Do you often have nightmares?

If so, do you find that your nightmares have recurring themes of some kind?

I personally tend to have a lot of nightmares centered around some kind of emotionally abusive scenario, I blame my childhood and past experiences in adulthood for those ones, and apocalyptic dreams. Honestly unsure of what the source of the apocalyptic dreams are. Probably complicated. Also dealing with deaths or tragedies of some kind, those are common ones for me too.

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

SW-User

Nightmares became so much a part of my dream life, that I began to accept them. It's only been in recent years they've stopped and part of the reason I believe for that is I'm too tired to deal with that kind of stuff. But yeah... I remember when waking up terrified was the norm. It's weird what you'll learn to accept.

UndeadPrivateer · 31-35, M

@Luminescence: Yeah, I've had long periods where I've been plagued by nightmares. It really wreaked havoc on my state of mind. I took to literally referring to it as the "nightmare plague" to friends who kept asking me why I was in such a poor mood. When you're having several horrific nightmares every night it can get a little hard to act cheery the following day.

SW-User

@UndeadPrivateer: I don't know how I dealt with it, but I did. I think I just chose not to focus on it too much. I've also been kind of lucky in that I can lucid dream so I'd often be semi-aware for most of them. Maybe that's how I got through.

UndeadPrivateer · 31-35, M

@Luminescence: Yeah, I was already just as good a lucid dreamer at the time as I am now but that didn't really help me. The content of said nightmares tended to be pretty deeply disturbing stuff. As I said, was wreaking havoc on my mind. Glad you were able to deal with yours alright though.

SW-User

@UndeadPrivateer: Sorry. Truly. Didn't mean to downplay the depth of yours. I'm sorry you experienced and are experiencing that. It's never fun. I guess at least you get to wake up from them?

UndeadPrivateer · 31-35, M

@Luminescence: Oh I wasn't offended or anything, was just elaborating a bit. Everyone deals with things differently, was just saying that lucidity might not necessarily have been your saving grace. Like I said, I'm glad you were able to deal with yours so well. The benefit of dreams is that no matter how horrific they get they can't physically hurt you and you always eventually wake up from them.

SW-User

@UndeadPrivateer: I understand. I hope your nightmares let up soon.

UndeadPrivateer · 31-35, M

@Luminescence: Thankfully they're not such an issue any more. The nightmare plague was on two separate occasions, one of them about 5 years ago and another about 3 years ago. Both lasted for months.

SW-User

@UndeadPrivateer: Well that's fantastic that you got through it. I recognise that even though you did, you'll still be affected. But as you said, the thing to remember is that physically you are unharmed, and mentally you just need to stay on top. 🤗