Tonight I’m just chilling at home..downloaded a good movie but I still haven’t looked at it since my attention is totally drawn to this interesting website..After reading a few stories I’m not hesitating to share mine and I’m hoping I’ll find an answer to it.
I’ve always been a girl who dreams a lot at night, I can even still remember some weird dreams from the past, and somewhere I read it was unusual to remember a dream for a too long. My dreams are amazingly realistic and usually follow a whole scenario, with my friends, family and myself involved in it.
Those dreams are definitely not nice, or at least don’t give me a good feeling. I try not to pay too much attention and believe that dreams are based on daily life impressions but there is this nightmare which scares me to death, especially the fact that it’s repetitive. It’s a challenge to describe it in English but even in my native language too. I think it occurs when I’m already sleeping deeply, so it’s not one of those short dreams people have when they’re falling asleep.. it comes later in my sleep. It’s like a dream in a dream-suddenly I can’t breath and in my dream I’m sure this is really happening (so for a minute I don’t realize it’s a dream) but at the same time it’s like I’m watching myself from above the bed, and I feel physical pain, something inexplicably scary goes all over my body-legs, stomach, breasts.. then I dream that I’m trying to wake up from it, trying real hard and then I (really) wake up all in cold sweat and strong heart beat. (so in my dream I’m putting efforts to escape the pain by waking up).
It’s so bad that I’m even scared to fall asleep again. But if this nightmare occurs it’s only once a night, not more (thank God!) I got it very, very often. And this is eating me.. cause at some point I’m thinking – when you dream you see images, you don’t really feel anything physically, am I right?
So in brief, in my nightmare I’m observing myself sleeping from above, then the pain comes (it actually resembles to the feeling you get underwater when you don’t have any air left) And I’m screaming to myself “It’s just a nightmare!!” and then for my surprise I REALLY wake up stressed out, sweaty. It is a dream in a dream? And it’s exactly the same every time.
I never had it before in my childhood or teenage years.. I’ve been like this for the last couple of months. I’m a joyful, young girl (22), absolutely love life and enjoy every day of it. But 2011 wasn’t very good to me.. My boyfriend who I really loved left me, my parents divorced, I failed in university, and had to quit.. All those things crushed me, and I dedicated myself to partying harder than ever, drinking more etc., trying to forget.. Frankly my life is now a mess. So anyone.. help?
What could my nightmares be, do you think they mean anything? Do you think there’s a reason for them? I know this site is for paranormal stories but to me my nightmare is extraordinary, and believe me if you’d been through this, you’d agree with me. Well,I guess I wrote a whole novel over here. Thank you in advance for your reply!
Greetings, G.
Asked by Gabriela
4 replies on “Unexplainable Nightmares”
Hi Gabriela,
Have you ever researched the topic of ‘lucid dreaming’? That is when the dreams are incredibly intense, and you can have control over what is happening within them.
I can look at your dream from two points of view – observing oneself from above is something people have been known to do as their body dies .. did you ever drown in this lifetime – because I notice you refer to the feeling being the same. If not then I am wondering if you are reliving a past life experience, and scaring yourself awake in doing so. And your later description of the troubles you are surmounting, can also feel like ‘drowning’ as you struggle to find the ‘new’ you among all the changes.
Then, there might be an entity causing you problems, do you have any other signs of being haunted apart from the dream? There’s a physiological problem called ‘sleep paralysis’, where the mind wakes before the body, that can create a sense of something, or someone – nasty, being in the space with the person as they are waking up. It’s also known as Old Hag.
In lucid dreaming pain hurts. You are so vividly aware in those dreams, that sometimes bruises you get there come through onto your body when you wake. They usually do not last long .. thank heavens.
Because of your challenges, are you having some counselling to better understand yourself? Finding the right counsellor might be a bit of a challenge, but .. we all need a little help at times, and they can really make a difference, in helping you get back on track.
Wishing you love and peace,
Ama Nazra
(Spiritual counsellor, Metaphysical healer, Reiki Master Teacher, Spirit Rescuer .. among other things)
Hello Gabriela!
