Of dreams and night terrors and all such things. - The Bear and Badger

tigersgogrrr

A thread to discuss dreams and nightmares.

The mind is a funny thing. I had the 2nd worst nightmare of my life last night, though I'm sure there's no real life reason behind it. It is, as I imagine the most powerful of nightmares to be, not easily explained to others but enough to cause me to consciously scream myself awake to break out of my slumber.Â

Do you remember your dreams? I typically do, though if I don't think about them when I first wake up I quickly forget what happened. I've had two 'serious' nightmares that have really shaken me up, both as an adult. One last night, one about 8 years ago. The latter took me a long time to talk about, so much it affected me, but I can happily communicate the second. So I will.

I woke in my bed, about 4am. My bed in my parental home in England, this is. Light was flickering in through my bedroom window, so I left my bed and crept over to see what it was. The opposite house had it's hallway light switched on, the door wide open, and a man, dressed in non-descript black combat trousers and what appeared to be a black and red hoodie, was standing on the gravel outside their front door. The front of the house was illuminated by some kind of floodlight positioned on the gravel in front of the house and this odd interloper's face was skeletal. Or he had a skeletal image over his face, at least.

He moved slowly, unbearably slowly, to the floodlight and turned it off. Everything was black for a time, until it flicked on again, this time at the next house along. Again, he slowly moved to the front door, opened it, and entered. I now noticed he was not alone and that there was at least one more individual waiting outside the house. I was too scared to look at this point and ducked out of sight. When I looked again, he had crossed the road and was at my neighbours house, his eerie light in tow. About this time, though maybe earlier (dreams are so easily muddled) my girlfriend started trying to take a picture out of the window, which made me extremely upset and anxious at the time.

The next I remember, he was outside my house. As I heard the slow clicking of my front door opening, I screamed myself awake. Though that didn't stop me from filling in the blanks in the early hours of today, imagining waking up to find chalkdust footprints on my bedroom carpet and other bitter consequences.

So, apologies for the indulgence, but what have you been dreaming about recently? And can I have a hug?

Skondo

*hug*

Dark Soldier

Due to my meds, I get exceptionally vivid dreams.

The other night, I dreamt me and my cousin were just wandering around this old, dusty town, and we got invited into the home of this quite charming family, with a young daughter and son. They made us coffee, and food, and we chatted, before we left. As we walk away, my cousin turns and walks back into the house, and, somehow brandishing a knife, orders the family upstairs into a room. I'm at the bottom of the stairs, shitting myself, and he starts stabbing and cutting the family. I head upstairs, to find I'm blocked out of the room by some forcefield or something, and end up witnessing the whole massacre, before waking, shaking and convinced for about ten seconds that I was still dreaming.

Good stuff.

hylian_elf

*big hug*

Dreams are usually linked to what's on your mind. I have been unable to get in touch with a friend of mine lately, he gets in and out of depression and I get worried about him. I'm gutted I can't make more time for him apart from occasional meet and some phone calls, but such is working and family life.Â

Anyway, lately I've been having dreams about him. A few. Nothing too horrific, worrying etc. but just that he appeared in my dreams lately a few times. Clearly, I believe, because he's been on my conscious mind a lot.Â

Just heard from him today, though, after I called him again after a dream. He was indeed depressed but a bit better. Hope to meet him later, if I can escape some family commitments.

hylian_elf

Tigro, you haven't been worried about your family and neighbours recently by any chance, for whatever reason?

Dark Soldier

My dream makes sense when I look into it, for reasons I don't really want to go in to (and no, my cousin isn't some borderline murderer).

Matt_82

A few years back a dreamt that I had shot someone. Â Then someone saw me so I had to shoot them. Â Then someone saw me do that and so on.

Then a girl I worked with saw me but when I went to shoot her I had run out of bullets so ended up beating her to death. Â It was horrific. Â After killing her I realised what I'd done and started crying.Â

Then I woke up, actually crying. Â It was pretty fucked up.

Brooks

Ooh just in time.

Last night's contained some kind ofÂ disastrousÂ coupling between two really low-techÂ animatronicsÂ (like, literally a couple PCBs and some Mecchano), except they had ostensibly fleshandbloodandfur cat heads, with what looked like 1/4" inch audio jacks for male and female genitals.

I think I was in the (sizeable) audience, the whole show squeezed into a wooden floored studio/bedsit loft space, covered in rugs and white furniture.

