night.. Good Luck.

reply to post by Spacebound


I use to have nightmares almost every single night for about 48 years until my doctor prescribed Valium. Now, I have a half a pill and chamomile tea at bedtime and no longer have nighmares.

When I dream, I always dream in color and all five of my senses kick in.......ie: I can feel a breeze, warm or cold water, smell cinnamon, ozone or sulphur and my hearing is more acute.

Now, I still dream but they are either strange or pleasant dreams and not night terrors.

My husband says he dreams in black and white and rarely remembers his dreams.

The last nightmare I did have (before being medicated) concerned World War Three. I've had the WW3 Dream about a dozen times so I'm glad that's a past part of my dreaming.

What made this nightmare even more wierder? As if it could get any weirder...I told my daughter about it and she had a zombie nightmare too last night. That is weird. Hers was a little different she was at the mall with her friends and one by one they turned into zombies. Really crazy!
Anybody else have a zombie dream last night?
I think it is symbolic about how we're all just turning into 'Zombie' people just following what our rulers want us blindly, like drones...that is my take. Except in my dream I changed them so maybe I am going to 'awaken' many people. ?

Originally posted by OneisOne

I truly believe that some of our dream states are tied into what is going on inside our bodies, something like an early warning system.

No need to believe there. It is true. Dreams can tell us many things, some can hint to a physical illness, others mental instability, others may tell you that you are on the right course on your life etc. Dr. C.G Jung has examined these things in great detail, and so have I, and I can partly confirm what Jung have said.

Dreams are not vanity. They are important messages from unconsciousness, which is aware of things that we are consciously not.

-v

reply to post by Spacebound


I actually have nightmares and lucid dreams quite often at least once or twice a week (well it feels often to me), some times more. I have been having a repeating nightmare since I was about 13. I will often dream that I am standing on a beach or somewhere outside and even sometimes inside, but there will be giant waves crashing down on me. I mean 100-200 foot waves, but nobody else seems to notice. The people that are with me in the dream constantly change along with the scenery, but it is also scary and lucid. However, you your sleeping patterns have changed that dramatically I seriously recommend either going to the drug store and buying over the counter sleeping pills or go to the doctor to get a prescription. During the spring this year I also not sleeping. I would only sleep maybe 2 hours a night do to stress, so I got a months prescription for some sleeping pills. They really helped me get back on a schedule So, nightmares normal, going 2-3 days without sleep not.

I have nightmares occasionally that revolve around two major events that happened in my life that devastated me. One of the nightmares (which varies each time) is always based on a prior job I held for approx 11 years and then I was layed off. These dreams vary but always stem from that incident because the event had a huge impact and was a huge disappointment in my life. I was devastated! Its been more than 5 years since the event but I still occassionaly have nightmares about it. The second major nightmare theme is always a fight with a lost friend. In these nightmares I always have a huge blowout fight with the friend. I lost the lifelong friendship at approx the same time as the job so the two kind of go hand in hand. I don't really dream about anything else that is scary to me. But when I dream these dreams I always feel icky when I wake up.

All of my other dreams are fun. I'm usually flying or running and jumping over trees and telephone poles. I wake up feeling rejuvenated and always feel great the next morning. Recently I've been swimming in the ocean or some other huge water source with other people I don't know. Swiming unlike a human should be able to swim. Its like we ride the currents or something. More recently I dreamt of driving down this strange road and realized I wasn't suppose to drive there. I was stopped by the "authorities" and the only way to get myself out of the situation was for them to make me to sky jump or sky dive back to my origination point. I woke up right as they were going to make me jump... probably because I'm afraid of heights... so perhaps that was a nightmare that I woke myself up from because I didn't want to do what they were trying to make me do. I wasn't scared when I woke up... I just thought about how strange the dream was.

I have nightmares several nights a week. I wake up screaming or my wife wakes me up. I have horrible dreams of things dragging me off into the night or other terrible places. When I was a young guy- in my teens and twentys, I had nightmares of being in Vietnam, horrible clear nightmares. I had these dreams, which the subject matter of each dream was different, for many years. The last night I had the Vietnam nightmares, the following happened, and if freaks me out to this day. I am standing outside of a chopper as it is landing and two guys pull a stretcher off and the feet are visible. The guy is obviously dead and from where I am standing I read the toe tag. The name of the guy is not familiar to me in any way, I know of no one with anything close to this name. Anyway, I read the toe tag and they pack him off and I wake up. This was the last nightmare of this type I have ever had, after countless ones of heavy combat and just horrific scenes. It took me 12 years to have the courage to look up deceased/fallen veterans from that war to curb my lingering thoughts about this. I was sure what I would find and this is why I waited. I found this same name listed as deceased- this poor soldier was listed as having passed away not long before I was born. Now I am not a reincarnation supporter or prone to anything else of this nature. I got up out of my office and left for the day. it really sent me spinning. To this day, I have told my wife about this only, and I had known her for 7 years before I did that. This is the only other time I have spoke of it.
I have not had one nightmare concerning Vietnam since. I mean no disrespect to the fallen heroes of that War or any other, as I am not a Veteran of any kind. I had no control over this dream, nor the outcome.
When I saw the tag on his toe, I knew in my dream that I was looking at myself- I cant explain it, but I knew. That is the reason it took me so long to look the name up. I suppose the it could be coincidental-but it was a very deliberate scene in the dream, and my purpose in that dream was to read that name.
I am trained in Mechanical Engineering and have held an Engineering position for many many years- I am a manager in an Engineering firm. I spend a lot of time on UFO-Alternative forums, but other than that craziness- I am somewhat stable.
Any thoughts? I spend a lot of time on here lurking, I just dont post much.