Welcome to the world of lucid dreaming. 🙂
It’s all in the “(so for a minute I don’t realize it’s a dream)”. If you realize it’s a dream at all, while in the dream, then you are lucid dreaming. I’ve been a life-long lucid dreamer, and my first advice to you (humbly, of course) is to not fear. My second is more an opinion, but based on about 35 years of living completely different lives in the dream world….I disagree with the comment that dreams are just resonance of your day. I know some people do, so this is not empirical. But 99% of my dreams have NOTHING from my daily life.
A long time ago, I was haunted by a series of lucid nightmares. The great thing about lucid dreaming is, once you know you are dreaming (aka “go lucid”) you have a great deal of power at your will. For me, I simply had to become aware I was dreaming, then stop fearing (even said to myself “no reason to fear…this is a dream. I can’t die or be hurt here unless I allow it.”) The minute I did, my nasty dream character turned into a very silly clown upon challenge. Then it ran away, embarrassed. Never saw that specific dream character again.
The other thing I noticed, was that you mentioned dreams within dreams. This has been coined the term “false awakening” (FA). I’ve had millions….and I’m weird, but I love them! In my opinion, this is one of your most powerful time as a dreamer. But they can come off horrific if you haven’t experienced them before.
I know Ama from another site (Hi Ama!!), and she knows what she’s is a pro (not that she needs me to validate that fact). So if you suspect you are being messed with, please follow her guidance or follow up with her. If you suspect False awakening and lucid dreaming, please know that you may be dealing with something a little more internal…which is good. It means you have control over it, as long as you choose to.
When we dream, we technically go many places at once (I’ll save the “subconscious body” talk for another conversation…I tend to go on if you haven’t noticed). This is why I still believe it is tied very closely to Astral Projection (OBE)….very possible it’s the same thing, in point of fact. When we wake, all of our experiences in dream-land get translated by our waking consciousness (and all of it’s emotions), thus making the opposite true as well(Meaning: you can definitely take worldly (waking reality) fears with you to dreams….and use as a legend applied to dream characters that seem evil).
So, the less you fear, the more power and control you have in dreams, as you disarm negative emotions represented by these dream characters. The more power and control you have in dreams, the more capable you become to either ask the scary dream figure why they are haunting you……or you change the landscape completely, yourself.
And this does become automatic. After conquering a few nightmares, I became pretty immune to them, and was able to ask “why the need for a nightmare…?”. Oddly enough, now dark dream characters just laugh, and become very peaceful when I ask what they want. They don’t always tell me why, but a surprising number have clued me in to why they were chasing me.
I hope that helps. 🙂
-Siddle
(“Fear is the mind killer” –Frank Herbert)
Ooops! One more thing I meant to add to….yeah…..all of that up there. 🙂
Some people don’t “feel” in dreams. I’ve never had that issue. Some of my dreams go on for days (dream-days??)….I feel pain, I feel the street under my feet. I feel hunger. I eat, I drink. I have abilities that I don’t have in waking life……but I definitely have all the sensory perception of real life in dreams. Some of my lucid dreaming buddies don’t. That is actually not uncommon. Just not exceedingly common either.
Does make you wonder what dimension/reality dreams actually are based in. 🙂
An example I like to use for the “sensory” debate is, Helen Keller. She could “hear music” and “see sites, unimaginable”. She is sited many times as describing things from the perspective of dreams. Yet she did NOT have those faculties in waking reality.
Lastly, it sounds like you went through a lot at once…I’m sorry to read that. Once I went through some stupid stuff at work (was working 90hour weeks, carrying 3 on-call pagers)….Girlfriend left because I was working too much, lost some friends, too many family deaths that year…etc. And my dreams were very much on overdrive as a result! I learned over the years to pay closer attention to dreams in those times. I got a ridiculous amount of insight as a result.
Ok…now I’m done. 🙂
Siddle
Excellent, as usual.
Love & Peace
Ama