If you spend a bit of your time searching definitions for what dreams are, you'll find lots of them, and they are usually related to either different scientific theories or cultures/religions. But I made a very quick and restricted search, and found this.

A dream is a natural consciencial state, intermediate between the ordinary physical watch state and the natural sleep, characterized as a group of ideas and images that are presented to the conscience. Good dreams are usually achievements of a desire, even the most impossible ones, and they are produced to bring satisfaction to the dreamer.

However, in our minds are also kept our most undesirable wishes, greatest fears and our daily life dificulties. When they show up during our sleep as terrifying images that represent everything we want to hide or are afraid of, then we have a nightmare, which has the same basic origin as our ordinary dreams, but very distinguish meanings. There is still too much disagreement between the specialists regarding the interpretation of our nightmares, but there's no doubt they make us go through awful situations, frustration, anguish and affliction.

As much as ordinary dreams do, nightmares reflect what we experience in our daily lifes but that we despise. Horror movies, natural disasters, a bad situation related to someone you love... And the topic is finally started.

I'd like to know you guys' nightmares, how they were/are, how do you felt/feel when you had/have them, what's your most common reaction to them, when and how you usually have them.

I myself am a bad-dreams person. I could have a whole aisle consisted of books describing all of them. I have lots of nightmares, usually because I always eat too much before going to bed. And I simply love, and at the same time, are terrified with, horror movies, specially that ones that feature ghosts and the devil itself. Spirits appear in my dreams often.

However, I dream a lot with my death. I'm very afraid of guns, and I usually always get killed in my dreams that way: shot. But I never actually die. I live, I can feel my body is there, but people cannot interact with me anymore, and I can still see that area, where the bullet went through, bleeding, but I feel no pain.

When I wake up at night after having a nightmare, I simply have to turn on the lights of my room. But I'm usually afraid of doing so and locking my eyes at someone standing next to my bed and watching me, someone who was not supposed to be there. A spirit or somethin'. And my nightmares tend to "lock" my body, I feel like I want to get up and put an end to it, but I simply can't. I can only move with my own will after a few seconds, when I open my eyes.

I like to use my nightmares as another source of inspiration for stories and characters. Do you guys do that too?

Okay, so... You guys' turn.

((lol, long post >.<))

LOL?

FACT: Nightmares have a higher chance of occuring in cold weather.

I used to dream a lot about my death. Either by war or fire. Im very afraid of knives and gins, or anything that gives me a sharp pain.

FACE about myself: A poke hurts me more than a hard thump. Because sharp things hurt me so easily. A finger is good enough to make me go 'Ugh'. A punch doesnt hurt me though.

These days I dream about many, many different people everywhere that I know, all telling me a message about the future.
I once had a dream that my uncle told me he'd lose the football match for them. The following day, his team lost when he got cramp while saving penalties. Many other things have happened like this.

Hm... I'll post two of my nightmares. The first one's recent (like, 8 months or so ago) and the other one I had when I was around six years old.
First one.

I'm driving in this SUV to Geisinger (the state hospital). I drive around to the main entrance, park it, grab my purse (what the..?) and go to go inside. I'm halfway to the entrance when these people in black come out of nowhere and start shooting people... I get shot in the chest, collapse, and put a hand to the sky. Everything turns white. Then, I wake up. I still felt the pain in my chest from that...

Now, for the older one.

I'm sitting in the basement of my old house, watching TV with my family (mom, dad, sister), when a pistol comes out of the TV stand and starts shooting fireballs at us (it's floating, btw). I back up and keep saying 'Whoa, there', and after a few minutes, the pistol just floats over and goes back in the TV stand and we start watching TV again.

Yeah, a little weird, I know. But still...

EDIT: Rubypoke, those are premonitions.

Ah, dreams and nightmares. I've seen this topic on lots of forums; always a fun one.

First off, I'm a lucid sleeper and thus lucid dreamer. For those who don't know what that means, I like that definition very much; I know that I'm asleep, and I know that I'm dreaming.

That's where things get interesting. I obviously don't always have lucid dreams, but I do get them quite often. I've heard people describe it as something that can happen in "stages," and I agree with that. Sometimes, I'm merely aware of the fact that I'm dreaming, but I don't end up with any control over the dream at all. Most of the time, I have at least enough control to actually decide to end a dream; very useful, really. The most interesting ones though are the ones where I'm in complete control; if I don't like what's going on, I decide what I'd rather it be and it becomes.

When my dreams aren't technically lucid, they're just plain weird. For example, I'll be at school, walk out of the classroom and find myself instead walking out of my bedroom. Everyone else from school is then running through my house trying to get to class on time. Teachers will teach lessons from on the couch or at the dining room table. Like I said, very weird.

Due to being able to decide to end the dream, I don't have many nightmares. I can usually see them coming before they get bad, and I generally opt to just wake up. On occassion though, it doesn't work.

