Sometimes the only dreams we remember are the ones we wish we could forget. Nightmares can be instructive, and most psychologists believe that they are a healthy part of life. But if you are plagued by repetitive nightmares and are losing sleep, sometimes changing your daily habits can reduce nightmare frequency. In general, nightmares can be caused by insufficient sleep, poor exercise and diet, and stress. The tips below all are aimed at cultivating a healthier sleep and dream life.
1. Don’t go to sleep angry or stressed out. Give yourself time to cool down.
2. Regular sleep patterns = better dreams. Including weekends.
3. Don’t eat right before bed. In particular, foods that take longer to digest, like meats and cheeses, can increase nightmares.
4. Reduce alcohol and caffeine consumption.
5. Cultivate gratitude. If this doesn’t come easy, do a “thankfulness” exercise every day in which you list the aspects of your life that you are thankful for.
6. Reduce exposure to violent images in the media, especially in the evenings. Horror movies can cause lingering nightmares for years.
7. Spend time in nature as often as possible, even if this means sitting in a city park for fifteen minutes every day. Many therapists believe that we all suffer from “nature deficiency disorder.”
8. Don’t sleep on your back. This encourages a special kind of nightmare known as sleep paralysis, in which you feel like you are awake and alert while at the same time you cannot move. Sufferers also feel breathless and/or sense an “unknown presence” in the room.
9. Start a gentle body practice like yoga, walking, or tai chi. In general, moderate exercise increases the quality of sleep.
10. If you have repetitive nightmares, role-play how you will face your nightmare attackers next time.
11. Keep a dream journal. Often writing it out can dispel a lot of the powerful emotionality.
12. Join a dream-sharing group. Many larger cities have them. If not, start your own.
13. Give yourself some self-love and acceptance. Easy to suggest, but hard to do. I use journaling to remind myself that I am loved. Affirmations — while they can seem cheesy at first — are effective as well. My backlog of journals is essentially a history of pep-talks I’ve given myself over the years… and it still works.
14. Keep fresh flowers or aromatic oils in the bedroom. Research shows that good smells positively effects your dreams.
Note: If you have numerous, repetitive nightmares that are related to childhood scenes or some personal trauma you encountered, I recommend seeing a counselor or therapist: a good rule of thumb for seeing a pro is two weeks of disturbance every night, or at least one nightmare a week for a month.
For more insights in nightmares, and also how to enhance your own dreams, check out my ebook Dream Like a Boss
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I have certin dreams that seem to come true.
I have woke up in the mornings and told my wife about a dream that seemed real,and then it happened.
A crash was one that i told my wife about,i described it in detail to her,she laught it off until later that day when it happened.
I have dreams like this alot and all of them seem to come true.Is this normal or am i loosing my mind?I told my mother how she would die,best freinds,and one of my sons.I am afraid to sleep most nights,and now i have a friend in the spot light of a dream,i dont know what to do
This happens to me too, u have been give a window in which u are able to see a possible future it is up to you to deside what to do about it. Know this some things you can change some you can’t but u most try if u dont you may never for give yourself. good luck my friend you are not alone.
I have heard that dream catchers work. I know so because i have one.
They do not work for me
General rule of thumb from a medical standpoint is that persistent nightmares for over a period of two weeks is a good time to seek a professional opinion. Start with your care provider, and get a referral for a sleep doctor, a psychiatrist and/or a counselor, based on your doctor’s opinion. If you don’t have medical coverage, many counselors work on a sliding scale so it’s affordable for anyone (you pay what you can). You can find help.
Dear walt:
You might like to read a book by Robert Moss called CONSCIOUS DREAMING: A SPIRITUAL PATH FOR EVERYDAY LIFE. An amazingly empowering book for peopel who have an active dream life that others don’t understand. In it he takes the position that prophetic dreams are entirely normal and useful, and describes how to respond to them and make use of them.
