Nightmares – Nightmare Dreams

A nightmare tends to be extremely vivid dream that evokes feelings of helplessness, terror, anxiety and sorrow. Nightmares are common in children, but can happen during any age, between 2% and 8% of the adult population is plagued by nightmares. Nightmares are known to be vividly realistic, unsettling dreams that rattle you awake during the middle of the night.

Find out what your nightmares are trying to tell you. Interpret The Meaning Of Your Nightmare By A Dream Analyst.

Common Nightmares & Meanings

What Might Be Causing Nightmares

Adult nightmares are often involuntary however they can be caused by a multiple of factors or underlying disorders. Studies have shown that half of the population experiences nightmares on a regular basis, though children tend to experience night terrors (ages of  3 to 12 years) reporting symptoms of anxiety, fear and intense crying while sleeping.

Nightmares can be very complex dreams that have many underlying causes and doesn’t necessary predict something bad to happen. In recent study from the University Of Switzerland they concluded nightmares improved the effectiveness of the brain reacting to an alarming or scary situations faced in our lives. Find Out Why Nightmares Are Good For You.

Prescriptions medications have been also known to increase dream vividness and nightmares or taking illegal drugs or alcoholic substances. This can also occur if the individual is coming off medication, or if an addiction wears off. If you are suffering from lack of sleep we recommend you to consult your doctor.

  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder 
  • Unconscious fears 
  • Unresolved past experiences
  • Medication or withdrawal 
  • Anxiety and depression
  • Late night snack or poor diet
  • Stress 
  • Alcohol 
  • Sleep Apnea 

Suffering From Any Sleep Disorder?

Constant disruptions in your sleep may also be attributed by sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, restless leg syndrome and REM sleep disorder.  Furthermore, a Parasomnias is a disruptive sleep disorders that happens during (REM) that results in undesirable physical or verbal behaviors, such as walking or talking during sleep.

These disorders cause after effects as the individual will fear going back to bed to experience that same scenario. As a result one will be more likely to encounter a mild sleep deprivation, decreased mental clarity and depression.

This can also lead to insomnia. There hasn’t been a cure for nightmare disorders but there are many techniques to minimize them from occurring. Frequent yoga and mediation have been known to help reduce the cause as your body and mind to be in a more relaxed state.

Nightmare Disorders

Nightmare disorder or commonly referred to as a “dream anxiety disorder” considered a series of nightmares classified under the DSM -IV.  These repeated awakenings during nightmares occur during the stages of REM sleep.

During the dream the individual will experience intense fear as if they are fighting for their life. Most of the time they will wake up instantly due to the terror they are experiencing thus having trouble going back to sleep.

The dreamer might experience speaking, moaning, screaming at random of the night. Though these symptoms may not always be present. When woken from the sleep state, the dreamer will often experience a feeling of anxiety as adrenaline is still pumping thought out their body.

Night Terror Vs Nightmare

There is a misconception that night terrors and nightmares are the same thing.  They might mimic nightmares but though they are completely different in nature. Sleep terrors can be classified under a parasomnia disorder where the individual can physically act out in their sleep by screaming, thrashing, or even crying.

Occurrences of aggressive sleep walking have happened as the dreamer may even attack a family member. The dreamer may experience difficulty trying to snap out of the dream state. Sleep terrors usually occur with children under the age of nine, though, it  can frequent adults who are under extreme stress, depression, or even bi polar disorder.

Generally the movement can last anywhere between 10 – 20  minutes, either the individual will go right back to REM without ever disrupting their sleep state. If they do wake up from this state they will often encounter confusion or anxiety. The majority of sleep disturbances, occur in the stage before deep sleep that decrease.

Spiritual Meaning Of Nightmares

In fact decoding your nightmares might be beneficial to you spiritually and mentally. Dreams contain metaphoric messages to warn the dreamer of ignored internal ideosyncracies. Understanding the dream symbols might give the dreamer insight to what might be overlooked that could be causing distress. Nightmare occur as a warning to help you follow the right direction and path in life.

