Nightmares...do you have them?

I've had nightmares frequently. Is there a pattern to what you have nightmares about? Is there a specific theme or object that you fixate on in these nightmares? If you can pinpoint that, you might be able to realize why your mind is so restless during sleep.

I used to have nightmares bad when I was younger. Bad enough I would wake up in a cold sweat. Then a friend of mine told me, she used to have them too, until she stopped sleeping on her back and suggested that to me. Since I now sleep on my stomach or side, I seem not to have nightmares anymore. *shrugs* Could just be a mental thing for me, I have no medical or scientific proof that this actually works.

Are you under a lot of stress at the moment or worrying about something in particular? What are the recurring themes in your dreams? If you try and analyse your nightmares, you may find what it is that's underlying them all and by understanding your bad dreams, you should be able to stop them.

I do not remember having nightmares very often but whenever I have had them I am normally under stress. When they have become bothersome I have told myself that I will not dream bad things just before I go to sleep and I was no longer bothered by the dreams. I also tried to handle any plaguing problems I had at the time and that too seemed to help.

Lukilly enough i havent had a nightmare for a long time.But when you have vivid ones its awaful..you wake up and they seem sooo real. You have to shake yourself..and bring yourself back to earth!! Then i take a while to get back to sleep again..if i can at all!!! Ive found that they come and go..i dont think its a thing that is permanent... im sure they will pass x

I occasionally have nightmares, but not very often considering that I dream nearly every night, and I have nightmares only about once a month or so (more often if I'm going through stressful times, but never more than a couple times a week). Whenever my partner and I go through "fighting phases", I get nightmares that she leaves me (after talking with her, apparently she gets them, too). Or if I'm doing particularly poorly at some long-term project, or if some other stressful thing is happening, I'll dream about the worst possible outcome. Sometimes I even have nightmares because of scary movies, but I love the horror genre and that doesn't happen very often - I don't scare easily. But all my dreams play out like movies, so usually they're very long and complicated - and sometimes my nightmares don't even start out as nightmares at all - for instance, one nightmare I had started off very nicely, I was hanging out with friends (well, dream-actors representing my friends, since a couple of them were people I met online and have never seen in real life) and having fun and telling jokes and stuff, and then some unknown entity started picking us off one by one, getting us alone and killing us rather grotesquely. Very scary! Other times, the dream will be almost completely mundane except I will have the *feeling* of fear or intense foreboding, like something horrific is *going* to happen and never does. I always hate waking up alone after a nightmare, I'll hide under the covers and remind myself where I am and that I am safe, but for several minutes I still have irrational fears that there's some unknown ... thing... under my bed or in the hallway or even waiting to materialize out of thin air and "get" me. Now though, most of the time I can wake up and my partner will be right there next to me, and I cuddle up on her and usually my fear goes away relatively quickly. Sometimes though I actually have to wake her up and tell her that I had a nightmare and that I'm scared, and she'll comfort me and that pretty much always helps. As for how to overcome them... well, I have a friend that swears by sleeping with a sodalite stone under your pillow (he's very into gem magic and insists that sodalite absorbs negative energy - I don't really subscribe to that kind of belief but I tried it for a while anyway because I'm the kind of person that will try new and unique things). I didn't have any nightmares when I did, but I chalk that down to coincidence, since I didn't have any nightmares for months after I stopped, either. But now that I think about it, ever since I got my cat, I haven't had nearly as many nightmares as I used to. Maybe the two are connected? I've heard that owning a cat can increase your seratonin levels (Seratonin, if you didn't know, is a chemical that tends to reduce feelings of fear, anxiety, etc. and also helps you sleep, calms anxiety, and helps depression), so that probably has something to do with it.

hello there Gino and happy day to ya:) I have nightmares all the time..i notice when theer are lots of things on my mind i have them more and the worst..or when i am going threw something personally..emotional or physical..when im running from the scary things in my dreams i have learned that im running away from my problems in life..or hiding away..and they usually dont stop untill i face what is bothering me..i have been nightmare free for 3 weeks now and there is really nothing goin on with me now..though i must admit i miss them..i really love horror movies and always wanted to be in one..lol strange i know lol..but when i dream i feel like im in another world and even the scary ones i love because i have learned to control them if they get too scary for me..like if ur nightmare is soo bad and u want to wake up..if u can train urself to lay down in teh dream and go to sleep..u will wake up..i have done this for years so i know its works..i dont remeber how i learned this but it helps me when im about to be eaten by those zombies lol lol.!! have a good one! April

I always had nightmares when I was a child and they were really scary. Now I have them every now and then but they are mostly annoying instead of scary. The most usual thing is to try to wake up. If I can't I try to turn the situation into something funny (it is like the Ridikulus spell against the Bogarts and it is very helpful). It is also recomended to think very happy thoughts when you go to bed, eventually it works. If it all fails just remember that some people's lives are much scarier than your nightmares and you have the power to make your life beautiful. Good night and sweet dreams.