I just had a bad dream it got to me my crush was in her there an li said to him mason why do u hate me an he saig something an he said manbe we will be bf abgf an im 12
Well I don’t know how you feel about God or what your religious stand point is, but. Im a Christian and my father has that same ability. I personally feel like it is a Gift from God, what your supposed to use this gift for i have no idea but it is a gift none the less. Like healing or speaking in tungs. God is showing you what is gonna happen before they do. If you don’t believe in God, then he gave that to you to prove that he’s real. If you think this response is funny or stupid or unrealistic… Hey, your the one who’s having the dreams.
walt jones one reason that my grandma told me
that if you tell pepole about it and it is before 12pm it could relly happen to you same thing happened to me i had a dream i got in fight and i told my friend and at that hour i got in a fight with my best friend
I. Have dreams almost everyñight my boyfriend is gonna kill me and bury my body ten feet underground and no one will find me. I believe in God but can’t imagine he would want that kind of burden..also why would I get a gift like that and he would get away with murder.. these dreams are torture
Walt if you are really scared go to this website
world of lucid dreams it will teach you how to control your dreams it worked for me it should work for you
My boyfriend keeps on having nightmares almost everytime he sleeps. Last time when he took a nap in front of me, i was paying close attention to him, when i noticed he kept whimpering and covering his face with his arms. I always wake him up because he told me his nightmares are horrible and it pains me to see him like that. His dreams are different and yet the same, they always keep repeating in a different way. I want to help him, but i dont know what to do
“role-play how you will face your nightmare attackers next time”
I remember once reading that avid videogame players generally had less nightmares because instead of thinking oh crap, I’m helpless, they tend to treat it like how they would treat a monster in a videogame.
With my sister though, since she only plays videogames a few times a year (for an entire day) she gets nightmares if its a scary game.
As someone who has suffered from SP for around 20 years I stumbled across this great web resource a few weeks back.
I think my worst (and possibly most embarrassing) episode so far was on a long haul flight from Bangkok to Sydney – the typical sleep paralysis fear together with the entirely unnatural environment and discomfort of an economy class contributed to this particular episode – resulting in me waking a number of other slumbering passengers through the loud whimpering and shouting!
Has anyone else had similar experiences? Or more practically, any suggestions for this dilemma of having to stay awake throughout the duration of a long haul flight in order not to trigger an episode.
hey Pete, ironically, trying to stay awake during a long flight can actually promote SP — one of its triggers is jetlag. Rather you want to promote sleep closer to your target destination.
Melatonin may also help, but do your homework to make sure you don’t have any contraindications.
try taking melatonin the day before you fly, and again when you fly an hour before your intended bedtime. If you’re flying way west, this means an earlier bedtime, which is more difficult to adapt to.
Also, and this is tough on a plane, try not to sleep reclined, but if possible, against the window. Sleeping on your back increases the likelihood of SP. If it’s a another long haul, this will probably be impossible.
Other relaxation methods may help — such as listening to music in your headphones that puts you at ease. Breathing exercises, also a good idea.
I can’t recommend an alcoholic drink.. it may just make it worse on the tail end of your sleep cycle due to REM rebound effects.
Hi,
Try readind the book of Ecclesiastes. Start with Chapter 1, try keeping it in memory. Then move to the next chapter.
NB:Ecc 1:13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
Try it
I keep having dreams that my fiancee has cheated on me, either I’ve caught him or he has confessed. Our relationship is very healthy and I don’t actually suspect him of cheating. I have been cheated on many times in the past so I that’s just my biggest fear of him finding someone else and losing him.
Thank you very much I really need these tips becaz I constantly keep getting bad dreams without any reason. I will follow them and make my life better.
Thanks alot
you are very welcome deepika! hope you start getting better rest.
Actually i also see alot of dreams,and i get scared.i don’t know why i see the dreams .they always tell me whats going to happen next.Very tensed cud not sleep because of bad dreams.
Does anyone else actually see people or objects (which appear to have a life of their own) when they are just waking up? I have seen quite a lot of things, always disturbing and, on occasions, I have been convinced I was nearly or fully awake. Once i have also heard a voice very close to my ear which made me jolt away from it in fright only to turn and see a man hanging in my wardrobe. I have also definitely seen things when I’ve been wide awake such as someone sitting on the back seat of my car or crouching in the rear footwell. I only see them for a second and only out of the corner of my eye and always after imagining to a vivid degree that they are there – then I see what I have been imagining. It’s not always only when I’m on my own either.