I have had a few lucid dreams suddenly not be lucid. Every time there's an obvious change at a key point in time (usually just shortly before I would have decided to wake up), and it's usually some kind of cheap sci-fi movie special effect. At that point, I realize that I'm no longer in control, and things rapidly go downhill. Every time this has happened, I get killed. I've been shot several times, drowned, burned, crushed, and literally ripped limb from limb. Every time I can feel what's happening (or at least, my mind's best approximation of what it feels to have your arms torn off, your entire body burned alive, etc). Once I die, I wake up, but I generally can't move for several minutes. All I want to do is roll over and go back to sleep, but after 30 minutes it takes everything I have just to do that.

So, the only time I have nightmares is when a lucid dream goes out of control, and they seem to make up for the general lack of nightmares when it happens. Still, I wouldn't give up lucid dreaming if that was something I could decide to do; it's an incredible thing, really. You can check out the Wiki's article on the topic for some more info, including things you can do while you're awake to try and induce a lucid dream.

When I was six, I started having regular nightmares every night, maybe two a night. I used to dream abstract things (It was in Winter, cold) and dreamt weird arty pictures and demons and devils crowding and Oh, God knows.

I was possessed once, I could hear and see what I was saying but I couldn't control myself. I was sitting with my dad on the sofa and got up and pretended to drive a car, it looked really convincing. I stopped having nightmares after that.

Sometimes I have bad dreams when something bad has happened or if I'm sad or angry or scared. Often about family/friends being killed. I wake up and feel the anger burning and the blue sadness. I'm in an awkward position and remember then, that I landed/finished like that in my dream.

Dreams are weird, uncontrollable natural phenomena. They can give us great joy or great pain.

I may have one tonight as 2 of my favouirte dogs have died. I'll pray for them too.

I never dream, but when I do it is always a nightmare. The wierd thing is it is always the same!! A man with a gun, & everything is always so small. Wolves
everywhere.Everything is dark.Zambeys all around. Wierd Dream I know, but that is my nightmare!!

I have a theory when you are in a dream or nightmare you never really die you might expierience the moments before death but you never actually die .... but this leads to a question that has been bugging me for awhile what if you did die? I've tried to watch scary movies on purpose then see if I die but I never do I get close sometimes but right before I die I wake up with a sharp pain .... So like my question before what would happen if you would die in a dream would you die? get hurt? or maybe have lots of pain? I want to know and does anyone have theories on this?

I had a very strange, & quite disturbing nightmare quite recently. It was very weird.

I started off in a church talking to some kind of priest, except I couldn't hear what he was saying, & the church was made of wood & was in very bad shape.
Then me & the priest person walked out of the church, it was pitch black night, & it was raining heavily.
Suddenly a flash of lightning illuminated what looked like a small monkey-gremlin on the church room. When I looked back down the priest was gone.
So after that I started walking down this country road. I looked behind me & saw what looked like 2 chimps & a cross between a gorilla/orangutang running towards me.
Then I started to run, but they got closer. This is where it gets really weird. I pulled this little grey comb out of my pocket, except it was also a little torch (not quite sure how that works :roll: ) & when I shone it, the monkeys backed away.
Anyway, I kept running away, shining my comb at them, when I came to a huge, muddy puddle that I had to wade across! Somewhere in the puddle I lost the comb (oh no!).
Then I remember climbing over a fence.
After that I realised it was a dream, so I turned around & stopped running. Even though I knew it was a dream, the monkeys jumped on top of me & started tearing out pieces of my flesh with their teeth! I don't die, & I don't feel pain, but I just sit there watching monkeys rip me to shreads.
But then I just sort of cancelled the dream & woke up.

I told you it was strange. It was quite possibly the weirdest dream I've ever had, but I can remember it really well.

I had a nightmare when I was little and as a result I'm afraid of ponds and eerie silences (Sorry if I spelt those wrong)

I had this nightmare while I was on holidays. I was about six at the time. In the nightmare I was playing in the grounds of some castle as my family always visits historical places on holidays. It was eerie silent and my dad came out of the castle to get me, He took my hand and we were walking. I was walking on the bricks lining a pond. My dad wasn't saying anything and I fell into the pond. I could see my dad reaching in for me but I couldn't take his hand, I was so scared and then I woke up. When ever there is a silence I remember that dream. Somtimes I think my Claustrophobia is a result of that.

Nightmares...Nightmares...I get one atleast every week!

Many nightmares are very short in your dreams when abruptly you wake up and you just find ut that it is morning.

I have had a dream when I was sleeping when I suddenly saw a tall thin guy in a black costume watching me and glaring at me all day long. I often have these kind of nightmares when you imagine someone staring at you all time.

Once I had a dream where I was running wild in school when suddenly a solider shot a pistol on me then I fell on the ground. I somehow saw a white background when I was dead in that dream.

Recently I had this dream where an eagle or an falcon in a human's body came into my bed room and started pecking my head. Then suddenly I woke up when it was morning. That was so weird!!!

This seems to be my longest post in Psypoke.

I've had my share of scary dreams, I just can't remember them :roll: . I do remember a couple of dreams though.

