Recurring Nightmares

I haven't really told anybody about this except my long term partner, but I had a similar nightmare recently and thought I would post it here!

From the age of about 6 right up until probably 13 or 14 I had a recurring nightmare, I would have the exact same nightmare about 3 or 4 times a week, without fail. Everytime I would wake up in a sweat and unable to speak for a few minutes. Hundreds and hundreds of times I had it, yet one day as suddenly as it had started, I just stopped having it.

The dream went like this:

I was at school (my primary school) at a table with all my friends, we were all making things and drawing, like in an art class, aswell as having a good laugh together. Then I need the toilet so I leave the table and go to a cubicle (which for some reason is in my classroom, just across from the table I am sat at) and do my business.

Once I am done I open the cubicle door to see a very creepy and scruffy girl with long dark hair, wearing a dirty white gown of some sort stood in front of me. Anybody that has seen 'The Grudge' will know pretty much exactly what this girl looked like. Now in the early days of this nightmare I used to try speak with the girl and ask if she was okay, but as I had it more and more I would start to realise I was in the nightmare and just try to rush back to my table with my friends. Either way the result was the same, I never got back to my friends.

The girl would not say anything to me, she would just stare at the floor by her feet.
As I turn to head back to my friends she attacks me from behind with a knife, I would end up face down on the floor with her on my back, and she was insanely strong and heavy, I couldn't move her. The most disturbing part about this nightmare wasn't particularly the girl or even that she attacked me with a knife, it was that whilst she was on my back, I was barely able to move, and I couldnt scream.

I tried and tried to scream for my friends to help but no sound would come out. No matter how hard I tried the best I could get out would be the tiniest squeek. I was slowly dying less than 20 metres from my friends and I could just see them all sat around the table, laughing and playing about, having a good time whilst I am being killed.


Pretty messed up huh? I'm not entirely sure why I am posting this but it feels good to share, I had this nightmare soooooo many times as a child and I guess I just wonder if anybody here can think of a possible meaning behind it?

Or perhaps you can share any recurring nightmares you have had? That could be fun

reply to post by Tachalka


When you read your account it doe's seem pretty creepy but in all fairness I don't think it's anything to be overly concerned about; lots of people suffer from recurring nightmares.

Personally, I've never had a recurring nightmare (although I have had recurring dreams), in fact it's very, very rare for me to experience a nightmare - probably had about 3/4 my whole life.

Someone is bound to come along who has more experience analysing dreams but I'd say your nightmare suggests you have a deep rooted fear of helplessness, have you ever been in a dangerous situation where your friends/others around you failed to help?

Very creepy nightmare. Starting at the age of six seems a little strange as most of us haven't experienced much in our waking lives at that age to trigger such nightmares. Anything happen to you before that's remotely connected to the girl, the knife etc?

just gotta say, im recently taking more notice of dreams due to having a few weird ones recently. i would love to try and phyco analize your dream but im aware of some users distane in that stuff, so i will say i have learned from my own dreams, that you can control them in a manner changes the way you perseave them. i believe recurring dreams are a sub consious puzzle created by our mind to teach us.

Thinking about it I did have a relatively traumatic experience about that age, where I saw someone beat half to death in south oxhey high street with a metal bar, I still remember to this day how petrified I was! I don't know if that's related but I guess it could be.

Regarding the suggestion that maybe I had feelings of being helpless... I know when I was young my mum was in a fairly abusive relationship with my stepdad who liked to hit her after a few pints. I remember how I wished I could stop him but I was just too little. I don't know if that could be something to do with it, although it would explain the ages I had the dream, as I am pretty sure he left when I was about 12.

Thanks for the replies!

From the bit of information you've given, I conclude your subconscious is trying to disconnect you from a painful or repressed memory. It may have succeeded for a time, but its something thats important to you (or who you are) in the grand scheme of things.

Something may have happened recently to trigger this painful or repressed memory, causing the dream to reappear in an effort to reinforce the disconnect. (keeping the memory suppressed?)


Since I didn't see the dream its hard for me to pinpoint what stood out, I can only go by what you mentioned.


Try looking up keywords in the dream dictionary - it may make more sense to you if you analyze it by yourself - and I've found it to be extremely accurate in my own dream interpretations.


I hope I've been helpful ♥

Originally posted by Tachalka
Thinking about it I did have a relatively traumatic experience about that age, where I saw someone beat half to death in south oxhey high street with a metal bar, I still remember to this day how petrified I was! I don't know if that's related but I guess it could be.

Regarding the suggestion that maybe I had feelings of being helpless... I know when I was young my mum was in a fairly abusive relationship with my stepdad who liked to hit her after a few pints. I remember how I wished I could stop him but I was just too little. I don't know if that could be something to do with it, although it would explain the ages I had the dream, as I am pretty sure he left when I was about 12.

Thanks for the replies!