Other Possible Causes of Nightmares

  • Experienced a death of a loved on or somebody close to you
  • Quitting smoking, alcohol or going on the patch
  • Consuming large amount of alcohol in blood stream
  • Battling a illness or flu
  • Having a Bad reaction to drugs or withdrawal
  • Not dealing with an on going problems in your life
  • High volumes of stress and anxiety
  • Trauma from witnessing violence

Recurring Nightmares

Nightmares are fairly common in both men and women that can frequent as much as 2 times a month. Experiencing recurring nightmares on a regular basis might suggest their is an underlying issue.

Recurring nightmares are not your enemy but your friend trying to get your attention. They appear one way but mean another, painful experiences and emotions are stored away hidden in the dark part of the unconscious. As disturbing as the dream my present itself to be, the message is clear for you to shed light on what’s ignored.

Nightmares & Children

Believe it or not nightmares are more common with children than adults.  Roughly around one quarter of children have at least one scary dream or nightmare a week.  Scary dreams can start as early as  2 to 3 years of age for a children.  At the age of 6 they may start to experience full on nightmares. Around the ages 10 and up, nightmares tend to subside and become less vivid.

Children’s nightmares typically involve frightening situations or events that revolve the people close to them.  The types of nightmares contain images or bizarre events, the typical “monster or ghosts theme.  Children are generally quite during their nightmare and hardly move around like most adults.

Child Nightmares Prevention

Unfortunately there is no cure to stop your child nightmares, though they can be prevented by using techniques that we provided below. Studies have shown that nightmares could be genetic as its passed down from either member of the family. Though there are ways you can help take control to comfort your child from nightmares.

  • Play relaxing music for your child throughout the night
  • Have them stay away from junk food and high sugar drinks
  • Train them to control their dreams.  Tell your child what to day to monsters in the nightmare.
  • Read them a nice book and keep positive thoughts in their head before bed.
  • Talk to your kids and ask them what are their greatest fears and tackle them.

Tips On How To Stop Nightmares

Understanding what underlining factors that might be causing your nightmares by examining your lifestyle. Has there been a build up of stress lately? Have you been taking any drugs that might be affecting your sleep? Analyzing what you nightmare means helps figure out what problems in your life you need to tackle.

Taking the time to relax before you go to bed is a start. You can practice each night 10 minutes of Yoga and breathing exercises right before bed.  Listening  to relaxing soothing music during sleep calms your whole mental being.

Reports state that playing video games and watching negative images before bed will cause an increase of nightmares. Practicing lucid dreaming has been quite beneficial when it comes to manipulating your dream settings. You can make the bad guy go away in a blink of an eye.

There is not much you can do when you just had a nightmare, though paying attention to the symbols in them will give you a better understanding on what your unconscious is hinting at.  Keeping a dream journal helps you remember the dream in more detail.

Taking good care of your body goes a long way.  Eating healthy has more benefits then just feeling well.  You will experience peaceful sleeps and less snoring.  See benefits of nightmares.

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Masonmiller
Masonmiller
1 month ago

I forget the first part of my dream but at one point I was on the road running away from a person I know i don’t remember who the other 2 where bit I was stuck in an endless loop of running away down the road avoiding projectiles on the way home and eventually dying i think the first time was stones or somthing second was arrows i was deflecting most of them with somthing but 1 of them hit my lower gut we got in the car and my dad was driving me to the hospital but super slow… Read more »

Last edited 1 month ago by Masonmiller
Mina
Mina
1 month ago

I had my first dream in a looong time last night and I’m not sure if it really was a dream. It was short but it started with a voice in the darkness I don’t remember what was said but it started calmly. But the voice quickly got agitated, then aggressive until a face erupted from the dark just screaming in a loud deep tone. The face was male, handsome, mature but not old and his eyes blazed bright with fire glow. If he wasn’t screaming he’d would have been very attractive. Here is where I am sure I opened… Read more »