I quite often “see” things in my sleep, as if I were awake, such as obscure objects (a large blob or something) floating above me in my bedroom slowly descending and meaning to do me harm. It causes me to shout out and flail my arms about quite violently, much to the amusement of my husband but in my sleep it’s terrifying! I talk a lot in my sleep too, sometimes I remember, more often I don’t.
My nightmares are usually centred around either being chased by an attacker or loved ones being threatened or harmed, quite often with me having to choose between them. I have previously dreamt of my loved ones gleefully doing harm to others, which is extremely upsetting. I too avoid movies which may extenuate the vivacity of my dreams but I think I need to try the pre-sleep mantra of positive thoughts as I am now 35 and have had regular nightmares since I was at least 10. Stress and anxiety definitely make them more frequent however that can’t account for decades of them
Helen, It sounds like you need to seek the help of a professional counselor. 25 years is a long time to have these depressive dreams. The early onset (age 10) may indicate trauma in the formative years of development (age birth to 7 years +/-) It could be that the experiences were so traumatic that you repressed them deeply into your subconscious. If this is so, a counselor may be needed to help you remember them and treat them.
I am a nightmare sufferer also and have found that earnest prayer thanking God (all three persons) for my blessings changes my mood. In my case, it has seemed that my faith has been under attack by evil spiritual forces.
My life changed when my wife died 18 years ago. I have remarried but the dreams have become more intense recently. I believe open heart surgery and other illnesses have contributed. Too, I am 75 years old and can add ageing to the mix.
God Bless you as you deal with this situation. Hang in and get the help you need.
I always have bad dreams never the same most I can’t remember I wake up seeing people or things screaming all though out the night I can’t ever sleep unless I take tylenol pm and my husband said my dreams are worse when I take them I can’t remember them but I’m violent in my sleep I will throw stuff and even hit my husband. Ill even go check on my. Kids sometimes and they are not there I freak out running though the house and when I go back in there room they are in there beds I don’t know what to do
I have been suffering from SP since mtg early teens. I’m 30 now and was addicted to opiate pain meds for about 5 yrs. I would have SP alot during my time of addiction but it happend even more if i consumed alcohol the night before. Now I’m on a medication called suboxone which helps me to stay off opiates n been clean for about 8 months now but recently started having very odd dream where i will say mean things to my mom and brother that i would never say in real life like wisjing death on them in the dream then going upstairs then all the sudden i would fall on the floor like i was being possesed n shocked n feeling very numb. I woke up from this and my whole body was numb. I’ve never had such odd dreams before. And i have a feeling its the new meds im on thats causing this. How do i stop these dreams while still taking the meds cuz other than the dreams these meds have saved my life. Anybody have bad dreams while on a new medication? Thanks everybody.
Hello there. Its 3 am and I’m wide awake from nightmares.I was addicted to opiates for 5 years and have been on suboxone for 3 years now and there are many horrible side affects but like you said it saved my life! It is a fairly new medication so we are pretty much the ginie pigs for it.the nightmares started before I ever got on it but it def makes them worse and when you haven’t been clean for long your diet is still horrible and don’t excercise much and both are supposed to help with bad dreams try to take care of yourself and see if that helps that’s all I have because that’s what I’m trying best of luck to you and congrats! .pigs
my husband is in the military and is away on business right now i can not help but having horrible dreams of us splitting up and him with an ex girlfriend there are 2 that i ALWAYS dream about, being away for so long it isn’t good for my mind of body to dream these! can anyone tell me why i keep dreaming such horrible things. we are happily married for a little over 1 year and dated for 8 before that! agh sleepless nights need to end =(
I think my imagination is just too vivid. I keep having dreams where I feel that I’me actually half awake and see.. whatever the trauma is that day. My most recent one was on a camping trip this past weekend, and it’s been coming back every night in different variations ever since. I ‘awoke’ to a male presence standing outside our tent chanting something at us. In my awake/dream I understood it to be benevolent somehow, so I started praying for protection to counteract whatever was going on. Since then, at home I keep having awake/asleep dreams that actually do wake me up and between the dream and my half awake state feel like something is in the room with us at all hours of the night and early morning.