Anyway at some point the two... things catch fire but everyone's too crap at putting things out to rescue either and then I awoke.

Dark Soldier

I hate dreams when you wake up crying, especially if you can't remember the dream.

tigersgogrrr

Hylian: I don't think so. I haven't spoken to my mum for a little bit, but not so long that I've started worrying. I just haven't made as much effort as I should have done lately. I don't even know who my neighbours at home are anymore!Â

The previous dream I mentioned that really upset me was a dream within a dream within a dream style thang. One instance during said event was thinking I had woken, only to see myself sitting at the end of my bed, my face half stripped and broken beyond repair. And smiling, ever smiling. Not sure I'll ever forget that image. Fuck.

fullspectrum

I get sleep paralysis sometimes, it's fucking scary. Concious of being awake but completely unable to move as I drift in and out of dreams. It hasn't happened for a while thankfully.

Dark Soldier

Everyone should take Mirtazapine for a month. You'll have the nights of your life in that ol' noggin, its epic.

tigersgogrrr

That sounds like it has the potential to be really bad, Nick. Glad you've been ok.

My gf used to have genuine night terrors, to the point of being so scared someone was in the room one time that she jumped up out of bed and threw her pc monitor off her desk in her frenzy to escape, smashing it to fuckery. Seems to have calmed over the last few years, though she does have the odd moment at night where she thinks something impossible is happening.

hylian_elf

I got sleep paralysis once. Was horrible.

Frosty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCgYIP-v-e0&feature=player_detailpage#t=100s

Dark Soldier

Ah, David O'Unfuckingfunny Doherty

Scout

I have loopy dreams most nights. The kind not interesting to anyone but myself. Had night terrors when I was a kid. Wasn't very nice.

tin_robot

Oh God, I can run on with this one for ages. Â Can't remember what I've bored you all with already, but suffice to say my brain throws some quite weird stuff my way at night. Â The biggest issue for me is that I get fairly impressive hypnagogic hallucinations, usually if I haven't slept well for a few nights or am particularly stressed. Â They come in a variety of flavours - when I was a kid I usually saw people in my room at night. Â This resulted predictably in a lot of screaming and a fervent belief in ghosts. Â It managed to particularly cause attention after I "saw" a room full of people walking round in period dress whilst staying in a hotel room in Glencoe. Â (As a kid I knew nothing of its history, and wondered why the landlord was quite so keen to have me recount my experiences to other guests.)

Nowadays it's considerably more abstract. Â Most frequently I get these slightly bizarre floating jellyfish like creatures. Â They undulate in colour, in a manner vaguely reminiscent of the UFOs in Close Encounters. Â What's weird is that whilst I can rationalise these things easily in the cold light of day, my mind's sufficiently suggestible at night that I'm convinced that they are real at the time. Â I enjoy a brief period of fear and paranoia (I have at times accused my long suffering wife of being in league with the beasts because I can't comprehend why she can't see them), before usually trying to attack them, which inevitably wakes me sufficiently to lose the hallucination. Â Sometimes the whole thing is accompanied by sleep paralysis, just to really scare the crap out of me. Â
Whilst it still happens pretty often, I'm getting a little better at dealing with it - I still perceive them as real at the time, but I now either lie there studying them (they're pretty fascinating, though once you get too interested, you wake up), or simply decide to accept that they've come to suck my brains again, and go to sleep.

Just for good measure I do night terrors as well, though rarely. Â As a student I had house mates kick in my door convinced I was being attacked so impressive were my screams of horror (I was completely oblivious). Â Like a lot of people my regular dreams are often memorably bizarre as well, but I'll save that for another post...

davyK

hylian_elf wrote:

I got sleep paralysis once. Was horrible.

I used to get that all the time....really annoying and pretty terrifying at the time. When it happens I feel that if someone nudged me it would break the paralysis - I start breathing really deeply and hope that the wife will wake up and give me a shake - I come out of it myself probably after a few seconds but it feels a lot longer. Not sure if the breathing does it but at the time panic sets in and I have no desire to find out otherwise.

Used to get a recurring dream about a post nuclear war environment - I'm away from home and the dream is all about trying to get back. Pretty horrific. With my formative years being in the 80's it is somewhat understandable.

Ever the see the film Threads? I have no doubt that every teen in the 80's who saw that would have been affected by it.

Paul the sparky

Excellent thread. I've not had chance to read all entries yet, but I look forward to it.

