Really bad dreams...

[malfoya]

For a while now I've had these dreams that I've started to hate. They really ruin my mornings. Actually I know they've showed up then and now for years. Basically it's about me being with family members or other people I'm close to, them not listening to anything I have to say. Someone might have treated me like shit in the dream, but still people wont stand up for me. Instead the dream ends with me screaming and shouting to everyone to get attention.. without getting any respons. Last night it ended with me screaming the most horrible thing to a person I know and I remember the dream too well. Does anyone know what this means? Or if there's a way to stop these dreams from appearing? I just want to wake up and feel like I haven't been the biggest a-hole..

[Shoosh Malooka]

Just a feeling I get, but maybe you are telling yourself to speak up... for yourself. Maybe you want to test the conflict to see if they would really ignore you or actually listen. People won't stand up for you because they want you to do it. Maybe you should be an asshole, but an asshole who chooses the right words, the right attitude, and the right time to send your message. And the right time is immediately after they make you feel that way.

For me there have been dreams of me shouting at people and they back down but don't respect me. Real people have told me that I'm too blunt, actually 'brutal' was the word they used. So my dreams are telling me to stop being a self made jerk.

[malfoya]

The thing is that I'm not really a shy person at all. I don't have a problem expressing myself at most times. I used to have quite a temper problem when I was younger, but I've grown away from it now. But you might be right on some level. If there's something that annoys me I sometimes just tend to ignore it, even though it bothers me. Just because I don't want to seem like I'm angry at someone. I guess I haven't found a middle thing yet :/ It's either being angry or ignoring.. The interesting thing is that these dreams started after I got calmer.

[maxon]

As Shoosh says, you can have a think about what the dream might represent and how you feel about it and that might give you some clue to what is happening. There are a number of things to say though:

1. Everybody's dreams are different including the way we understand them and what they might mean - that is to say, people not responding to you in your dreams might mean something completely different for me as it does for you.

2. Sometimes dreams don't mean anything. This might not be the case here but it's worth remembering all the same.

3. Bad dreams can sometimes be a symptom of an illness - though it's more likely to be stress. I say this because I used to have horrible extremely vivid dreams regularly and it turned out not to be because I was depressed and stressed or psychologically damaged (some of the reasons explored by my doctor and my psychotherapist) but because I had a really serious underlying neurological condition. I'm not saying this is the case with you (these sort of illnesses are fortunately rare) but it might be worth paying attention to your overall health.

I know what you mean about it ruining the waking hours though - sometimes the feelings stayed with me all day. Horrible. I still have the occasional bad dream and still dream vividly but nothing like the frequency I used to experience. On reflection, I'm not sorry about that.

[malfoya]

Luckily most dreams fade away throughout the day, but I still have some dreams I remember from earlier years. That said I'm quite stressed lately. I have an exam that I have to deliver in 10 days, and my future is really depending on it. I've been accepted into a school in London nest year, but that means I have to get my exam and portfolio done right. Which is not easy as there's no right way to do it, but it's really hard to get the degree you want because of this :/

[paksetti]

Whenever I had dreams like that, it was because I was stressed by things I couldn't control. As maxon said, dreams mean different things for different people, but is it possible that your dreams are just a product of your stress over your exam getting accepted? You might be thinking too literally. I'm not great with words, but to me your dream just sounds like a metaphor for your current situation with your exam. Just something to chew on, no one can determine what your dreams mean but you.

[malfoya]

It seems reasonable for the moment. I've had them outside exams and typical stress periods aswell.. but I guess I just gotta wait and see until this one's over. The problem with dreams is that they can basically mean anything. I just think it's weird that some of us remember our so much better than other people. Some barely remember anything..

[maxon]

It seems reasonable for the moment. I've had them outside exams and typical stress periods aswell.. but I guess I just gotta wait and see until this one's over. The problem with dreams is that they can basically mean anything. I just think it's weird that some of us remember our so much better than other people. Some barely remember anything..
I think it partly reflects how well you are sleeping. If you only sleep lightly or not properly restfully, I think you are more likely to remember dreams. One of the things for me is that since I got better, I sleep better and I suspect I remember fewer of my dreams because of that. Stress is a classic disruptor of sleep, as is illness.