reply to post by Spacebound


i have always had nightmares, as far back as i can remember. i go to sleep and the only dreams i seem to have or remember having are nightmares. i had a reoccuring dream when i was much younger where there was a groop of teen's i was with, we were all running from something that was trying to hurt or kill us... as i said reoccuring, in one of the dreams i met two (2) people whom i ended up meeting in real life! both were dressed in the same clothing as they were in the dream, one of them became a good friend the other was a school bully. i have even had dreams where i got hurt in the dream and woke up with pain and redness upon that part or spot, EG: in one dream i was stabed with a knife through the bottom of my left foot and instantly woke up, my foot was red top and bottom and hurt like hell. there was no base board at the foot of the bed or anything for me to have kicked in my sleep to cause said result. i am getting better at dream control but it is a slow process.

I have nightmares virtually every night. I have for years. Sometimes they're of the frightening variety, but more often than not they are simply disturbing, depressing, or frustrating. That may not sound that bad, but those emotions can be just as intense (and sleep interrupting) as fear if they happen often enough or with sufficient severity.

In my waking life I suffer from chronic anxiety, though, which I have to believe strongly influences my sleeping mind as well. It sounds like you went through a prolonged period of sleep disturbances and restlessness due to the bedbug situation, and that you were always at least slightly challenged in terms of getting to bed early and peacefully. I find that the calmer I am, the better I sleep. If I've had a less anxious than typical day, I tend to sleep better. One problem I have is that it doesn't take me the typical 5 to 7 hours of sleep to get into REM. I can dream (and rapid eye movements can be observed) within minutes of my head hitting the pillow, literally. So sleeping for briefer periods doesn't spare me from nightmares.

The best layman's advice I can give (which may or may not be of benefit to you) is to take adequate time to prepare for sleep by gradually diminishing the amount of stimuli and thought you confront your mind and body with. Do everything possible to relax before sleeping. And insure that distractions like lights, sounds, people, phones, etc. are all neutralized before sleeping. And try to visualize something peaceful and tranquil before sleeping. I have had limited success with this.

Whether that helps at all, I don't know.

When I was a young child, I would have nightmares almost every night. They were so intense I would go into shock. I wasn't able to breathe, speak, move, just panic when I awoke from those dreams. I would also often hear elephants and horses running through the hallways.
Now in my later 20's I wouldn't call them nightmares, but more "reality" dreams. My dreams feel so real most times. It's like I never sleep, I just go into another world that I can experience.
I also often have repetitive themes in my dreams.

I have been trying my best to keep up on a dream diary, but only tend to write down what I most vividly remember or find personally applicable.

Lately a lof of my dreams involve tidal waves and tsunamis. Also the past couple months I have been having dreams of UFO "invasions".

Nah I don't have nightmares, when you lucid dream its easier to avoid them, just don't look down those dark corridoors, oh, and don't look into mirrors what ever you do.

reply to post by Spacebound


Nightmares every night cannot be normal. I hope that you can find a solution soon. I would hate that..

I don't dream that often but I have recurrent dreams of post apocalyptic type scenarios. I have maybe like 5-10 per year. I never know what happened but every time we are either being evacuated by military or are leaving in the middle of the night. I am always freaking out because we have small children. We are always trying to grab as much of their stuff as we can, packing bags of their clothes, shoes, diapers, blankets, etc. We often end up walking long distances under gray skies. I wake up out of breath, heart racing.. etc. I don't like it.

What you eat can also affect what you dream at night, pork for example.
I suggest you lay off it for awhile.

Not very often but mine are actually the same atleast from what I can remember, It always has a shutting door that I can't open and I'm either trapped inside with a ghost or if I'm outside and I open the door a ghost is in there. But it's always the same thing it's weird.

I often had nightmares when I had 18 MERCURY Silver Amalgam fillings. Since having them removed I rarely have them. The food and water you consume contains thousands of toxic chemicals.
Good night,sweet dreams.