What can I do to get rid of it? I haven’t slept in days and can hardly stand the dark tonight! Anyone?
i have alot of freaky dreams iv read everyones comments i also get dreams sometimes thats telling me something but the last time i had a good dream was last year. recently my nightmares have started feeling real but the worst was saturday night it was the usual chasing dream yet it felt like realty i ended up killing him in the end but i could actually feel his ribs when i tried stabbing him and when i…. slit his throat i woke feeling frightened i don’t get frightened easily but it was terrifying.
I have had bad dreams for about 2 1/2 years now. It all started after I bought a small figure of the angel of death (santa muerte). At that time I was struggling with the harsh economy, and was out of work for quite a while. After hearing that these type of esoteric figures bring you goodluck by doing simple rituals I was convinced to buy one. I was never really o.k. with it, but I was desperate to find employment so I bought a book that guided me into that cult. I did do couple rituals that had to do with finding employment. None of these rituals helped me so I decided to throw the figure away after having it for about 4 months at the most. While having it in my house, and after getting rid of it all the bad dreams started. My dreams are mainly about death things, persons, and even my own death. I believe I still have that energy of death and it’s horrible. I regret buying that dumb figure so much that I have never shared it with anyone before. This is my first time putting it in writing or even talking about it. I am a very happy person who is surrounded by beautiful women who love me ( mom, daughter, wife, and sisters) that I don’t want anything bad happening to any of us because of the dumb decision I made. Please any help or comments would be greatly appreciated.! Thank you so much!
So I’ve been having the same dream every night, it’s just a red brick wall and I don’t get it. I told my friend about it and she didn’t believe me but every time I have a dream it’s a red brick wall. I don’t see anything but the wall, no movements, nothing. Could someone help me figure this out because it actually scares me kind of.
Lexi, your frustration is understandable. You’ve hit a wall! Let the dream come again, maybe you can find a way through it (or over it). Maybe you can walk through it! Repetitive dreams don’t come to rub in our faces some issue we can’t fix — they are actually experiences in which the creative mind is working through a problem. be patient… and bring a sledgehammer with you for courage.
I need help. Someone please offer some words of advice…any will do. I’m a full time student and I quit my job to focus on school, so I don’t have any money to see anyone. I’ve been in love with my boyfriend for almost five years now. He did something unfaithful about 4 years ago when we were in high school. We have a beautiful, loving and trusting relationship and I can definitely see that he is more than 100% devoted. Okay. Now for more than two years I’ve been having horrible dreams about him. They are extremely lucid, and so surreal, that when I wake up and look at him, I’m angry or scared. I don’t want to feel this way because we have no problems in reality besides the silly things in life. In my dreams, he wants to be with someone else. Every dream is different but overall the same exact meaning. For example, Real life-we had a great night and I fall asleep in one of his t shirts, my clothes are scattered and my purse is near the closet. Dream life-I wake up in his t shirt, tell him I love him, he says it back. We go downstairs to join the party with all of his relatives and lots of random people. Were having a good time, then I can’t find him. I look around, “hey have you seen Jesse?” no one can…eventually I find him on the stairs. He looks at me careless. His female distant cousin walks in and introduces herself. (He never says in all my dreams that he doesn’t want to be with me.) then he says, “I’m fed up with this!” I say “What hunny what do you mean? So you just want to be with someone else, how?!…just talk to me.” He doesn’t instead he grabs his cousin as she lays in his lap. I told him to stop but he won’t. Im really sad at this point its upsetting to see him do this. So I say again, “just tell me if you want to be with me or not, I need a answer!” he ignores me and they start laughing and getting too close….I forget the middle part. I loose him again. Then were standing close. He gives me that careless look. I turn around he’s gone. There’s people all around us. “where is he?” No one knows. I turn around and he has sharp needles in his hands. “babe what are you doing?” he looks at he careless and a bit crazy. I’m scared and freaked out. He starts stabbing me and it hurts badly. People are telling him to stop but he starts chasing me. I run. I’m running upstairs knowing that he will soon appear. I go to the closet, find my purse leave my clothes in his room because id rather get out. I’m looking for my keys and I wake up scared and look at him sleeping next to me. My dream started and ended in this room. It felt so real I am too scared to be around him in real life. This dream was a lightweight version of the many. Most of them vivid, crazy, sad and with lots of negative emotion. I have them every night now. But only when were on good terms. I try to stay away from him in real life to avoid these dreams…the sad part is, it works. I want to with him. But my dreams seem to control me in real life and affect my thinking…
I want to say its been happening before 2010 but I can’t remember that far back.