Bel
Bel
1 month ago

I have this vivid intense dream where I somehow feel like I lost my coworker and it devastating. Here’s the catch the coworker is a guy who has a girlfriend of 6+ years and I have a boyfriend of 6+ years. Why am I feeling this way in these dreams? This last dream was so intense for some reason. I haven’t seen him in a while and the longer I don’t see him the more these dreams get intense and I don’t understand why I feel like dread in the dreams and I’m so anxious and scared that I won’t… Read more »

Alexandreah
Alexandreah
2 months ago

I don’t have the time to talk about all my nightmares, and most of them are really dark and gruesome and don’t seem to represent my personal life. I left home as soon as I turned 18 for good reason, now turning 23 and have my first babygirl. I had one last night that is I can’t seem to shake. My dream was about me hearing kittens and I started to look for them. I found two yellow, orange, white mixed kittens. They were stuck in the attic hole of a closet. I had went to find my sleeping father… Read more »

Destiny
Destiny
4 months ago

I had this nightmarish dream where I had a friend who had a massive minimalistic, bamboo colored wooden mansion. The mansion had lots of rooms and felt like a maze. No furniture either. He had a sloped sleeping area where he slept in water to align with the universe. I had another friend who had a very artistic mansion. Large graphic murals and had the same sloped water area to sleep. Except she didn’t sleep there she had another door way to a very creepy place. Upon entering with her I didn’t realize the other reality until it was too… Read more »

Sarah
Sarah
5 months ago

I started having this dream when I was younger and i would have this same dream all the time I would wake up in the middle of a battle field behind a huge rock there was bombs and gun fire going off all around me the skies were red and I would scream out for help but nobody could here me or no sound came out at all sometimes a dark shadow figure would come and pick me up and carry me to safety but not all the time

Stephanie
Stephanie
6 months ago

I had a dream of a asteroid hitting earth, I can remember sirens blaring and alot of people panicing and running. Suddenly I look up and I see what I first think is the moon slowly getting closer and closer. But then a large boom came from the sky and the large rock burst into pieces. I am then forced to run again as smaller but still big pieces rained down from the sky crushing alot of people and buildings, there was alot of screaming which is what I think woke me up from the nightmare.

maggie
maggie
8 months ago

I had a dream the other night that i cant figure out what it means. I was laying in bed on my right side with my knees bent, and all of a sudden a male looking figure in a long coat and leather gloves sat on bed real close to me – never touching my knees but sat between my knees and chest – looked straight ahead the whole time, he had 2 yellow envelopes in his hands, opened 1 and pulled out the papers and leaned over me, never turning toward me, and laid papers between me and my… Read more »

Athena
Athena
Reply to  maggie
24 days ago

Sounds so real, like it really happened, there wasn’t any envelops on your bed when you woke was there?

Dude
Dude
8 months ago

So have any of you guys ever had any dreams or at this point nightmares being chased by an unknown object yet still terrified and while running you constantly trip over everything while your vision is spinning and you feel weak?

Hope
Hope
8 months ago

Dreamt witnessed a there was a teen was robbing a store he then turned on a customer and then myself . Shot the customer and me in the leg then my dream changed , I don’t know if I was shot in the head. Then my dream changes to I was was watching tv and seen a missing lady report then I was kidnapped and repeatedly tried to escape and was beaten horribly then my dream changes. I don’t know if I died or escaped. Then my dream changes again to myself and friends Lost in the ocean in a… Read more »

Ale
Ale
9 months ago

When my nightmare started I was walking down the beach while suddenly what a appeared to be a whale jumping in and out of water was not it was a hairy big 4-legged animal I was recording it in the dream. the huge animal had weird colors my brain could not recognized. Then when it jumped out of the water it started chasing people in the streets while there was a creepy voice loudly saying tun for your life. I hid in a closed restaurant while I saw the beast chase other people. I found shelter in a nearby business… Read more »