In one, I could be doing anything normal, like reading a book on my bed or watching t.v., and suddenly there is this super sharp pain in my side, it hurts so bad i can't stand it. The thing is, I can't seem to wake up for a long time and I seem to slip in and out of sleep and awake... It is very weird. Then after a few minutes, the pain stops, and I wake up...

Another dream is that I am "floating" above the ground, just an inch or so, and no matter how hard I try, I cannot get myself to move. I wave my arms or try touching the ground so I can run, but it doesn't work. Sometimes there are people laughing at me, sometimes I am alone.

One more thing... Sometimes something random happens, and I can swear that I have seen it before. For instance, once I went to the city pool on a class outing, and I saw this guy sitting on the sidewalk, I think he was being arrested for speeding. I could have sworn I had seen that before. That instance happened about 5 years ago, yet the Deja Vu feeling was so strong I still remember it...

-jagguthekingh

One time I had a dream that I was being kidnapped by a mechanic. I thought it was real because he wrapped me up in the blanket and I couldn't breath or talk. I had to turn to shout but it just so happened that the blanket was some how covering my face. Unfortunately, I said help in real life, which is what woke me up, but no one heard me so if it had actually happened, he would have gotten away with it.

I had a few dreams when I was younger that I was in a land, and ocassionally swimming, with warm feces, dirt, and urine. It didn't gross me out, but in fact it made me relaxed enough that I wanted to wet the bed (the warmth not the waste material). Sometimes I consciously knew that but didn't care. However, I never atually wet the bed during those dreams.

I had many dreams during middle school that people I did or did not know were being killed or even that I was being killed. Some dreams were so vivid, I thought they were real despite them typically being inane. If I got shot or stabbed in the chest (the usual spot), I could always taste the blood coming from my lungs in the back the my throat.

My most recent set of dreams that I can remember and share are ones of my girlfriend dying. I get so upset in them that I actually cry in real life, which is funny, because I never cried in the other death dreams I had. Or maybe not funny but just disturbing.

I have never experienced a nightmare, in other words I've never had one. When I was depressed I dreamed of wierd things but never had a nightmare.

Thank you Jiggz i just learned something about myself. Im a lucid dreamer as well. I've been wondering why I knew that Im in a dream and pretty much change it when i felt like it. But i only get that feeling when im within minutes of waking up.

But other then that I can only think of a few things that are worth mentioning, Like when i was younger i had the De ja vu kind of dreams were i dreamt of things that i did years later word for word action for action and when i realize it i have to stay absolutely quite and still cause of how erie it feels.

Then there is the dream within a dream within a dream, Or nightmares. It's start of quite fine till stuff starts going downhill and i "wake up" in an other dream which also starts going downhill pretty fast to then "wake up" in another dream and at this point I feel as im awake as usaull but the only way i've been able to wake up is to yell, Good thing that has only happen about 5 times.

Then there are the dreams that annoy me, with is a dream within one dream. The first dream is a pretty normal dream then i "wake up" and start doing what i usally do get up go to the bathroom get dress and go on with my day as if it was a normal day till i just wake up and realized i dreamt most of the day witch annoys me because it was turning out to be a good day.

I believe that dreams are a reality, albiet a warped one, and that you can die, live, love, and learn in dreams. of course, you can also have control over dreams, but these are not "true" dreams, they are just your subconcious at work within you. the dream world has rules, just like the real world. Like when you enter a dream, and you KNOW exactly whats going on, and what you have to do.

I believe n dreams, do dreams believe in you?

PS: Just got off of a day of work, so if i am sounding a bit... wierd, then forgive me.

I usually don't have nightmares. When I do, they're usually prophetic so I pay close attention to them, though. Most of the time, if a dream starts to get dark, I wake up before anything horrible happens, which is how I know which dreams are prophetic and which are not. If I don't wake up, then it's a clue that some information in the nightmare is worth noting, so I'll spend the next day pondering it.

From what i know about dreams i can tell you that they originate in the left side of the brain, the same side that contols creativity and imagination, but also the right side if the body. So right-handed people wich have the left side of the brain more developed should have more complex dreams and more often.

On topic:
The most comon nightmare i have is a sword fight with a guy with a hood on, so i never see his face . Sometimes i win and sometimes i loose. He kills me by cutting my head off. This dream may have originated from my passion for sword fighting.... but still.... I wake up in the middle of the night and check my body for wounds,... not scared but disapointed i lost.

And about what Jigglypuff said. I've read something about lucid dreamers and i can only explain my nightmare through this.

But I'm all left-side-of-brain and I'm right-handed and I don't get dreams

I usually don't get nightmares, even though since I have an air-conditioner in my bedroom it's ice-cold. But, most of my dreams are based on stuff I do on my Emerald.

That's because it's actually the right side of the brain that controls creativity, which corresponds to the left side of the body.

I dont have nightmares, but I have dreams that are hurtfull. My Dreams can be evil in a way that they were a dream but go bad, but end very shortly. When I get one of these "Bad dreams" I usually get hurt in them like shot or killed, and I'll instanly wake up. I dont know if that really counts but what ever.


The only night mare I have ever really had was over a black mechanical bunny that took over easter and killed me. It was like 3 yrs ago.