Please, please help me
if you are having bad dreams there is an easy,outright cure. this works incredibly well and others i have shared this with have had the exact same results, it is like a switch,it stops ALL dreams,good and bad.I am not a drug user and i do not consume any alcohol whatsoever.You may have some aprenhensions about this,but please dont give in to “stigma”surrounding this product.Bad dreams can have a terrible effect on your life,relationship with others,and your performance at work.If you smoke about half a joint of good quality marijuana about an hour before bed, dreaming of any kind will stop immediately.No execptions.You will awake refreshed,and ready to take on the day.If you are a dream researcher,please look into this.People really deserve to know about this.Thanks,Steve.
Hey Steve, I read what you had to write here and I agree. I have smoked weed irregularly for the past 2 years and I can promise anyone who is reading this I have no had an easy teenlife. I left home on my own decision due to conflicts with my step father and I was thrown into the roughest places and had to sleep rough and all other kinds of things, I met bad people and was forced into bad things so that I didn’t lose any kind of life that I had. Slowly things started getting better, I moved out of the rough areas to my friends and then again to another friends and now I am back at my parents house where the peace has been restored. The thing is, I have given up smoking weed and i’m having terribly confusing and horrible dreams now, I think someone needs to do research into this because I never had any problems before when I was actaully living a bad life, and now, where I feel like there is true peace my bad dreams have come back. I believe in a lot of spiritual things but to a certain extent but I think that cannabis has a huge impact on how I think during my sleep. I completely agree that smoking a spliff before bedtime or even only half a spliff eradicates the possibility of having bad dreams. And before anyone starts saying cannabis is bad for you, I’m 19 years old and I’m in the progress of writing a petition for the Government for the legalisation of it. It’s a mis-understood HERB! a medicine.. Please, If anyone has bad dreams and is willing to try this, please get back to me!
I was engaged, and we broke up. This is the third time he has pushed me out, and the most painful. Everytime i sleep, i dream of the situation in various scenarios, and i wake up just about in tears everytime. I’m pretty sure it’s because it’s on my mind when i’m awake, but i try to sleep to not think of it, but end up being jolted awake from these horrible dreams i have. It’s like dealing with the situation over and over again. I need help moving on, and my dreams seem to hold me back!! 🙁
You will be fine Alicia. These dreams will not trouble you so much after a while
Lately i have been having disturbing dreams about a man with no face and tentacles trying to kill me. I looked him up and found out his name is slenderman. When i wake up i see him standing stock still and only i can see him. HELP
Heres a couple things if you arent lying to me dont sleep alone,the less you know about him the better, if u see him dont try to take pictures video or anythiny thatll encourage him and if u see him outside or anything then dont try to hit him in any way thatll just piss him off i have developed a paranoia fir him its hard to explain but i feel like at night time if its at work or home or anywhere hes nearby so i hope this helps i wish you luck and the best
I’m 16yrs old,and when I ever sleep alone, I have nightmares and I usually wake up crying or screaming. I’ve had the same two dreams for a while..but they show in different ways? The main people in my dreams mean a lot to me.
One dream is that I experiance my dad dying. Now, I’ve had this dream so much recently I’ve called him 3 in the morning making sure he’s okay and to be carful etc.
