Terrifying dreams...

As a new member I can only post a new thread in the introduction forum. Hope no one gets upset but, I need to get this out and get some answers.

For the past two nights I've had horrible nightmares! I'm sure your thinking well your new to ATS and some of what we read about might cause some people to have bad dreams but, it's not that at all. I haven't been on the sight for a while and my dreams don't pertain to aliens or the end of the world.

I've had nightmares before, I can recall when I was a child being strangled in my sleep fighting for my life. My father came into my room once, I had my hands grasping the man who was choking me I was trying to pull him away from me. My dad couldn't wake me and he could NOT pull my hands apart, he said it so scary because he was watching me trying to breath. He felt helpless. I woke that night to my dad praying at my bed side, tears streaming down his face because he was so terrified. There was no man, I was dreaming. But, the marks that man left on my neck... clearly showed I was being choked and this dream was serious. My dad had our preacher come to our house the next day. I don't like talking about it but, the man who was choking me, was defiantly not of this world. I've dreamed dreams that have come true. I've had day dreams, that have happen. My mom didn't believe me for a long time until the day we were in the car and I said, that green Toyota's going to pass us and he's going to spin out, hit that truck and if you don't slow down and veer to the right instead of the left he will hit us. She believes me now. I hate talking about these things because I don't think people take me seriously. But, lately... I just can't deal with it alone.

I am a firm believer in learning to control your dreams. I know I can from experience. When I'm in my dream I can recognize I'm dreaming and sometimes play with it. But, lately not so much. Two nights ago, the end of my dream is all I can really recall, I dreamed of being in a car with my mother. I knew I was dreaming, but something happen, we were driving through a parking garage and she stepped out and the car went over the edge. At this point I was scared, I knew I'd wake up before the car hit the bottom, ' you die in your dream you die in real life ' - not a believer. But when I hit the bottom, I felt no pain, there was nothing. Just darkness and I sat there, I wasn't sure if I was still dreaming, if I was still the car. There was nothing, my heart was pounding in my chest. I wondered "Am I dead?", I was quite terrified because I couldn't pull out of it. I wasn't sure if I was even breathing. When I did awake, I was gasping for breath, my chest felt like someone had shocked my with those paddles you see the doctors use on television. Honestly. You know when you take a water bottle and play with the side popping it in and letting it pop back out. This is how my chest felt.
Last night was worse, because I was fighting to wake up, I could wake up. I don't want to get to detailed with it but, I couldn't get out of the dream, my children were with me I couldn't protect them. I felt drugged. I felt like that was the only thing hindering me from taking control and getting out (by that I mean waking up). It was so scary. Every time I thought I was awake I'd get out of bed and before I knew it... things would start happening again and I knew I was still dreaming. So again and again I tried to wake up and I just couldn't.
A family member woke me up today, she shook me until I came out of it. I'm dreaming but, I'm not rested. I'm so tired, and I'm scared to sleep.
Can anyone tell me what's going on?
Can anyone relate?

I can certainly relate to the waking up portion. Disclaimer: For my case, I do not think this is paranormal.

I experience "sleep paralysis" for several days in a row sometimes. I know I am awake, but I cannot move. I lay there and pray that someone comes in the room and wakes me up. Sometimes I will hear a noise behind me, or see shadows on the wall, or reflections moving. It takes all the energy I have to focus on one small movement, maybe a finger, or turning my head. Once I can "break" free and accomplish a slight movement, I can wake up and get up. When it first started happening, I would make the mistake of going back to sleep, and I would be right back in it!! I don't do that anymore, I stay up. It rarely happens, but when it does, it will happen several times days in a row. For me, it happens when I try to sleep during the daytime, or if I have taken a long weekend and slept too much.

I have never had a prescient or predictive dream. The closest I have come, happened just a couple of months ago. I dreamed that my truck was out of control, and I had several men (brother, father, friend) with me. I tried to keep it straight, but eventually the truck dug into some dirt and started to flip, I could hear, see, smell, feel everyone around me suffering and dying and then I woke up. I told my wife and mother about the dream, because I was upset over it all day. The scariest thing happened the following evening when a friend called and asked me to drive him to Gainesville (we would be taking the road from my dream), and my brother asked if he could ride along! I couldn't refuse my friends request, and I was embarrassed to even tell him about the dream. We made the trip without incident, but it was a very eery feeling, and a white knuckle ride for me!

When I was a little boy I had nightmares in which there was a huge pillow that fell over me and completely covered my face.

At other times it was I that was falling into the giant pillow and I would sink in the pillow, with the same result of feeling that I could not breath.

When I was a little older sometimes I dreamt that I was behind a iron grid and because of it I could pass to the other side, the result being that I started to have difficulty breathing.

All these nightmares passed when I started taken medication for my asthma, and now, more than 40 years latter, I still have problems (sometimes) breathing while I am sleeping.

So I wouldn't be surprised if you have some health problem that gets worse during the night and because of that was not properly diagnosed.

This int going to sound to believable but sometimes If im working hard on a project i end up dreaming computer code. Things get a bit nightmarish if i make an error and get stuck in an infinite loop. That's when i usually wake up.. very confused. lol



[edit on 14-7-2009 by VitalOverdose]