I barely ever dream, the last one was quite recent and involved an owl digging its talons into my groin, which I'd injured during a football match.

My girlfriend dreams almost every night. She has some cracking nightmares which wake me up with her whimpering, so I have to calm her down and tell her everything's ok. She also has recurring dreams about me cheating on/leaving her, and brilliantly when she wakes up she has the right hump with me, even though she knows I've done nothing wrong. Mental.

regmcfly

Cool thread. I generally sleep rather well, but am fascinated by the nature of sleep, why we need it, and what goes on while we are snoozing.

hylian_elf

Paul, you probably do dream, just don't remember it.

yourfavouriteuncle

regmcfly wrote:

Cool thread. I generally sleep rather well, but am fascinated by the nature of sleep, why we need it, and what goes on while we are snoozing.

I saw a documentary on narcolepsy a few years back and the general gist of it seemed to be that actually we don't *need* sleep per se, rather our natural state is to be unconscious and sleep simply allows the chemical that makes us conscious to build back up to the required levels to keep us awake for the 16 hours or so of our waking day.

Or something. I await to be corrected in some flamey way.

hylian_elf

Sounds stupid. If we didn't need sleep surely we wouldn't feel sleepy and eventually drop off? People have been known to die from lack of sleep, so I'd say it is needed.

Paul the sparky

No flaming, but what you said kind of proves we do need sleep, not that we can go without.

Why can't I remember my dreams then?

yourfavouriteuncle

Maybe I didn't phrase that too well - it seemed to be saying that day to day we need to revert to our natural unconscious state to allow the chemical to build back up that basically fires the bits in our brain that allows us to become conscious/awake which is not our natural state. Â So yes I guess we do need sleep, but to remain conscious (which then allows us to do the other stuff that actually keeps us alive). The feeling sleepy and dropping off bit is because those mystery chemicals I'm mentioning (but don't know too much about) are running low and your brain needs them replenishing which can only happen whilst you're unconscious.

FYI I didn't watch the doc out of scientific interest -I'd just seen the trailer showing a narcoleptic couple who lived underneath the heathrow landing path falling asleep into their dinners. The husband took to tying his wife's ponytale to the top her dining chair to stop her getting a facefull of mash. Â There was a young girl who also fell asleep, particularly in situations of undue stress. Her ballet exam didn't go too well. Â It was both physically funny to watch and heartbreaking at the same time. She fell asleep once at school and didn't wake up for six weeks or so.

Dreams though, funny things. My wife suffers from amazing night terrors. Amazing. I've recorded some and if I was a little more forum savy I'd post one on here. Â Generally she thinks someone is in the house, her eyes are wide open, she runs around, screams, swears at the top of her voice. It's fucking horrible but as strangers I think you'd find it morbidly funny to see.

hylian_elf

Paul the sparky wrote:

No flaming, but what you said kind of proves we do need sleep, not that we can go without. Why can't I remember my dreams then?

I said probably do dream. What I was trying to say is that just because you don't remember having a dream doesn't mean you didn't. I wish I knew why we can't always remember them, or of seems we didn't dream, or why we do dream... One of life's great mysteries.Â

"But what does it all mean, Basil?!"

hylian_elf

Interesting theory on why we (need to) sleep.

davyK

Paul the sparky wrote:

No flaming, but what you said kind of proves we do need sleep, not that we can go without.

Why can't I remember my dreams then?

My understanding is that dreaming is a necessary part of sleep - the associated eye movement during a dream is what gives "dream sleep" it's name - REM (rapid eye movement). Unless you wake either during or immediately after a dream you won't remember it.

It's the lack of REM sleep during a drunken sleep that leaves you still tired the next day.

btw - this thread needs moved to the off topic area.

Paul the sparky

I agree, I think I probably dream too, it's the not remembering bit that bugs me.

Roujin

I seem to have a lot more lucid dreams now as an adult, then when I was a kid.

Also and this is no word of a lie, I swear as a little kid my dreams were in black and white and were silent, and colour and sound were added i got older.

In my dreams over the past couple of years I seem to be getting in fights a lot. I seem to frequently be confronted by two or three people, we then descend into a scuffle. I cannot recall the specifics, but words are always exchanged prior to commencing fisticuffs.

I think though that its because my dreams are getting more lucid the older i get. I have dreams quite regularly now where I am fully aware I'm dreaming and that nothing is going to happen to me. Hence any jip from random dream figures is now met with a punch in the fuck in dream time.

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