The other is my boyfriend cheating on me or leaving me or even sometimes I dream about him dying.
I have dId which is split personality but I don’t thinks that’s got anything to do with it. I’m scared to sleep at night now. I just don’t know what to do?
I’ve been having the same bad dream now for 3 weeks, every night and it just gets worse and worse every night, the dream is me laid in bed and there’s a guy at my gate shouting numbers I’ve tried stuff to get rid of it but nothing seams to happen, but every night he gets further down my garden, what can I do
this guy needs to be heard. Have you noticed a pattern with the numbers? Tried writing them down? I wonder if they could have some significance.
I started writing them down about 5 days ago, but I don’t understand it at all
Maybe you could imagine the dream before you go to sleep, and imagine that when it happens again, you ask the guy to talk rather than shout with numbers. In your imagined version of the dream, actually visualize him calming down and talking. worth a shot. 🙂
okay I will thanks a lot, I’ll let you know how it goes!!:)
Well Ive been having reacuring nightmares over many years now, but I acually enjoy them. My question is at least everyother dream is either im being chased by “gov” officals or sometype of organiAtion along with others, or im performing homicide with duecause. I attack my *shadow* so to speak and am neither afraid nor wake up frightened. Is it norm to want these dreams?
I keep having dreams every week that center around the same thing. Ive been having them for over a year since me and my significant other started dating My friends say it’s because it’s my biggest fear and I dwell on it. They are of dreams of them cheating on me, leaving me for someone else, losing feelings for me, etc. they won’t go away :/
So I have been having a nightmare every night for months now, usually its my boyfriend cheating on me, otherwise its someone I love getting hurt, or myself, I know my bf will not cheat on me, although we have had trust issues in the past, and in no way do I want to see my loved ones hurt. My biggest problem with these nightmares are (they are always very real) and without fail I’m SOAKED in sweat every time. I had wondered about the sweating and tried many different things to stay dry but nothing helps, I just want it to stop and I don’t need a therapist
I’m 33 years old. Had nightmares come and go for all my grownup life. I always try to analyze them to find the trigger in my current life and usually it helps to stop the dream from coming back for sometime. My nightmares are not the same but always very violent and like a horror movie. I wake up scared of going back to sleep – that is how I ended up finding your website in the middle of the night tonight… I haven’t had a nightmare in a long time, but since we got a new mattress a few days ago I’ve been having a nightmare every night. The mattress is very relaxing (memory jell foam) and I guess it helps me sleep deeper and reach REM stage better then the former mattress, so that is why I dream more, but why nightmares? Why not nice dreams? I am starting to think of returning the mattress, cause I’m frightened of having these nightmares all the time now. What can I do?
so what if your having a reacoring nightmare but it doesnt make sence i had it along time ago when i was a kid and then it whent away and jus came back in hte last few months, im standing out side running from my dad who is dressed like a clown and he molested me (only in the dream NEVER in real life) and then my mom tells me to forgive him and we are all laying in thier bed but i dont want to be so what does it mean??
My son and i have had some horrible nightmares where we feel we are awake yelling for someone to wake us up!! I am goin to try # 14 i hope it helps/works…….
I just had a nightmare about some global disaster and that everybody was going to have to kill each other or themselves because it would be a better way of dying than getting caught in it.
I keep having nightmares about zombies and the undead……. This is not the best time to have these dreams, but I have had these for 2 nights in a row.Guys, please reply to this!!