Hells
Hells
9 months ago

I have had this type of nightmare twice where I wake up in the dream (dream in a dream situation) and tell my father hysterically crying about how scary and real the nightmare I had previously been in felt. The first time, it was a nightmare about my neighborhood/state being under attack and natural disasters occurring at the same time. The second time the nightmare was more genuine confusion and disorentation- I had gotten into a taxi with a jeff bezos looking man and a blond woman in the backseat- I didn’t think much of it, I suppose it was… Read more »

Jennifer Vasquez
Jennifer Vasquez
9 months ago

My dream/nightmare is about a woman in labor while possessed. Her husband was trying to find a way to end her life/suffering the baby’s and all of our suffering by trying different methods of killing her. He finally when no nurses or doctors around picked her up and threw his possessed laboring wife out of a 3 story window. I did not recognize their appearance but had the feeling of familiarity. This dream didn’t jolt me awake but it has unsettled me during my waking hours. Enough so that I’m reaching out for meaning.

Erika
Erika
9 months ago

I had this dream a while ago (about a month or two). I was at home with my family and we were running from something or someone, all of the sudden my brother got possessed and tried to help that something/one to get us or smth like that. When I woke up I was trembling and was scared even though not much happened in the dream. My brothers alarm went of and I finally got back to sleep. Then the dream became again and it was really vivid. I was going downstairs for something while the lights were on, so… Read more »

Joan
Joan
1 year ago

I was looking for something under a bed everything I stretched for something it pushed at me with aggression when I looked a bit more there was a face looking back at first I was shocked and woke wondering what I just dreamt then a couple of weeks pasted same dream but this I woke shouting my sisters name who has been dead since 2012.

Saga
Saga
1 year ago

The nightmare made me wake up with a headache. I was just at home. The lights were off, but I could still see. I have a plastic box on the floor, and I noticed that it had used kitty litter pieces, which was odd because the last time my cats were here was over a month ago. Well, I just brushed it off and sat down to drink something, but I accidentally spilled it. But when I looked down, the spill was only coffee grounds on the floor. And the floor had turned into grey tiling. That’s when I realised… Read more »

saki tenma !
saki tenma !
1 year ago

So I was sleeping last night then I was watching creepy slideshows before I sleep. Then I dreamed of the most traumatic dream I’ve ever experienced so there was this girl she has dark brown hair or whatever she looked like her mother was a witch no offensively but she looked creepy she didn’t knew how to talk and then a few days later (in the dream) she was vomiting everywhere and I sit next to her she was about to bite me like was the bitting necessary also I remembered my sorroundings was the same as my house but… Read more »

wren
wren
1 year ago

I had a nightmare and it was the oldest thing, I have dreams sometimes that are more stories than dreams (most of the time they are pretty vivid) this one started out in a pizza place’s kitchen area? Well anyways I was a kind of spectator to everything happening, the character that all the stuff was happening too was being chased by bloody demonic figures after burning their hand in fire (entire hand) so they were running and then they ran into a void like area that morphed into a hallway and a cold feminine voice appeared narrating about the… Read more »

Kai
Kai
1 year ago

I need help. I just woke up from 3 nightmares in a row. First, I was in the mirror hysterical taking out my hair which took awhile (I had long dreads which isn’t true) and removing my makeup then running to show a person who is unknown to waking up realizing I was dreaming, looking at my kitten think about how I liked the dreads to realizing when the kitten got up to move because my grip was getting tight (he moved in my dream and was already moved in real life thank God) that I couldn’t open my grip… Read more »

helen <3
helen <3
1 year ago

I just woke up from the most disturbing dream of my life. Me and my mom were in a convertible for some reason, but I’m not too worried about that. We were driving down a road but there was a road block that looked like a really big wheel. We went into the other lane and saw the most graphic, bone-chilling thing a child should never witness. This was the road to my school and there was a pool right next to it. There was a blonde girl who looked at least 17, wearing a lifeguard swimsuit curled up with… Read more »

Dude
Dude
Reply to  helen <3
8 months ago

I’m confused how was that bone chilling???