I assumed we all did, but I have talked to a couple of folks as of late that said they rarely if ever have them. THis post/poll may be a bit self indulgent as seems to be the case as of late here, but I am genuinely curious as to how often people have nightmares and how graphic and, I guess, severe they are.
Conventional wisdom says it is your subconcious working through things or some such shit. I have been hyper-stressed as of late due to life issues and I have probably 1 vicious nightmare a week, maybe 2 family related ones where someone is hurt or in danger, and a couple nights where I am so furious at co-workers, family, or strangers that I am screaming and cursing at them until I am in tears. Some nights it is an amalgam of some or all.
For example:
Night before last I had one where there was someone who I perceived as some sort of insane killer and he was sitting in my house about to attempt to do me and my family harm. I found myself in possession of a rather large knife and basically tried to shoo him away. He would not move so I started to slice his skin. I did not want to stab him, I remember thinking, because it would be too gruesome. Well, the cuts were not stopping him so I finally had to stab and twist just below his sternum until he stopped moving.
At this point, I felt the need to get rid of the body. I had to clean up organ tissue and blood as it was strewn about. I then folded all of it including the body into a bag and put it in my trunk until I decided where to dispose of the body. In the heat, I was afraid the smell would seep out. When I went back to double bag him, he sprang back up again. At this point the dream kinda faded away.
I seriously have horrific, violent dreams like this often, but they never wake me up. My wife says I will awaken her moving around and the next morning I feel like I have run a race.
I have heard I should keep a log or talk to someone or the like. SOmetimes I am a little leery of going to sleep, but they come with such regularity, it is simply part of the deal with sleeping for me.
I’d say you should see someone about it. In the past ten years the number of nightmares I’ve had probably averages out to less than one a year. They always wake me up too. In fact, that’s usually how I differentiate a nightmare from other dreams - I wake up scared, regardless of the content of the dream. They don’t have to be violent or horrific at all.
Last night I had a dream that I pooped my pants and Fergie was my friend. I hid my poopy underpants in a garbage can, and then, because all the liqour stores were closed, off we went to a German restaurant in somebody’s basement.
Generally I have nightmares if I’ve eaten something relatively close to bed. It’s almost a 1:1 ratio and they can get pretty fucked up. Otherwise I don’t remember my dreams all that often.
My ex-wife has frequent really upsetting nightmares and has for most of her life. She will literally scream out in her sleep or sob and say “No, no, no” over and over again. They almost never wake her up despite her often violent flailing around. Oh, and she has severe mental problems that have required hospitalization on more than one occasion.
Have you considered that you might be completely insane?
I occasionally have anxiety dreams (e.g., the archetypical underwear-at-work, missed-an-exam, etc.), but I can’t recall ever having anything strong enough to really call a nightmare. I rarely remember any dreams at all, though.
My most frequent nightmare is one where I’m being stalked or chased by something – an insane killer, a wild animal, whatever.
And while it’s not exactly a nightmare, the other unpleasant dream I seem to have often is one where I gradually lose all my teeth. It will start with one tooth becoming loose, then I wiggle it around, and then gradually all my other teeth will fall right out. From conversations with friends and coworkers, that dream seems to be fairly common.
[Edit]
Another one I have is where I have to write a final exam for a course that I didn’t attend a single lecture/class.
I see someone once every couple a month to re-up my meds, but I did not go into this much detail. He must have wrote me off as a whiny bitch.
THey have increased with the increased stress brought on by money issues, family problems, and career change, but they are starting to wear me down, I think.
Need to do some reasearch on the subject on the always reliable internets.
EDIT: I get the teeth one, too. That one is pretty common from my anecdotal survey.
Last week I spent most of one day playing Zelda, then at night watched three episodes of The Sopranos in a row. Then I went to bed.
I dreamed I was playing a game where I was controlling Tony Soprano, but he was running around Zelda dungeons. He kept turning around and asking me what the fucking point of it all was. After awhile he just started refusing to climb shit that I had already made him climb, because the answer I was looking for was obviously not up there, and he just wanted me to get a fucking clue.
I woke up from it like a nightmare, but then I started laughing.
Hell yeah, I have had that same dream. Except in mine, it’s a post apocalyptic world, I’m a vampire, and I have to kill Gary Oldman with a shovel. Brush your teeth more often and you will stop having it.
Now what if someone with OCD read your post, has this nightmare, and then begins brushing the fuck out of their teeth. Won’t you feel ba…oh, no you probably won’t. :P
My nightmares are almost always awesome and I wish I could have more. Sadly, I’m lucky if I have more than two or three in a year. They are almost always of the chase/escape variety. Terminators, demons, zombies, vampires, you name it. Usually extremely lucid and awesome. If I gain the upper hand all goes well, if not I end up waking up in a cold sweat. Pretty kickass.
I have stress induced dreams that I would potentially call nightmares, except they aren’t scary so much as just… pressured. These ones I often can’t tell are dreams. The last one I had was that I bought this truck that I couldn’t afford (and didn’t want). But then I couldn’t get my money back and I was freaked out about how I was going to deal with things.
The more stressed I am, the worse my dreams are. Daily life translates right into my dreams much more directly than it used to. Fortunately I’m not too stressed on a daily basis.
Good luck with your waking life, Tyjenks – if you can’t de-stress that, you might not have too much luck with your nightmares!
I do get nightmares, but they often turn into some sort of bizarre action movie. Like, horrifying things will happen, and then subconscious-me will decide, “hey, this is my brain, I don’t have to take this!” and suddenly I’m kicking ass in my own dreams.
If it’s a more realistic nightmare, the same kind of thing can happen - sometimes I’ve even figured out my way out of a tough situation because it’s what I did in my dream, and it worked.
I would have to say that my dream involving the werewolves vs. robots vs. vampires three way battle royale is the gold standard, on account of the ramped up sexual tension. It was like an episode of Moonlighting, but made out of whiskey soaked thunderbolts and blood.