I always dream about intrusion in my own home and playing over and over about how i will deal with it……i have two very young children and feel overwhelmed about how i will protect them. i also dream about the world ending and survival of my family. I can hardly sleep and every light noise has me on edge. i want to sleep but i feel like i cant sometimes. it would be irresponsible of me to not sleep in times of intrusion or conflict..etc etc…….i also sometimes dream about my husband wanting to be with his ex too….( but i know i am feeling insecure about myself, weight gain , baby, no time to doll up every single day) i used to dream about death all the time…just people dead (my brother died when i was 4….so that is pretty obvious) I have a lot of stress and anxiety right now and i dont know why. I even have had heart palpitations lately. I feel like in my home life, that I am a the bottom of the totem pole, my husband is caring and good. i just think he doesnt realize how i feel, no matter how much i tell him and well my kids wouldnt understand they are too little…they want want want…now now now……and perhaps i should stop watching the walking dead….also documentaries on the holocaust and WW2 in general….but i feel like to ignore those events is turning a blind eye to what could happen same with “doomsday prepping”. i feel like a mess…i have stopped watching said stuff..but the damage is done and i obsess at night while everyone snores peacefully…..boooo
This posting is helpful in many ways. However, one notable exception: just because a person is a priest or clergy person does not mean that he or she is a trained counselor or therapist. Worse yet, some clergy believe that they are skilled counselors — and are actually causing significant damage to those trusting people who come to see them. Caveat emptor — even (and perhaps especially) when the counseling is dispensed at no charge.
I have noticed that everytime I get a bad dream I am laying on my back, thanks to this now I know why i feel like that. I just start to breathe hard and try to get peoples attention but im not doing anything. Im still asleep and this is really scary but now i know.
I have been having the same nightmare for the past seven years. I now have a fear of what happens. In this nightmare I am on a path and a animal comes and starts to claw and bite t my arms, legs and face. I have a hard time dealing with wild animals.
I recently read an article about sleep paralysis and it has caused my to have severe anxiety before sleeping. Because of this I try and prevent falling asleep for as long as possible, or I don’t go to sleep at all. My anxiety makes my heart beat really fast and I start sweating and shaking uncontrollably. I find the only way I can fall asleep peacefully is by listening to music. Also, for some reason before I fall asleep my imagination is really vivid, I keep imagining bad things happening to me and I also remember bad or scary things that have happened in my life. I pray every night before I go to sleep and most of the time I sleep fine.
I just woke up crying from a dream exactly like this and it’s happens very often…I don’t know what to do. I always have dreams that my fiancé is screwing around but our relationship is great and we don’t have any problems. In my past I was done really bad, cheated on and was left many times by the same guy over a period of 7 years. He slept with my close friends and even my cousin and in my dream my fiancé always cheats with ppl I know 🙁 help me please
recently i have started having really horrible dreams about my nephews i love them so much and the other day i had i dream they died and they were on holiday in real when i had this dream also last night i had a dream they were in care and getting hurt i tried to save them but in the end somebody threw bleach over me so i couldnt save them
I recently moved in with my Fiancé-about 4 months ago to be exact- and have been having terrible nightmares on and off since! Some of them I can understand after moving in with him (like him cheating on me, or leaving me, and once even dying! and for the record, my fiance and I have a very healthy and honest relationship, so these dont really make since either…) but most recently my nightmares have been about things not connected to him, but things much worse. In some I see a dark figure in my apartment running towards me, and in the most recent one, a family member killing himself because of demonic possession (at least it FEELS demonic). This does not occur every single night, but it’s been AT LEAST once a week at best. It’s gotten to the point where I’m frightened to go to bed! I can’t really afford to consult a therapist or phyciastrist, but I’m going nuts with all the bad dreams! What do I do??!!
Hi Glo, it may be that you don’t feel safe in your fiance’s apartment. is there a way you can look into this? Secure some locks, etc. You may also want to rearrange the bedroom furniture so it’s fresh or feels better — and something new that the two of you share, rather than you moving into his space. Lastly, I’m not sure where you live but even small towns have therapists who work on a sliding scale, ie pay what you can based on your income and need. Nightmares that keep happening could be a signal for larger health issues, and it’s not a bad idea to get some professional time if you feel like you are really losing out in your sleep.
My experience is a bit weird. I have dreams that don’t seem to be coming from me, that are unrelated to what I was thinking about b4 going to sleep. Often I’m not even a character in my own dream–as tho’ I’m watching a movie & I’m not in it. My dreams are either unpleasant, boring or nightmarish. I tried meditating & thinking positive thoughts b4 falling asleep in order to create better dreams &sometimes the nightmares got worse! I once had a violent nightmare after falling asleep meditating, feeling calm, relaxed & full of love for the entire universe. My nightmare involved my being attacked by various forces wanting to destroy me.