A combination of the two experiences described above make your recurring nightmare nothing unusual in my opinion. I hope you manage to get to grips with it

reply to post by Tachalka


You could probably link the violent actions you witnessed with the violence of the dream. The possibility is that no one came to help because it could represent an internal struggle.
It is quite accepted that children can blame themselves for a breakdown in family relationships and as the dysfunction continued within the family setting then you're look at me I'm not worthy ego would win. You say they ceased at the time the domestic conflict was resolved.
The lucky part seems to be that this appears not to have created any lasting seperation in your personality.

I like this topic, thanks for posting it.

I don't have any answers or insight or advice for you about yours but I have one of my own that I've never really researched too much. Aside from the recurring nightmare I also have had a certain "theme" to my dreams, pretty much all of my life that has to do with water, huge waves...

Interesting topic!

reply to post by Tachalka


Do you ever experience sleep paralysis? I have recurring bouts of that as well.

reply to post by Death_Kron


I was going to add the same post as Kron, but he said it for me.

reply to post by Skorpiogurl


I haven't, although the inability to make any sound in my Nightmare would occasionally carry over once I woke, sometimes for a few minutes and was rather scary! It was a similar feeling to if something very heavy was on top of me, constricting my chest so I couldnt speak!

Peace

Originally posted by Tachalka
reply to post by Skorpiogurl

 

I haven't, although the inability to make any sound in my Nightmare would occasionally carry over once I woke, sometimes for a few minutes and was rather scary! It was a similar feeling to if something very heavy was on top of me, constricting my chest so I couldnt speak!

Peace

In The Terror That Comes in the Night, folklorist and behavioral scientist David J. Hufford argues that sleep paralysis is related to an anomalous experience known in Newfoundland as "the Old Hag." According to Hufford, the Old Hag is "an experience with stable contents which is widespread, dramatic, realistic, and bizarre," and elements of the phenomenon cannot be fully explained either by psychology or culture. His works have explored the connection between the Old Hag and parapsychology in what he labels the "experience-centered approach" to hauntings.[19][20]

Sleep Paralysis

Originally posted by Death_Kron

Originally posted by Tachalka
reply to post by Skorpiogurl

 

I haven't, although the inability to make any sound in my Nightmare would occasionally carry over once I woke, sometimes for a few minutes and was rather scary! It was a similar feeling to if something very heavy was on top of me, constricting my chest so I couldnt speak!

Peace

In The Terror That Comes in the Night, folklorist and behavioral scientist David J. Hufford argues that sleep paralysis is related to an anomalous experience known in Newfoundland as "the Old Hag." According to Hufford, the Old Hag is "an experience with stable contents which is widespread, dramatic, realistic, and bizarre," and elements of the phenomenon cannot be fully explained either by psychology or culture. His works have explored the connection between the Old Hag and parapsychology in what he labels the "experience-centered approach" to hauntings.[19][20]

Sleep Paralysis

Yeah, I have sleep paralysis. It used to scare me because I didn't know what it was, then I educated myself.

I also learned little tricks to get out of the event before it begins and I have learned the tell tale signs of an on coming episode

Mine happens as I am falling to sleep, not waking up. I have hallucinated but only dark figures w/no features. I have never had the "old hag" thing. I do feel the weight on my chest but I remember to remind myself that I am having an episode of sleep paralysis. I have gotten to the point where I don't mind it so much, I have learned to turn it into lucid dreaming. But... it's not about me.

If you have sleep paraylsis, you know it. There is no guessing about it.

Anyway, here's a cool link to a site that has a dream dictionary. I don't know if I buy into the meanings but it's fun to go through it:

www.dreammoods.com...

reply to post by Tachalka


I really dont know why I am asking this to be honest, its just a question I had when reading.. You said you had the dresm from 6-13/14, did your friends get older in the dreams? Did you?? What about the creepy girl?? Did they always daty the same age? Young/Older??

It was most likely a negative sprit, the more intense they are the more difficult it is to deal with them - if you fear them then they attack, if you attack them them then they harass you.

You have to be able to feel thier pain, and recognise that anger is a defensive response to fear.

Originally posted by SystemResistor
It was most likely a negative sprit, the more intense they are the more difficult it is to deal with them - if you fear them then they attack, if you attack them them then they harass you.

You have to be able to feel thier pain, and recognise that anger is a defensive response to fear.

No, it was more likely Sleep Paralysis

reply to post by Britx


In the dream I had no awareness of my age, but it was always in the same classroom at my primary school, it was the classroom I would have been in at about age 6.

Also my friends were always young in the dream, although they didn't seem very relevant, I'm not even sure they was actual friends from my real life, more like made up characters just for the dream lol. This nightmare continued until I was in high school yet the setting was always my primary school class. Funny how in the dream it never seemed odd though!

Originally posted by SystemResistor
It was most likely a negative sprit, the more intense they are the more difficult it is to deal with them - if you fear them then they attack, if you attack them them then they harass you.

You have to be able to feel thier pain, and recognise that anger is a defensive response to fear.

Come on, really?