[Shoosh Malooka]

Remembering dreams bothers me in a Tales-From-the-Dark-Side sense. Dream parts from one night carry over into the dream in the next night. During that dream I become aware of the connections and can revisit other dreams. But when I wake up it's extremely difficult to examine the dream because it is rapidly fading in and out because it is composed mostly of thought, and thought is too abstract and fleeting to dissect with so blunt and inadequate a tool as language.

My wish is that there comes such a thing as an organic utility cloned head ( O.U.C.H. ). You dump your dream right into it like vegetables into a wok and you can sift through it, examine and contemplate the pieces at your own pace, remove the bad pieces, or place new good pieces that you've bought from DreamsMart.

[malfoya]

There's somethign called lucid dreaming, when you are aware that you are dreaming or as far as too control your dreams... I have experienced this several times, and it's quite giving when you have a good dream. It's also helpful for classic nightmares like having monsters/people etc running after you etc. Since you are well aware you are dreaming you are also able to tell yourself that and stop the bad dream. Sadly I have never discovered this in those dreams that has really bothered me. Those has just felt like a bad obsessive thought.

Wiki about it:
A lucid dream is any dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. The term was coined by the Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik (Willem) van Eeden (1860–1932). In a lucid dream, the dreamer may be able to exert some degree of control over their participation within the dream or be able to manipulate their imaginary experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreams can be realistic and vivid. It is shown that there are higher amounts of beta-1 frequency band (13–19 Hz) experienced by lucid dreamers, hence there is an increased amount of activity in the parietal lobes making lucid dreaming a conscious process.

I think dreamin is quite interesting, but also kinda scary at times. It's a state we will never fully understand I think.

[paksetti]

I think it's interesting how different people dream. In my two decades of life, I've only been in my dreams maybe three times. They usually play out like a movie for me, usually very cinematic and oftentimes they're in letterbox. They almost never have anyone I know in them either, they're just like movies with actors.

In one of my friend's dreams, she's always the center of attention, her friends and family are always in them, and, as I understand it, there are usually huge crowds of people everywhere.

My mom said she's only had a dream once, and it was when she was around my age. She was sleeping on a friend's couch in the basement, and she dreamt she was sleeping on her friend's couch in the basement, but there was a bee flying around.

[Shoosh Malooka]

I envy you. Yes, there have been times I could change the situation of the dream and been slightly aware that I'm in a dream. Then there are times when I'm so aware I'm asleep and try to control the dream but fail miserably and soon forget that I know it's a dream. Other times I'm aware and trying to wake up, but wake up into a dream that I woke up, into a series of this repetition. Saving the best for last, I'm dreaming and moderately aware and know I'm sleeping and trying to wake up, but I'm paralyzed and scared at what this means. The only solution for me is to accept, fall back asleep and wake up a bit later. Not fair.

Maybe I can't control the dream while fully aware because I can't consciously change my brain chemistry. The brain is wired to think in a certain way unique to the person. Often, I have to remind myself that my brain is a separate entity doing what it has to do because it is what it is. I'm feeling paranoid because that's what brainy wants to do. Now brainy wants me to wash my hands. I think I read somewhere that if you are aware of your brain doing what it is doing, then it can possibly do so recursively to infinite awareness.

So you are stressed because your brainy is disposed to it. But if you accept this then you are back in control and the stress cancels because it's resolved that you know the cause. It's not some cosmic sign to be interpreted, it's your brainy doing its thing.

[piggypeach]

Ohh, dang. When I clicked on this thread I thought we all going to say the bad dreams we've had. Well, I'm going to say mine anyway :)

Most of mine are just weird and creepy, or good. But I usually remember the bad ones only. Here are some of my worst dreams:

-I dreamed that there was this indian man, he was in my neighborhood and it was dark and for some reason I was just walking around, and then he got me cornered and he started saying really, REALLY creepy things like "come on over, little girl, I'm not going to hurt you" and I like screamed at the top of my lungs, but he kidnapped me and then he locked me up in this big lego tower, and I was stuck up there and then he and his wife started being really nice to me, and they took me to a gymnastics class.