I’m wondering whether there’s something supernatural involved here, like a curse that was placed on me or a spirit haunting me. Yes, I know that sounds crazy, but… These dreams don’t seem to be coming from my own subconscious or related to what I’m thinking about b4 falling asleep. I also have lots of dreams of being attacked, stabbed, shot, etc.
I’ve even tried praying for pleasant dreams, visualizing what I’d like to dream about. No go.
dear Mimi,
your experience is not as weird as you may think. Many people have nightmares that appear to be unrelated to daily life… and some dream research theorists (particularly Jungians) suggest that in our nightmares we are going through universal experiences that have little to do with our normal day to day life, but rather chart the experience of our deeper sense of self. these types of dreams tend to come when we are at life’s crossroads — making a change of career, new relationship, or experiencing some kind of instability… the details don’t match, but the dreams may be using these killing themes as metaphors. Sometimes we also use bodily metaphors to depict instability in relationships of people around us, say for example if you have roomates that are going through a hard time, or live with parents with a bad relationship. In any case.. I recommend writing these dreams down. it will actually give you some psychological space from them. You could even, if you choose, burn the dream entries afterwards, as a way of letting it go. that’s a start. I also would recommend reading Anne Hill’s book “When dreams go bad.” It’s on amazon — not expensive, and a very useful guide to nightmares.
This response was very helpful. Thank you!
My sister often get horrified due to her bad dreams.. can anyone help ?
I too have been having alotbof nightmares lately but not only that, i can have normal dreams that are not scary at all that leave me feeling disturbed, i could just have a dream of baking a cake or anything normal and i will be left feeling disturbedvand wishing i didnt have that dream. Is this common?
I’ve had this dream 3 times already!. it starts off as a nightmare like death or something. then I wake up with my eyes open then I feel my legs pulled and blanket!!! :(, sometimes i can never sleep because im scared its going to happen. When i stop feeling the pulling , I start to hear things , which terrifies me I don’t know what to do and i even get depressed even more. Help me guys.
i have regular nightmares. i dream ghost
dream murders
dream losing somethings
i dream being chased
being harassed
i also dream of blood
evil etc ..i dont want to dream all these again adn again
i try to keep mirror and sharp knives
below my pillow
to remove these dreams
it gets reduced when i keep knofe and mirror below pillow
but however when i dont keep it
again it attacks me
I keep having terrible day dreams or dreams before I’m fully asleep, mostly extremely traumatic ones of family and loved ones, some have happened some have not and idk it’s hard to explain it…
Dream catchers do work I used to have one to four a week my brother got me a catcher and I haven’t had one in over a year
hello my name is Tommy and i am suffering with the most intense dreams i have ever had.Dreams of my children being taken by someone or something, dreaming of ancient warriors with powers living in my house and passing on a totem spear with powers.I am even waking up using different language and i dont seam to know what i am meant to do or what i have done to cause this.I consider myself as tough as a male can be but these are breaking me into uncontrolled crying and shaking.WHY? Can someone offer some help or advice please
Its 01:58 and i just woke up from a nightmare and i dont think i wana go back to sleep because i’m afraid i’l have the same dream again..about a couple of weeks back i dreamnt about people *not in a bad way or anything bad happening to them* but the following day my dream would come true and these were repetitive dreams now they’ve switched to nightmares and their horrible. I’l try the tips from the comments i’ve read.
for the past three days , i dream like a person in my locality is trying to abuse me and trying to touch me and frighten me .It makes me so upset and my eyes are filled with tears as soon as i wake up. please help me get over this.
For the past 3 months I have regularly been having nightmares about my wife leaving me and also about burning. I have a fear of fire and quite a lot of nights I dream about burning cars, planes and people. Its horrible and it is seriously affecting my sleep and its taking its toll on my moods!. Its hell at night sometimes trying to get to sleep. How on earth can I stop these nightmares?