-So this is like the weirdest one yet. I dreamed that I was with my mom in Hawaii, and we were in this crappy hotel, and we were staying with Mr. Schuster (from Glee) and Cindy Brady (from the brady bunch) and then this japanese guy that looked very suspicious said that his hotel that was next door was giving rooms for free, so everybody ran over there. But then there was this gigantic wave, and cindy got eaten by a whale and everybody was really, really sad. But then I realized that the suspicious japanese man was really plotting to make fireballs the size of cupcakes (I really have no idea) rain down on the beach, which is why he was giving away rooms for free. So then me and my mom bought as many souvenirs as we could and ran away, but then the hotel manager who looked shockingly like a younger version of Hillary Clinton, caught us and brought us back. Then, I snuck into the meeting of the evil people's plan about fireball cupcakes, and my technology teacher was there, and I was like "I knew it was him all along!" (I was hiding in an air duct) and then I was plotting to take down their plan, when I woke up.

-Okay maybe this one is weirder, I had a dream that we went to taco bell, me and my family, and they had this dinosaur theme, and there was a giant jacuzzi, and I went in it, and my dad was taking a video of me, then my friend that popped out of thin air was like "are you sure a hot tub in taco bell is sanitary?" and I agreed with her so I came out, then we were searching for this other random girl and then we became friends with her, but the CIA was after her so I had to help her hide, so we went to a pizza hut that was egyptian themed, and we were ducking behind cardboard pyramids until I woke up.

My dreams are ALWAYS 3rd person. And me and people that I know are always in them. I never see them from my own eyes, I'm always just watching myself do stuff.

[malfoya]

I'll be more than happy to share the threads with anyone who's gotten some dreams they want to share or analyze :) I think it's a quite interesting subject.

The most annoying things with dreams is how you wake up whenever the dream is about to reach its climax. Which is another interesting thing, as you loads of time never get to sort out the stuff you want. I've only "finished" of a dream once, which was quite special. That was one of those dreams were it feels like you are starring in a movie.. Those are usually the most relaxing ones aswell. Since you are not really playing yourself a lot of the times.

That are some weird dreams piggypeach. Haha. I've heard that some people dream in 3rd person, some being there, some in color and some in black/white. I've also remembered being in 3rd person at times. Or actually changed body in the middle of the dream. I've actually been both men and women. Quite weird.. Another interesting thing is that all the people you see in dreams are people you have somehow seen in real life. I think it can be just a random guy from the bus stop etc. But only your subconsciousness are remembering them. Faces usually don't matter in dreams though..

[paksetti]

Haha, I'm lucky enough that I don't have to use an alarm clock anymore, so I usually just tie up the loose ends in my dreams in that 15 minute or so period between being asleep and awake. Lately my dreams have been Tarantinoesque action movies. More in the way they're "shot" than the actual content, though there's usually a lot of actiony violence. There's this reoccurring anti-hero serial killer streetclothes superhero guy with lightening powers. I dunno what his deal is, but he's pretty much just a bunch of cool guy tropes rolled into one. He's even got a skintight leather jacket with accents of yellow (because his power is lightening, yousee) and matching helmet with "greaser jeans and boots".

I also have a lot of dreams with cardboard robots too, like fully functioning nearly sentient robots, just with sharpie-and cardboard coverings. Think faux low budget hipster flick.

Funny enough, my dreams usually have a cohesive storyline too. I always know what they mean, if they mean anything at all.

Is that weird?

[BlakeS5678]

Dreams definitely are hard to read, almost a pseudo-science, if you will. Almost a mystery as to why we have dreams at all, if you ask me.

I'm going to agree with everyone else. I would definitely take these dreams into consideration,

(Don't let them control too much of you, like screaming at the top of your lungs the instant someone doesn't look at you because you "had a dream" I know THOSE type off people)

Since we're sharing stories 'bout dreams. *Squeals* I have a really bizarre one.

Okay, it seems really hard to believe but, here goes:

Every year, ONLY ONCE a year, sometime in June / July, I will have a dream. (This has been occurring since I was exactly 5 years old)

The dream is always the same, and I can never remember it. What I do remember is only small glimpses and "shots" per se. Like a faint memory since when you're a very small child.

Is this a good dream you may ask? No, not at all. One time I had the dream I came very close to calling 911 because I was so scared I couldn't think straight. It's almost like being possessed by something very evil.

Reasons? Well, my mother's bi-polar so I considered this could be a cause. But, after research it didn't add up. As a child I had an anxiety disorder that several years ago I conquered for good. But, I don't think that was it either. As far as I'm concerned it's a horrible mystery I'm trying to find a LOGICAL answer to. Because being possessed once a year sounds REALLY far fetched.